Arnarstapi Iceland

Even on a day without rain, a constant mist filled the air in Iceland providing a moody landscape saturated with the colours of grass and moss.

At the cliff’s edge in Arnarstapi, the churning sea carved out a cave in the columnar basalt. I inched towards the edge trying to get over this little piece of land that was blocking a clear view through to the cave, but this is as close as I dared to get!

Since it was fairly bright in the middle of the afternoon, I had to use my 4 stop ND filter to block enough light to allow for the long exposure. Even then I had to use a fairly small aperture of f/18 to get the slow shutter speed. I love the way the long exposure makes the water blur to convey the motion of the waves.

A short stroll away, hundreds of years of crashing waves eroded a large rock into a rugged arch known as Gatklettur or Arch Rock.

I used the same technique here with the ND filter and small aperture combined to get an exposure of one second.

As much as I loved the cliffs and seaside, I was delighted by the fishing harbour just a short distance away. From my position on the docks, I was able to photograph this cute little white house at the base of Mount Stapafell with sea stacks in the foreground.

I got into the habit of switching cameras rather than switching lenses in the damp environment to prevent getting any water on the sensors. Of course, I still had to switch lenses occasionally, but most of the time I was using my wide angle 11-18mm on the Sony A6000, and the 18-55mm on the NEX6. Having the small lightweight mirrorless bodies meant that carrying two cameras around was no problem!