Big Waves, Wet Pants - a photo on Flickriver

            We didn’t need to open the curtains to know what was happening outside.  The howling wind and the beating of hard rain on the hotel room window was more than enough to tell us that Vik was under siege from the sky.  Maybe the weather gods had heard us complaining that conditions had been too nice over at our lonely outpost between the twin ranges of Eystrahorn and Vestrahorn a couple of days earlier.  Maybe they’d decided to overcompensate us with a dose of something far more challenging.  Eventually, with my bed being nearest to the window, I rose and opened those curtains onto an empty grey street where the latest squall was sending a volley of horizontal wet shards of rain along the road, promising an instant soaking for anyone brave enough to venture out.  On the plus side, we’d discovered that the television in our room offered BBC1.  A shame we’d not discovered this the night before – we could have watched Match of the Day.  It seemed a good idea to get dressed and head down to the dining area for breakfast.  After all, those waffle machines awaited our pleasure.  “Dollop of Skyr on top of your waffle sir?”  “Don’t mind if I do.  In fact, make that a double dollop – we’re going to need some fortification today.” 
 
Back in the hotel room we peered from our window once more.  Although we were now between moments of turbocharged elemental chaos, the world had been reduced to monochrome and the sky was entirely without feature or texture.  And while we weren’t watching sideways torrents pass by our window, the heavy drizzle that filled each hiatus refused to let up.  It was going to be a day for visiting Vik’s shopping centre and doing the thing that frightened us most of all – buying presents for the ladies who’d indulged us and allowed us to head for northern latitudes with their blessing.  What if we got it wrong?  With Ali I’d long since learned that any attempts to buy her clothing, fragrances or jewellery were guaranteed to end in failure.  I’d worry about that later.  In the meantime, it wasn’t lost on me that the strong wind may well be delivering something I’d hoped to have the opportunity to shoot – and only a ten minute walk away at that.  Lee was sitting on his bed looking at the back of his camera and not showing much sign of moving any time soon, but taking one more look out upon the rainswept street, I decided that now was the moment to head out into the deluge and take my chances on the beach.

Along that short walk across the first two blocks and over the park behind the swimming pool complex I was completely alone as everyone else in Vik seemed to be hiding indoors.  I passed the bank of lupins, a couple of which were still somehow in flower in this second half of September.  Onto the dunes I continued without seeing another soul.  And then I was on the beach, with just a collection of huge waves, even bigger sea stacks and a sky full of gulls for company.  With the weather at my back and the long lens already affixed to the camera I could at least focus on what was in front of me from a judicious distance from the action without having to wipe away any rain or spray.  With the ISO ramped up in the poor light to enable a fast shutter and the camera in burst mode I began the hit and hope process at 200mm as the rollers continued their endless assault upon the jet black shoreline.  Sometimes the stacks of Reynisdrangar appeared in full view, while at others they were almost completely obscured by a wall of water passing over the space between us.  Twenty minutes and one hundred and ninety raw files later, I hoped that I’d captured something worthwhile, and began the march back to the hotel with an enormous wet grin on my face, now facing the onslaught as the rain saturated any remaining part of me that wasn’t already drenched as I went.  At least my waterproof coat had protected the top half.  Quite why I hadn’t put on the waterproof trousers that were lying in my case waiting for action I can’t say.  Whatever else the experience had been, it was certainly exhilarating.  Believe it or not, this shot is in colour.

Back at the hotel, the first task (once I’d babbled excitedly to Lee about how epic everything had been outside) was to change everything, and I mean everything I was wearing below the trouser line.  Fortunately, we’d been able to wash the necessities at our previous location and return them to the fresh pile.  A pair of soaking wet trousers, underpants and socks were soon steaming away on the radiator by the window, and once I was presentable again, I fired up the laptop and inserted the SD card as I continued to wax lyrical about those twenty minutes on the beach.  And as the raw files began to appear on screen and my enthusiasm increased, it seemed to be too much for Lee as he reached for his coat and his camera bag and headed out of the door in about ten seconds flat.

Five minutes after he’d gone, the fury outside put on its most belligerent display of the morning as a vicious blast of rain raced along the street.  Quite where Lee was by now, I wasn’t sure, but unless he’d managed to race for shelter he might just as well have been standing by while the local fire brigade threw buckets of water at him from close range for all the difference it would have made.  At least I’d avoided a squall while I’d been at large, while his timing was now proving to be rather less fortunate.  There was little I could do, and so I continued to examine the one hundred and ninety images I’d just collected, hoping the ordeal wouldn’t put too much of a dampener on his day (pun probably intended).  Just when I was starting to get worried, he reappeared at the door, for all the world looking as if he’d been for a swim in his clothes.  Silently he disappeared into the bathroom carrying a selection of dry things, reappearing some minutes later to add another pair of trousers, underpants and socks to the growing collection on the radiator. 
 
It was time to put the kettle on and watch the television.  Our photography adventures could wait until later.  And then there was the present buying to be done.  Much more disturbing than getting caught in a squall without your waterproof trousers on.

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

Taken on: September 19, 2022

Tags:

Vik

waves

Ocean

Sea

seascape

sea shore

sea stack

seaspray

Beach

seagull

Water

water_shots

water_captures

storm

Iceland

Reynisdrangar « less

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

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Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/7.1, 1/2500 sec, 200mm, ISO 800 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
Aperture:	f/7.1
Exposure Time:	1/2500 sec
Focal Length:	200mm
ISO:	800
Exposure Bias:	-2/3 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 12.0 (Windows)
Show full info

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