When arriving at Svartifoss I had a single idea in my mind: "Basallt"... The idea was so strong that I skipped most of the obvious and more known views and I was attracted to this basalt column that looked like something that had fallen from the waterfall wall into the ground in front of me just a couple of minutes ago (I admit that the 1'st reason for coming to this side was that the curved rock wall above me shielded me from the pouring rain). I tried some variations with the digital camera but quickly changed to the Bronica SQAi with the 50mm lens as the diagonal position of the basalt column seamed to scream "square format"... And finished my time at the place shooting Rollei IR though an Hoya R72 Filter.
Those who know me have heard me say countless times that my transition from my old beloved Maco IR towards Rollei IR was not an easy one... But over time I learned that although I could not use the new film for creating the same kind of images I did with the former, there where a new kind of situations where the different character of Rollei IR would fit like a glove. These situations include Waterfalls, and everything around water, in overcast weather when the sky does not show in the picture...
What I like about the film in these situations are the deep blacks and the sharpness of the film and the fact that because I don't need to care for the sky I can overexpose the film in order to turn green foliage white... In fact in this case my main concern was to be able to retain some detail in the dark areas of the image, while using the Hoya R72 Filter.
As usual I bracketed some exposures, this image is from the slowest (30s at f16), but I still could not get as much detail as I would have liked in the dark areas of the foreground. Sometime after my trip to Iceland I read about using multiple exposures with blue filters for getting detail in the shadows and with IR filters in order to brighten foliage. I was still not able to try this, but it sounds like a good way for addressing these situations without having to resort to mounting 2 exposures digitally in post production.
Some days later, during my last night before driving back to Reykjavik (and getting my flight back home). I got out of our cottage in Husavik with the single idea of enjoying every last bit of time...
It had been a long day... Seeing whales for the 1'st time in life had left me in meditative state... I kept looking at the Husavik bay in the distance while wondering how many whales would be there in their calm pace... I kept walking... Then I noticed the round pattern in the warm water lakes close by...Lakes... Bay... Well... Lupine... There was lupine all over the place so I had no trouble in finding one bush for the 1'st plan... The 80mm lens in the Bronica allowed me to include just the right amount of everything... It was past midnight (actually closer to 2 am), altough I could see clearlly, the exposures I was getting on Rollei IR where already in the minutes range. I tried to use the B+W 092 IR filter rating the film at EI 25 and the Heliopan RG715 rating the film at EI 12.
I knew that Rollei IR probably would not retain detail both in the 1'st plan and in the overcast sky, so I did separate exposures for the SKY and for the 1'st plan. The final Image is composed from two exposures shoot using the Heliopan filter: one at F16 for 30 Seconds that holds detail in the sky and the last one for 4 minutes that holds detail in the 1'st and middle plans...
The time between each bracketed shot would take me back to my own thoughts... I could clearly hear several bird species in their chants, and from time to time an Artic Tern would fly close by just to let me know that I was probably in the limit of their territory...
These two images can probably describe my feelings regarding Iceland: the 1'st is from one of the "must see's" the last one is from "just being there"... I learned with both, but would never be able to pick a favorite among the two...
