On Reynisfjara - a photo on Flickriver

On Reynisfjara

            "I don't want the weekend in Reykjavik."  Terry Wogan smiled at the wry humour of this week's winning contestant on Blankety Blank, a man in his forties who preferred to go home with a shiny new music centre instead of a visit to Europe's northern outpost.  He had a point, my teenage self thought, and the audience's laughter suggested they were with him on the subject.  Who'd want to go to Iceland after all?  Cold, dark and expensive, and it was only a few years since we'd had a dust up with them over fishing grounds.  As a seven year old in 1973 I didn't really understand that the press dubbed "Cod War" wasn't actually a naval conflict with aircraft carriers and Harrier jump jets et al.  

Of course forty or more years later there are still plenty of people who think that way.  Lee and I both live with ladies who remain unconvinced by the strange northern draw, preferring us to spend our money on spiriting them away to warmer latitudes instead.  "Too cold and grey!" Ali says, when I suggest going to Iceland to her.  But at least I'm permitted to go under my own steam to gaze in wonder at the seemingly endless bounty of natural delights the country holds.  Volcanoes, glaciers, enormous waterfalls, Tolkienesque sea stacks, green skies at night, and even a beach covered in washed up chunks of ice feature among the highlights.  It's like being in a togs' sweet shop where you've really no idea which jar to open first.  I'd already thought that when we overheard another photographer actually saying it one evening at Vestrahorn.

But despite the still healthy numbers of detractors who wonder why we head for the freezer when we could be in the Canary Islands at half the price, Iceland seems to have become increasingly popular.  Even since our last visit three years ago the numbers of visitors at the honeypot locations seemed to have mushroomed.  Here, the famous black beach of Reynisfjara - the dangerous one where people like to play chicken in the waves and later find themselves staring in horror at the receding shoreline as they're carried out into the icy sea to breathe for the last time - the car park was rammed solid.  We'd only managed to park because somebody else happened to leave at the moment we arrived.  I can't help feeling that Keflavik Airport is going to need an extra runway and a couple of dozen new arrival gates before long.

To our left, a million tourists congregated like so many ants on the beach near the sea stacks of Reynisdrangar and the big cave, some of them clambering up the lower reaches of the basalt cliff columns while others headed towards the secret beach that Lee and I had found at low tide three years earlier.  To our right lay the huge expanse of empty beach across which you can walk to the monolith of Dyrholaey, a broad low plateau that rises above the  flat space all around it with an arch and a group of competing sea stacks thrown in for good measure.  And here lay some of the many compositions we'd failed to examine more closely as in just six days we rushed around the circumference of the country three summers earlier.  

It's amazing how even in the busiest spaces you can often find a quiet spot to watch and listen to the world in peace.  Somebody had made things challenging for us by churning up much of the black sand in their Jeep, while endless footprints told us we weren't the first people to have been here recently.  But for now at least, we had this huge expanse of volcanic beach to ourselves and it was just a case of trying to find compositions that would keep the distractions to a minimum. Keeping a respectful distance from the sea we'd occasionally look behind us to where plenty of people had clearly ignored the big red warning signs and were playing chicken in the surf.  Seriously - if you come a cropper there, not even the greatest Olympic swimmers are going to be able to save you.  Just put "Reynisfjara" into your search bar on YouTube and you can see for yourself why it's so often dubbed the most dangerous beach in Iceland.  We did that before going, just to remind ourselves not to do anything foolish.  

Finally, as we began to think about the next pit stop I strayed across the green mounds at the back of the beach.  Even here the landscape was scattered with a few footprints, but a careful and slow advance soon led me to spots like this one, where I could bring the camera low to the ground and shoot towards our subject under the soft afternoon light with a bit of foreground to draw the eye across the scene.  Four focus stacks later, I left the field of play with a grin on my face.  I'd arrived with a good idea of what to expect, but I'd never seen shots like these here before and I liked what was on the back of the camera.  Back at the car park, we dodged the incoming coach parties and gazed admiringly at an off road camper vehicle somebody had hired for the week.  "We need one of those for the Highlands next time," we agreed.  Going to take a lot of saving up to do that though.  

I wonder whether that quiz show contestant from the early 1980's ever went to Reykjavik.  He might have realised his initial assessment was wrong you know.  The place is becoming increasingly popular.  I blame the photographers of course.

Taken in: Iceland / South / Vik (show map)

Taken on: September 18, 2022

Tags:

Dyrholaey

black

black sand

Beach

Sea

seascape

sea stack

sea stacks

Iceland

Atlantic

sea shore

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Sets appears in: • Around Vik • Book - Landscape more » • Iceland 2022 « less

Groups appears in: • Iceland. • Iceland - Landscape more » • Beaches & Landscapes • Flickr Social Club • Photography Week • On Landscape « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/16.0, 1/80 sec, 50mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Aperture:	f/16.0
Exposure Time:	0.013 sec (1/80)
Focal Length:	50mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 11.5 (Windows)
Show full info

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