A World of Dreams - a photo on Flickriver

A World of Dreams

            Even now, with maybe half an hour until sunset I don’t think I really appreciated quite how spectacular Super Saturday had turned out to be.  A day that had started out well seemed to get better and better with every passing minute, and perhaps it was the big reveal, when the mighty Snæfellsjökull had suddenly appeared from behind the clouds in the middle of the afternoon, that was the moment when the pulses began to gently boil with enthusiasm.  By the time we pulled up beside the black church, we’d bagged shots from four different locations, alongside three impromptu roadside stops that had also produced some unexpected gems in our trip around the peninsula.  It had been a good day, that was for certain, but as I look back on it all these months later, “good” might just be the understatement to end them all.  Búðir itself seemed to be full of endless possibilities beneath the surreal swirls in the sky, against a backdrop that might as well have been from another world.  Perhaps it was.  It’s only because I’ve got hundreds of images from the evening that I’m certain I didn’t imagine the entire episode.

Búðir had been the clear choice of location for the end of our second full day on the peninsula.  That decision had been made, almost by default after we’d driven past it in the rain more than twenty-four hours earlier; conditions that would have repeated those of the one and only previous experience here.  Today we’d driven the circle in the opposite direction, adding to the obviousness of Búðir as the place in which to wait for the sun to set.  Whether the fortuitous result of careful planning, or the freak result of a random game of “last location standing,” it’s a decision that will forever rank as one of the best we’ve ever made.  Arriving here a little after five and staying until the blue hour was no longer blue, delivered three hours that will live long in the memory.  And even though there were plenty of people around, three or four exposures to blend out the unwanted interlopers from each composition would generally do the trick.  Well, most of the time it would anyway.  You may remember “Star Crossed Pains in the Wotsit,” where some encouragement was needed to persuade the photobombers to depart.

The defining element, apart from the distinctive black church and the hefty lump of ice and rock behind it that is, were the unworldly formations above the landscape.  On Thursday afternoon we’d arrived to witness a gathering of clouds that resembled alien craft filling the sky in all directions, but on Friday they’d disappeared behind a grey curtain that refused to budge until the last couple of hours of daylight.  Friday evening at Kirkjufell had been a triumph in itself as we trained our lenses across the lake towards our subject, but Saturday’s golden hour was something else entirely, standing in a world of dreams beneath shapes in the sky that seemed to defy explanation.  I’ve been fortunate to witness some special evening skies in the nine years since I began to take landscape photography a bit more seriously, but I’d never seen anything quite like this before. 

I spent most of the evening crouching in the dunes, watching the foreground grasses gradually build their colours as the light began to change.  Moving around the church I tried a number of different compositions, mostly from the south side of the church so that I could include Snæfellsjökull in the frame.  It seemed rude not to when the beast had deigned to put in an appearance for the day.  By the time the golden hour started to get busy, I took this last group of images, deliberately placing the church “end on,” to simplify it in the landscape, before racing down to the beach because the sky in the opposite direction to the sunset had started kicking off as well.  It was all kicking off everywhere in fact, really a time for two cameras pointing in opposing directions, back to back on matching tripods.  If I were an owl, the swivelling head would have been on a permanent three hundred and sixty degree loop by now.  

After the beach, I would return just in time to capture the final moments, the headline act in the form of “The Big Pink Sky Show,” a picture that occupies the wall nearest my computer screen, just in case I somehow forget these moments one day.  But even now, twenty minutes beforehand, this was a pretty enjoyable support act.  Not the easiest shot to edit by any means, because those colours just didn’t show up in the raw file, but a good old fashioned refusal to accept defeat eventually delivered something that looked like what I’d witnessed in my world of dreams.  It still burns brightly and brings a smile, and if I ever get a day half as good as this again, it will have been a day well spent.

Taken in: Iceland / West / Búðir (show map)

Taken on: September 10, 2022

Tags:

Budir

church

Iceland

snaefellsnes

Snaefellsjokull

drama

sky

Cloud

clouds

landscape

landscape photography

Canon

Sunset

glow

pink sky

Mountain

lonely

lone

lone building

icon

Budirkirkja « less

Sets appears in: • Snaefellsnes • Super Saturday more » • Iceland 2022 • Explored « less

Groups appears in: • Iceland. • Amateurs more » • clouds • yellow | orange | red • Iceland - Landscape • VIVID SATURATED COLORS • Clouds, Storms, Sunsets & Sunrises • Toward the sky... 1 Post / 3 Awards • "Los mejores momentos de tu día" • ! The Best Gallery BY INVITATION ONLY • !Art and Photography (seriously18+) INVITE ONLY • ABSOLUTE GOLDEN MASTERPIECE - by Admin approval (P1 - C2) • Flickr Social Club • Lenguaje de las nubes★Aurora★Clouds language. • BEST of Absolute Golden Masterpiece (Admin invite only) P1-C2 • LA VIE EN ROSE ( Admin Invite Only ) • Photography Week • HIMMELSBILDER - SKY • Absolute Quality Gallery ~ Invite only • Sun | Sky | Cloud • in explore • Amateur Photographer Magazine • Flickr Social • ;-)) al Amanecer y al Atardecer ★ Sunset-Sunrise IIPARTE • !! * Finest Photoart * !! Admin Invite Only • CSSS: Earth - My Perspective, A Personal Focus • **Special Landscapes** • Instants magiques. • Feast for the Eyes • • **Extra Special Landscapes** (Admin Invite Only) • A Picture, A Story, A Pearl • A Moment of Beauty (Admin Invite) • WONDERS OF PHOTOGRAPHY IN GENERAL.MARAVILLAS DE LA FOTOGRAFIA EN • Lara's Fabulous World of Land & Sea (Admin Invite Only) « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/11.0, 1/200 sec, 70mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF24-70mm f/2.8L USM
Aperture:	f/11.0
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	70mm
ISO:	250
Exposure Bias:	-2/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 12.4 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 20,933 views / 232 comments

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: