Beached Jewel

In my last post "Last Moments of Light" I tried to explain why I prefer shooting at little known locations far away from civilization. That's right, I do strive for a certain amount of uniqueness and adventure in my images but drawing the conclusion that I wouldn't stop for shooting an icon right next to the main road would be completely wrong.

A visit to Iceland is not complete without stopping at the iceberg-filled glacial lagoon called Jökulsárlón. From this tourist magnet you only have to walk across the Ring Road (Iceland's main road) to reach a black beach where hundreds of ice-chunks from the lagoon are constantly being washed ashore. As you probably can imagine the combination of black sand, icebergs and crashing waves creates endless photographic possibilities.

Beached Jewel © Joerg Bonner

I had been hoping for bad weather for shooting the beached icebergs (not only do I have an aversion against clear skies, the blue hues in glacial ice become far more prominent when it's overcast) and thankfully a big cold front moved in that afternoon. The sky was filled with dramatic clouds by the time we reached the beach. The surf was strong but luckily the tide was already on it's way back out making the waves somewhat more predictable. Still, if you're looking for dynamic composition you can almost count on getting soaked...

Equipment:
Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Nikon 14-24mm AFS f/2.8 G ED @ 14mm, Novoflex EOS/NIK-NT
ISO 100, f/11, 0.8 seconds
Gitzo GT1541

Location:
Beach near Jökulsárlón Lagoon, Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland

More information & links:

www.wikipedia.org - more info about Jökulsárlón