Iceland - Brurarfoss
This post is as much about . . . a gripe we have about Iceland as it is about the beautiful Brurarfoss. The moment we first saw the glacial blue waters of Brurarofss (after a very short walk from the parking lot) we knew we’d be walking back to the bimobil to get out the better cameras. Unfortunately, it, like so many locations in Iceland, is another example of what we refer to as viewpoint photography. The locations where people are allowed to go (if you obey the signs and the various ropes and fences - which we do) are extremely limited. That’s why all the images you tend to see from the location(s) look the same and where you quickly realize that the photographs from famous locations that don’t look like all the others means that someone went where they were not actually allowed to go. We try to live by the adage, “Don’t be THAT photographer.” Well, at least most of the time (Dan confesses).
Still, unlike so many other waterfalls that were churning out a variety of dirt-brown colored water over the falls, Brurarfoss is sufficiently close to its glacier and runs over washed lava beds that its waters are an amazing blue. The water color is not exaggerated in these images. It’s beautiful.
Returning to the other topic of this post, there’s really not much variety in image-making one can do when really all you have are locations beside and on a pedestrian bridge that looks out onto the falls. You can move a bit to the left, or a bit to the right, but that’s pretty much it in terms of locations (the viewpoints from the trail that is to the right of the frame below really didn’t offer good views of the falls given intervening trees (unless of course you were willing to hop over the ropes, ignore the hazard signs about the hazardous, crumbling shoreline (as also noted on the Safe Travels app), and get close to the river)). So what you’re left with is framing the images differently, changing focal lengths and/or shutter speeds, and waiting for lighting conditions to change.
And all the while making sure that you’re enjoying the visual and sound experience of a beautiful set of falls (and making sure the vibrations of people walking on the bridge doesn’t get transmitted to your camera while making an image).
Ann and I are in agreement that we prefer the smaller, more accessible (visually, if not physically) falls over the super-high volumes of Dettifoss and so many other falls that are a raging torrent (and offer very few photographic options in how the water is depicted in a photograph (and look horrible in color photographs due to the color of the water)). It’s like comparing the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon. Sure, you have to respect how immense the Grand Canyon is, but somehow the intimacy offered by Bryce Canyon is more accessible. Brurarfoss was the largest and most impressive of the accessible waterfalls we experienced and its color that morning was unrivaled during our trip.
Oh, what I would have given to be able to wander down to the base area of the falls to make more images! Still, I made a variety of images to include some looking straight down into the raging waters from both sides of the bridge. I’m not sure they turned out as well as I’d hoped, so I didn’t include them here.
That’s the thing about viewpoint photography, even at a location as lovely as Brurarfoss, at some point you’ve made the images that can be made and you have to start experimenting. Sometimes they work out, sometimes they don’t. But make sure you get the images that can be made, especially if the subject is as good as this one.