Iceland - Vestrahorn
One of the locations I’d wanted to visit the most in Iceland was Vestrahorn, a prominent rock outcropping on the south east portion of Iceland. My photographic interests were as much with the vegetated black sand dunes found there as it was with the background landscape. As we were leaving Vik, I checked the Safe Travel app and found a high-wind warning for the east and south coast for the following two days, so we drove from Vik all the way to the Vestrahorn campground (just east of Höfn) that day with only a couple of quick look-see stops along the way. We were also greeted with increasing wind velocities that had fun bashing the bimobil broadside (and made driving the bimobil a . . . white knuckle adventure). Our plan was to stay at the campground for three nights and to photograph the couple of days we were there.
Mother Nature lived up to the forecast and greeted us with gale force winds that first day. Respecting the Safe Travel app’s advisory for motorhome owners to consider changing plans and not driving that day, we decided not to drive out the spit to the sand dunes and instead take a hike in the wind and cold with the point and shoot to do a bit of scouting. Let’s just say we made it about half way to where the dunes are (to the first parking area for good views of Vestrahorn) and decided to turn around. Yeah, the winds had died down a bit, but they were brutal and got worse as the afternoon wore on. We kept our fingers crossed for the next morning.
Fortunately, Mother Nature showed mercy. While it was still windy (and cold), the winds had distinctly calmed down and were not gale force (at least once the sun came up - breakfast still had the bimobil rocking quite a bit). We headed off to the end of the spit, parked the vehicle and tromped into the dunes on the far side of the road from Vestrahorn, where most people would likely wander.
One of the unexpected discoveries from our drive along the coast was finding out just how massive the Vatnajökull glacier really is. From where we were parked, we had an excellent view towards Höfn and the glacier behind it. I couldn’t pass up the view.
Then I turned eastwards towards Vestrahorn, wandering around the dunes until I found a foreground that I felt invited one into the scene.
Then I started working the area. I quickly realized that I found the mountains that rose above the campground north of us to be more interesting than Vestrahorn itself, mostly because of the subtle but rich coloring you could see in the rocks. So I worked that subject . . . a lot.
After satisfying myself that I’d made a decent image, I went off to find Ann. As I approached her I found a subject similar to one I’d experimented with the day before. This one was both more elegant and complete as an image. As the wind blows these beach grasses, they trace arcs in the sand. Here, not only are the arcs delicately drawn in the sand, the spyder-like shadow cast by the grass gives a hint of the grasses’ shape. I couldn’t resist.
Ann was photographing towards Höfn, so I decided I’d try to work that view again, this time moving closer to the tidal area that included darker sand, still wet from the receding tide and playing that off with the dryer black sand and grasses that are above the tidal zone.
As we eventually made our way back to the bimobil, I decided to take one final image of the mountain that kept attracting my attention. I just found the coloration so lovely.
And that was our photo session. As had happened the day before, as the afternoon wore on, the wind speeds increased. We walked around the area in other directions awhile, but didn’t find any good subject matter. By the time we decided we needed a real break, the winds convinced us we should be content with what we were given.
Mother Nature had been kind to us, we couldn’t expect her to be too generous.