Stuck in Photos

Summer is here and we have headed for the roads once more.

We spent last weekend in the East of Iceland, going to Borgarfjörður Eystri and exploring the area, finding out there still was too much snow to be able to hike up to the mountains to photograph.

But it made us promise to head out there again later this summer.

In Borgarfjörður Eystri there is an area down by the sea where you can go and observe seabirds, noteably puffins which have turned the hills into swiss cheese style of landscape; full of holes.

It provides people with a good opportunity to observe the puffin without having to

crawl over the ground and hide; the birds are used to people and will sit quietly a few feet away from you while some take the plunge into the blue seas to bring in the catch of the day.

But we werent there to photograph puffins, but to have fun and relax, to scout out places to go when we’d be there again later for photographing.

The following texts are taken from the official webpage of Borgarfjörður Eystri.

Formerly, the church Bakkagerðiskirkja stood at Desjarmýri, the present building being consecrated in 1901.

The church boasts an exceedingly remarkable altarpiece, painted by Jóhannes Sveinsson Kjarval in 1914.

Christ is depicted during the Sermon on the Mount, standing atop Álfaborg with the Dyr Mountains in the background.

This piece is one of Kjarval’s most famous works, with most tourists visiting Borgarfjörður coming to look at it.

The Cross in Njarðvík Scree.

Varying sources recount the origin of this cross. In short, according to the story of Naddi in the folk tales of Jón Árnason, a farmer from Borgarfjörður had to go to Njarðvík and on his way ended up fighting with Naddi, who was “an evil spirit in the shape of an animal above waist, but of a man below.” He was called Naddi because of the gnawing (nadda in Icelandic) sound he made while moving. Naddi and the farmer wrestled for a long time, but after having solemnly sworn to raise “a monument to honor the Lord’s protection,” the farmer managed to heave Naddi into the sea. From then on there’s been a cross beside the road, renovated at the middle of this century.

On the cross there’s an inscription in Latin reading as follows:

Thou that walks by, please kneel and revere this reminder of Christ. Anno 1306

-We made it safely

Mp Bank buys the rights to more of Helga’s photos.

One of them here from a 1/1 page advert in Morgunblaðið newspaper.

Those blue hues rock!

The musicfestival “Núna Now” features one of my concert pictures on their website, it is a picture of Megas, a musical and lyrical legend of Iceland. The festival praises the cultural connection between Iceland and Canada, and quite a few Icelandic artists perform on their scene.

Helga’s and Völundur’s photos are for sale, framed, matted and all the ksh-bang, in the gallery Fótógrafí, in Reykjavík -Iceland’s only photography-dedicated gallery.

…..Well, some of our works at least, a selected few.

The photo-gallery Fótógrafí opened on the 19th of May 2007 and is the first of it‘s kind in Iceland. In the front room is a shop where pictures from over 20 photographers are for sale and also posters, books, postcards and more.

Fótógrafí’s Homepage

Photo© Anton Eðvarð Kristensen (click for a visit to his Flickr Page)

Helga’s photo from Hellnar in Snæfellsnes is the cover of The Environmentalist for February 2009,

a magazine published by IEMA, Institute of Environmental Management and Assesment in the UK.

A short story on that photo:

Earlier that day, Helga bought herself a billabong hat, to keep the head warm while on a shoot in Snæfellsnes.

Bending down low while framing the shot, on the beach with feet immersed in the cold sea, the hat went flying off Helga’s head and sailed away while the shutter was open.

So- the hat is there somewhere in the photo, but due to the long exposure it can not be seen.

Those tides in Hellnar are damn fast!

A few shots from Helga, from Rúnar Júlíusson‘s last big concert here in Iceland.

April 13 1945 - Dec 5th 2008

MP Bank got rights to a couple of Helga’s photos.

A shot that took “a bit” of an effort; Hvítserkur or White Cowl, seen here on the MP Bank webpage.

The text accompanying the photo at the time it got posted on Flickr:

Hvítserkur, or White Cowl, a column of rock eroded by the sea, at Vatnsnes in NW-Iceland.

Some people say it looks like a Rhino drinking from the sea,
others say it looks like a Dinosaur.

The above link states: please be careful on your way up and down.

Was I?
-Yes…totally

Was it enough?
……..No
-lets call it the excursion of a photographer in need of a rope….

I ended up falling 10-15 scary feet like a ragdoll attached to expensive camera gear, before managing to stop myself, by “grabbing” a rock with my elbow (?!….can be done…honest)….
Holding the camera high in the air as I came to a halt……
-makes me wonder a bit about my priorities *lol*
At least I can say I risked life and limb for a photo….

And if not for the photo, but for drinking in the magnificent view - it was worth every tumble, every bruise.
Just standing there on a black sand in the middle of a quiet summer’s night, watching the seabirds travel back and forth from their nests in that cliff, listening to the waves come in quietly.

There are very few things worth more than listening to the subtle silence of nature while giving thanks for being alive and well.

Helga did a photoshoot for Akureyri’s Theater, the Christmas show of “Lápur og Skrápur og jólaskapið”; a story of two “trolls” who set out to find the holiday spirit.

Click!

We just posted a gallery album from the Þeistareykir area in North Iceland.

Check it out!

You might remember the earlier post with the tiny travel story from the Þeistareykir trip along with the recipe of the roast leg of lamb?

You never really got the hang of the pronounciation of that place?

The easy way of saying it is th-ay-sta-ray-keer.