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The Long and Twisty Road I lament I can't remember exactly where this is in Iceland. I think it was up by lake Myavatn, but I'm not totally sure. That word Myavatn is related to little mosquitoes. I wondered why it had that name until about 5 AM one day. There were millions... and I mean millions of mosquitoes that came out of nowhere! It was one of those weather-things were the temperature is just perfect and they get up and go crazy for a few hours before settling down again. I had to retreat into the car mostly for reasons of sanity! - Trey Ratcliff Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Green Mountain, Red House "Is the house really THAT red?" my wife asks me. Yes, oh yes, it is... But now I am taking her to Iceland with me, so she can see these bright colors for herself... I don't know if it's a Scandinavian thing or what, but we just don't see colorful houses like this in the states. I think we either have brick, or white, or slightly off-white, or perhaps a light beige, or maybe something daring like a mauve-eggshell-white... I mean, I'm just as bad... mine in stucco. I don't even think my homeowner's association would let me paint it red. But, knowing Austin, with a bright red house, we'd probably have a few commies show up in Che Guevara shirts, wondering where the free pizza is... - Trey Ratcliff Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Mighty Peaks and Soft River I'm going up again soon to the northern part of Iceland to visit some friends, and it will be great fun. This time, I'll have to convince them to come out with me on a little photo adventure... Right before you get to Akureyri, the road twists along a valley that runs beside these mountains. They are beautiful and scenic, but very difficult to photograph. You keep looking and looking and looking for an angle, and it never quite works out. I found this one by accident. There was a little side road that looked interesting. I took it, and then it almost immediately went off the side of a hill! It turns out it wasn't a side-road at all, but some kind of fake-road meant to trick dumb people like me. So, after sliding to a stop, I went out to see if my 4th wheel was dangling over the side. It wasn't, but I did see a little path that went down by the river. I thought there might be a good vantage point, so I took my rig down there to get this shot. -Trey Ratcliff Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
The Long Curvy Road Around Iceland I'm packing now for another summer solstice at 66 degrees north. It'll be a great one!I'm also trying out some new photo bags... people send me stuff to try out all the time. Hehe... I make it clear to all of them that I only review and recommend stuff that I actually use... if I don't like it, I won't rip on it, I just won't mention it. If it turns out to be good, I'll give it a big thumbs up and tell you all about it... so I am about to go through the big ceremonial process of moving all my stuff from one bag to another... you know that process. It's actually kind of fun, to tell you the truth... Also, it's down there in my ethics statement. I only review and recommend stuff I actually use rather than giving you 20 reviews a week. I think that keeps it simple, and also, you aren't forced to read a bunch of reviews that hem and haw about this and that...And when I get to Iceland, I'll be up on this wonderful road again... this gentle curving road that circumnavigates the island... sleeping days and staying up through the white nights... I can't wait!- Trey RatcliffRead more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Gentle Green Slopes to Rocky Curved Crags After you are driving around Iceland for a few weeks, you get so used to wild landscapes that it's hard to be objective. I force myself to wake up and be objective about the matter... and then, I suddenly come to my senses and I realize that scenes like this are entirely unique! So, that helps me to pop out of my truck and go on a short hike to get a good vantage point. And then I get back... process it many months later... and I am happy that I took the time to recognize it was indeed a special place. - Trey Ratcliff Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Church in the Fog I was driving along the southern coast of Iceland on the way to Vik, and I started going throw an area of lowlands. Around midnight or so, the sun was getting pretty low in the west, and it gave the sky a slight pink glow in almost every direction.I shot this one at a 200mm at F/6.7. I don't often take out my zooms for landscapes, but it does provide a nice compression that gives an unexpected feel to the final photo. It's really hard to explain in words, but maybe you can sense of this framing in the final result. It just can't be done with a wide-angle lens, even if I was a lot closer.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Exploring the Peninsula at Sunrise I weaved in and out of these little roads as the sun was coming up in Iceland. I was trying to find a certain rock formation off in the ocean, which I never found. But that's okay. These roads are very windy, and that makes setting up for a shot very difficult. Every curve of the road is a new geometry, and this causes endless possibilities and problems! When you come across a nice old farmhouse like this, you hope the road is curving the right way so that you get a nice setup with the composition.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Homes in the Land of the Panserbjørne On my ninth or tenth day of the solstice, the mornings sometimes got a little strange. On this morning, it was around 2 or 3 AM. There was plenty of light, but the heavy clouds cast a blue tinge over the landscape. And it was that strange time of "night", when you know everyone is asleep and you feel like the only one on earth that is still alive. When everything is well-lit, you also feel a little bit apocalyptic about the whole thing. Was there some kind of Zombie outbreak, and now everyone has eaten one another into oblivion, and I'm the only one left? But it's that sort of dream-state that is good for creating photography. When nothing around is the way it is supposed to be -- then it helps to keep me in a creative state of mind.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.
Flowers and Carved Stone I kept driving and driving and driving and weaved my way up past a town in the far northwest fjords. I saw this strangely (and nicely) shaped mountain with that strange early-morning lighting. Then, I spent another hour or so hiking around until I found this special kind of blue flower (EDIT thanks to commenters Scott & Guðjón - it is called the lupine or lúpína in Icelandic). Just when I was about to give up, I found a giant patch of them, so I selected the right lens and set up for this shot.- Trey RatcliffClick here to read the rest of this post at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Mighty Peaks and Soft River


I'm going up again soon to the northern part of Iceland to visit some friends, and it will be great fun. This time, I'll have to convince them to come out with me on a little photo adventure...

Right before you get to Akureyri, the road twists along a valley that runs beside these mountains. They are beautiful and scenic, but very difficult to photograph. You keep looking and looking and looking for an angle, and it never quite works out. I found this one by accident. There was a little side road that looked interesting. I took it, and then it almost immediately went off the side of a hill! It turns out it wasn't a side-road at all, but some kind of fake-road meant to trick dumb people like me. So, after sliding to a stop, I went out to see if my 4th wheel was dangling over the side. It wasn't, but I did see a little path that went down by the river. I thought there might be a good vantage point, so I took my rig down there to get this shot.

-Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
here at the Stuck in Customs blog." href="javascript:openLB(1329609027,'',XLarge,'',941,768);">The Mighty Peaks and Soft River I'm going up again soon to the northern part of Iceland to visit some friends, and it will be great fun. This time, I'll have to convince them to come out with me on a little photo adventure... Right before you get to Akureyri, the road twists along a valley that runs beside these mountains. They are beautiful and scenic, but very difficult to photograph. You keep looking and looking and looking for an angle, and it never quite works out. I found this one by accident. There was a little side road that looked interesting. I took it, and then it almost immediately went off the side of a hill! It turns out it wasn't a side-road at all, but some kind of fake-road meant to trick dumb people like me. So, after sliding to a stop, I went out to see if my 4th wheel was dangling over the side. It wasn't, but I did see a little path that went down by the river. I thought there might be a good vantage point, so I took my rig down there to get this shot. -Trey Ratcliff Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.

The Mighty Peaks and Soft River


I'm going up again soon to the northern part of Iceland to visit some friends, and it will be great fun. This time, I'll have to convince them to come out with me on a little photo adventure...

Right before you get to Akureyri, the road twists along a valley that runs beside these mountains. They are beautiful and scenic, but very difficult to photograph. You keep looking and looking and looking for an angle, and it never quite works out. I found this one by accident. There was a little side road that looked interesting. I took it, and then it almost immediately went off the side of a hill! It turns out it wasn't a side-road at all, but some kind of fake-road meant to trick dumb people like me. So, after sliding to a stop, I went out to see if my 4th wheel was dangling over the side. It wasn't, but I did see a little path that went down by the river. I thought there might be a good vantage point, so I took my rig down there to get this shot.

-Trey Ratcliff

Read more here at the Stuck in Customs blog.
See photo in original gallery.
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