Explore #5 31/03/20

Looking for images to post today and I thought this seems really relevant at the moment seeing as we are sadly living within something of a fractured society at the moment. Thoughts with you all.

Anyway onto a more cheerier outlook! This is Valahnúkamöl near Raykjaness on the Coast of Iceland, the gnarly sea stacks somehow survive here despite getting absolutely hammered by some of the most powerful weather I've ever experienced anywhere.

A year or so I came here and it was only just possible to get out of the car without having the doors ripped off by the wind, so I wasn't able to get any images, in fact standing up was a challenge in itself!!

So for a year it's bothered me as I was blown away (pardon the pun) by the place, this time we visited finally on the last day of the trip and although there was a windy it wasn't anywhere near as bad as the last visit so the tripod could go up, despite it making your eyes pour everytime you looked through the viewfinder it was still shootable so another location was finally ticked off, for a few brief moments a lone person stood on the edge of the sea cliff (brave) and I was in a bit of a panic to make sure I got him or her in my shot for the scale.

The temptation here was to go right to the edge and shoot the stacks with crazy waves (which I did later) but as foreground options go I think this is one of my favourites in a long while as it's just so different, and shows how the basalt has literally fractured away, hence the title.

Hope you're all doing well out there, stay safe.

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Lots more images on my website here - it's being updated regularly

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Tags:   fractured broken cracked earth landscape sea waves sea stacks wash storm lone person cliff sea cliffs iceland beauty clouds sky basalt chasm mist spray movement pete rowbottom aplocaplyptic atmosphere Nikon D850 NiSi Fotopro ocean island texture. detail coast view nature person on cliff Raykjaness powerful dramatic weather 2020 Valahnúkamöl

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Explore #35 30/03/20

I think this has to be one of my favourite locations that we visited on the recent trip to Skye, tucked out of the way and out of sight from pretty much everywhere lies this charachterful old ruin, surrounded by lots of equally interesting limestone pavement.

The weather had been (as often is the case on Skye) extremely changeable with squalls of snow, rain, sleet, and hailstones occuring very frequently, however the light on this day had to be seen to be beleived, gorgeous warm breaks lighting up the landscape and really transforming the scene from drab and flat to a real golden beauty in a matter of seconds.

It was just a case of setting up, waiting, getting wet, and being ready for when the light washed over this beautful part of the landscape, truly a day to remember.

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Lots more images from this shoot, and others, on my website here - updating regularly

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Tags:   skye swordale lone house sunlight light stones rocks mountains scotland highlands isle of skye blaven remote wilderness pete rowbottom Nikon D850 STS britain beauty limestone pavement abandoned ruins square format landscape photography forgotten

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Explore #5 27/03/20

A vivid imagination may be required here to appreciate the title....

I love taking really intimate landscape images showing details just as much as the bigger vista images, when the chance presents itself as it did here, the overall scene was great but the tiny details would get lost in the bigger picture so I set about getting right in amongst the freezing scene to see what could be picked out...

This was the result, with the water still flowing between the 2 sets of jaws of the 'ice beasts' either side of the river...

People ask me a lot about aperture choice in shots, this isn't focus stacked, I just upped it to f/14 to compensate for the small loss of DOF at 70mm length, I could probably have gotten away with f/11 but seeing as it was snowing like buggery and freezing cold I wanted it in the bag, and not get home to find a soft image, as the entire image was taken with detail in mind.

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Lots more images from this shoot, and others, on my website here - updating regularly

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Tags:   iceland iceland landscape landscape pete rowbottom detail ice snow 2020 waterfall movement nikon D850 icicles unusual intricate intimate waterfalls oxarafoss frozen freezing harsh remote nature alien predator whitewinter

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No fancy semi amusing titles for this one, just exactly what it is, one of the many Squalls that we saw passing by over the Cuillins, (and occasionally over us too giving us a soaking) .

Quite often when these blew over the light was drab and dark and the mountains often dissapeared, so when this one blew threw and it was hit with good light it was game on.... This is one of my faves I've done so far with the light breaking through hitting the mountains and also 'warming up' the storm.

I was like a kid in a sweet shop with all this weather going on !!

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Lots more images from this shoot, and others, on my website here - updating regularly

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Tags:   elgol scotland uk britain pete rowbottom landscape seascape squall weather clouds sky skye light sunset long exposure Nikon D850 rocks cliffs mountains rain storm dramatic

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Vik Sea Stacks at Sunset.

This day was had been an absolute washout, sheet rain all day, and thick cloud, not a hope of shooting anything, at sunset it was still horrible but we walked out to the beach at Vik to try and get some dramatic weather shots of the waves around the sea stacks, after 30 mins I'd given up as the winds were whipping up all the sand and I ended curled up in a ball on the beach it was that bad, pebbles bouncing off my knuckles while holding my hood down!! errr balls to this!!

With the weather from hell seemingly never ending we retreated back inland to shoot the church up high, no sooner had we left the beach this scene just broke out of absolutely nothing! had to leg it up the hill and set up really quickly with the long lens to grab this unfolding dramatic sunset, weirdly it was the best one we had all week, you can't turn your back on anything in this Country for 5 minutes, if you do you will miss something. After this had died off the grey drabness came back again before breaking once more into a huge afterburn of purple and red (pics to follow)

Check out the 5 people stood watching it on the beach adding scale

Nikon D850
Nikon 70-200 f/4 @ 145mm
f/11
IS0 64
1/2 second

No filters
Fotopro T74-C tripod
Fotopro LG-9R ballhead

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Lots more images from this trip can be found on my website here - updating regularly

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Tags:   iceland vik sea storm sea stacks sunset sunlight waves ocean coast cliffs europe travel pete rowbottom Nikon D850 landscape seascape landscape photography golden light golden hour red yellow orange warmth dramatic dramatic sky beach winter 2020 geology volcanic geotagged southern iceland il I viewed photo large.

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