Icelandic fjord town

[Mike Buckley]

Seydisfjordur is the name of a fjord in eastern Iceland and the town that is positioned at one end of it. Most of the town can easily be walked (without stopping to snap pictures) in 30 minutes. It is an absolutely gorgeous place devoid of typical tourist commercialism. There are also idyllic country scenes just minutes beyond the town.

The first two images are my wife's (post-processed by me) and are provided so you have an idea of what the town is like.

C&C encouraged, as always!

Historic church



Street scene



Gufufoss



Sheepskins



Farm



Turf hut



Wooden bridge

[dje]

Very nice set of images Mike. They give a very good idea of what the place is like. Colour and B&W work well and the images are all of top quality.

Dave

[Bobobird]

Excellent set. Particularly like the church and farm shots. Sheepskins for foreground to a gorgeous mountain backdrop is pretty unique and very nice too. Same background as in Farm it appears.

[Donald]

I agree that these images are good across the board. I particularly like 'Farm'. I think that just works really, really well as a composition and I think you got it at just the right time of day.

[MilT0s]

Excellent elements in your images Mike, I like them a lot.

A powerful contrast and BW conversion for you church.

The waterfall has nice composition but I would like to see a bit more from the top.

The sheepskins hill versus the mountain in the back. Very good combination of shapes. It also makes you wonder how this came.

The farm is also my favorite. Fantastic light pool and colors.

For the turf hut the composition is great but unfortunately the light is not perfect. I think you can enhance the details in PP.

In the bridge one I like the blending of sea and sky, it creates atmosphere.

In overall an excellent set.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, everyone!

Some of you mentioned the sheepskins. It was the season that farmers were bringing their sheep down from the mountains to put them on trucks going to the slaughterhouses. I had not seen a pile of sheepskins anywhere else, so I asked a local why they were there. She was really surprised to learn of them and explained that she had never heard of anyone piling them up like that, presumably planning to retrieve them.

I laughed to myself when I began post-processing the wooden bridge because I thought of Donald's very different bridges. How could I not think of them?

Miltos: The turf hut is actually part of the same farm that is in the other picture we're calling "the farm." You're right about the light, of course. The light on the other farm scene was ever so fleeting, as there was a strong cloud cover that allowed the strong light to break through only momentarily. You suggested that I enhance the details in it. Were you thinking of more contrast using curves, local contrast enhancement, or what?

Considering that everyone agrees with me that the farm scene is the best image, I'll also provide this version. I actually prefer it to the color version but thought the color version worked better as part of the set. My wife prefers the color version but I think that's because she has a tendency to prefer color. Your thoughts?

[Mike Buckley]

I forgot to respond to Miltos's preference to see more above the waterfall. There wasn't much above the waterfall other than sky when approaching it from the highway. There may have been other viewpoints but we didn't have the time to explore them. Even if we had had the time, we wouldn't have been inclined to explore them because it was unusually cold and windy. The temperatures throughout parts of our trip were challenging the 30-year lows.

Interestingly, I met a pro photographer at that waterfall and helped him get out of a jam relating to a problem with his automobile. We unexpectedly met up again 150 - 200 kilometers away the next day. He didn't even say, "Hi, Mike." He had this incredible expression on his face as he asked if I had seen the aurora borealis the night before. As it turns out, he got a fabulous image of them gloriously filling the sky above this waterfall. The aurora borealis lasted for hours that night. The picture he got at this waterfall was no more than ten minutes away from where my wife and I were sleeping at the time. Indeed, we have never seen the aurora borealis. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGHH!

[MilT0s]

Mike I had the freaky detail technique in mind. Links here and here and some Photoshop actions here. It works really well. Similar results can be achieved with the "Detail extractor" of Color Efex.

Too bad you missed the aurora

Very interesting story about the sheepskins pile.

I also prefer the colored version

[Mike Buckley]

I'll check out those links, Miltos. Thanks for sharing them!

[Brownbear]

Hi Mike,


Thanks for sharing these beautiful images... The farm, in colour, is absolutely gorgeous!

[Downrigger]

Just Great! I've been wondering if that's a place I want to go... evidently, from these, the answer is yes.

[deetheturk]

Super set of images Mike,well captured!

[IzzieK]

Mike... I also like the colour version of "The Farm" instead of the B/W treatment you gave. No offense meant...

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to all of you coming late to the party! If you are interested in seeing other photos my wife and I made while on that trip to Iceland in 2012, conduct a search using the following parameters:

Use the advanced search capability
In the "Keyword" text field: Iceland
Use the dropdown menu to select "Search Titles Only"
In the "Username" text field: mike buckley
Enable "exact name"

To see a few more threads, do the same as above but in the Keyword text field: Icelandic

[Brownbear]

Hi Mike,

I tried this (Firefox) but had no success. In advanced search the user name was not available?

Thank you.

Thank you to all of you coming late to the party! If you are interested in seeing other photos my wife and I made while on that trip to Iceland in 2012, conduct a search using the following parameters:

Use the advanced search capability
In the "Keyword" text field: Iceland
Use the dropdown menu to select "Search Titles Only"
In the "Username" text field: mike buckley
Enable "exact name"

To see a few more threads, do the same as above but in the Keyword text field: Icelandic

[Mike Buckley]

Christina,

I'm using Firefox and it worked fine. My name can even be populated in the field from the list that is automatically displayed if you want to type only the first few letters of my name.

When I referred to the advanced search capability, I was referring to CiC's advanced search located in the top right corner of the window.

[Brownbear]

Thanks Mike... I was using google.

Christina,

I'm using Firefox and it worked fine. My name can even be populated in the field from the list that is automatically displayed if you want to type only the first few letters of my name.

When I referred to the advanced search capability, I was referring to CiC's advanced search located in the top right corner of the window.

[Shadowman]

Tell the wife nice images.

[Mike Buckley]

Tell the wife nice images.

Done!

[Manfred M]

Great shots Mike - your images bring back some wonderful memories of the East Fjords!