Making the Scene

Natural Window, Skutafoss, Iceland
Sony α1
Sony 16-35 GM
10 seconds
f/16
ISO 50

Every photographer loves creating unique images. Planning workshops more than a year in advance, I always try to maximize my groups’ chances for macro events might enable my group to capture something special—things like Horsetail Fall or a moonrise in Yosemite, lightning at Grand Canyon, the Milky Way in New Zealand or Grand Canyon, and the northern lights in Iceland. (I’m not complaining,) but this life puts me at the same locations year after year—if I’m not careful, after a few visits, even images featuring these spectacular macro phenomena risk looking the same.

Of course even the most rigorous advance planning can’t guarantee success. Ultimately, photographers are beholden to the ephemeral micro-conditions, the play of weather and light, to set our images apart. Whether it’s a workshop or a personal trip, whatever condition cards I’m dealt, my job is to read them and get the most out of every shoot. And I’ve come to realize that I enjoy the image building part of photography as much as I enjoy the scenes themselves.

Meanwhile, back in Iceland

Don Smith and I schedule our Iceland workshop for January or February for the long nights that maximize our northern lights odds, and also because in general we find Iceland’s winter photography so extraordinary. But winter in Iceland also means working within the constraints of potentially extreme conditions. As much as we try to avoid taking our groups to locations we’ve never visited, or even taking them to familiar locations at unfamiliar times, sometimes it’s unavoidable. And sometimes it just works out.

For example, Don and I have always had great success photographing Vestrahorn at sunset, so that’s always how our schedule is laid out when we start. Similarly, we like doing the Vatnajökull (glacier) ice cave before sunrise on the next morning after Vestrahorn because it allows us to get out there up to an hour before the crowds (think Antelope Canyon in blue). But when we saw extreme wind (extreme even for Iceland) forecast for our planned Vestrahorn afternoon, our guide, Siggi, suggested we flip the ice cave and Vestrahorn shoots—we’d take advantage of the shelter provided by the ice cave during the windiest part of the afternoon, then do Vestrahorn for sunrise the next morning. (This is why we always have a local guide.) Vestrahorn, Siggi pointed out that Vestrahorn can be just as nice at sunrise as it is at sunset, and to sweeten the pot, he told us the new plan would enable us to photograph Skutafoss, a little waterfall (that we’d never heard of) just up the road from Vestrahorn.

Since Skutafoss was just a last-minute bonus brought by our decision to move Vestrahorn to morning (rather than a featured location important enough to build our day around), I knew we couldn’t be strategic about our arrival time—we’d just have to take the conditions as we found them. But, regardless of the conditions, we rationalized that at the very least we’d be getting our eyes on a new location, and the group would have another waterfall to add to their Iceland portfolios. And our ice cave and Vestrahorn shoots were so successful, by the time we wrapped up at Vestrahorn, we knew anything else would be a bonus.

We found the sky at Skutafoss filled with fast-moving, saturated clouds that stood out against a translucent stratus layer. The overcast infused the entire scene with soft, low-contrast light, ideal for photographing flowing water. And it didn’t take long to appreciate that the darker clouds were interesting enough to be actual compositional elements by themselves.

Before pointing us to the short trail to the fall, Siggi pointed out that overnight rain had expanded the main cataract into three distinct falls, one more piece of good fortune. Heading upstream through sparse snow flurries, I made note of a couple of nearby peaks that might provide balancing elements for my foreground subjects. Despite no strategy going into the timing of our arrival at Skutafoss, things were starting to look promising. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm remained tempered until I rounded a corner and spotted a broad cave, about 20 feet deep, next to the fall’s primary stream. Instantly, I started mentally strategizing ways to position myself in the cave and using the walls to frame the scene.

Skutafoss, Iceland

Of course others in the group had similar thoughts (I started to point it out, but they’d already identified the opportunity), so when others beelined to the cave, I spent a few minutes photographing the fall from downstream. Fortunately, there was room for everyone in the cave, and by the time I made my way in, some had already moved on, giving the rest of us more room to roam and build visual relationships.

I started with a horizontal frame, positioning the only peak visible (from this perspective) a little left of center to balance the waterfall. Before clicking, I made sure to get just enough rock at the top to make a natural border (but not so much that it overpowered the rest of the scene), and took care not to cut off the pool lapping near my feet. I also dropped my camera low enough to prevent the ceiling from obscuring the scooting clouds. With my frame, position, exposure, and focus set, I used a polarizer to remove the sheen from the water and wet rocks. I adjusted my ISO to vary my shutter speed and achieve different motion effects.

After working the horizontal composition to death, I thought I’d try something vertical. For the horizontal compositions, I’d positioned myself so the peak was offset enough to balance the fall, but switching to vertical, I moved to the right to align the peak and fall—but not so far right that the big cascade occluded the two smaller beyond. For these vertical frames, putting about the same amount of rock at the top gave me plenty of room to avoid cutting off the pool below. But a narrower vertical frame did mean that I had take care that the left side didn’t cut off the whitewater beneath the fall.

After finishing in the cave, a short-but-steep trail up to the top of the fall revealed more great stuff. In fact, going through my images later, I was pretty pleased with my results from each of the three vantage points I tried: downstream, looking up at the fall with rocks and whitewater in the foreground; inside the cave; and above, where I found a different peak above the small canyon feeding the fall. I chose to start with the images inside the cave because I found them most unique, but I imagine (fingers crossed) I’ll eventually get to the others.

I know when I return to Skutafoss (and I will), the conditions will likely be different, and my process will probably be different as well. But for every location I visit and enjoy as much as this one, I find that reviewing the thumbnails of that shoot, then reverse engineering my scene-building process, keeps the scene fresh in my mind. Not only does this exercise benefit my next visit, it helps keep my scene building instincts fresh. (And it’s a lot of fun, too.)

Iceland Photo Workshops

More Waterfalls

Click any image to scroll through the gallery LARGE

Frozen, Kirkjufellsfoss, Iceland

Sunstar, Horsetail Fall and El Capitan, Yosemite

Natural Window, Skutafoss, Iceland

Emerald Pool, Elves Chasm, Grand Canyon

Sunset, McWay Fall, Big Sur, California

Morning Light, Wildflowers and Upper Yosemite Fall from Sentinel Dome, Yosemite

Moonbow and Big Dipper, Lower Yosemite Fall, Yosemite

Nature’s Garden, Deer Creek Fall, Grand Canyon

Peek-a-Boo Moon, Merced River Canyon and Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite

Autumn Surprise, Upper Yosemite Fall, Yosemite

Autumn On the Rocks, Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite

Alpenglow, Nevada and Vernal Falls from Glacier Point, Yosemite

Fern Cascade, Russian Gulch Fall, Russian Gulch State Park (Mendocino), California

Icewater, Kvernufoss, Iceland

Winter Storm, Upper Yosemite Fall, Yosemite

Fallen Color, Fern Spring, Yosemite

Autumn, Elowah Fall, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

On Ice, Kirkjufellsfoss, Iceland

Nightfall, Full Moon and Yosemite Valley, Yosemite

Looking Out, Upper Horsetail Fall, Columbia River Gorge

Winter Rainbow, Upper Yosemite Fall, Yosemite

Skutafoss, Iceland

Natural Firefall, El Capitan, Yosemite

Thunder Creek Fall, Haast Pass, New Zealand

Moonrise, Merced River Canyon and Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite

Winter Reflection, Cathedral Rocks and Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite

Deep Forest Cascade, Russian Gulch Fall, Mendocino Coast

Cascade Beneath Starvation Creek Fall, Columbia River Gorge, Oregon

Horsetail Fall Reflection, El Capitan, Yosemite

Hidden Gem, Elves Chasm, Grand Canyon

Dance of the Veils, Tunnel View, Yosemite

Yosemite Falls Sunstar, Yosemite

Valley Fog, Tunnel View, Yosemite

Hraunfossar, Iceland

Golden Touch, El Capitan and Horsetail Fall, Yosemite

Moonbow, Lower Yosemite Fall, Yosemite

Autumn Drift, Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite

Lush Reflection, Doubtful Sound, New Zealand

Autumn Leaf and Cascade, Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite

Spring Rainbow, Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite

Winter Chill, Kirkjufell and Kirkjufellsfoss, Iceland

Last Light, Horsetail Fall, Yosemite

Autumn Cascade, Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite

First Light, Yosemite Valley

Lush, Onomea Falls, Hawaii

Star Trails, Upper Yosemite Fall, Yosemite

Sun Kissed, Horsetail Fall, Yosemite

Fall Color, Yosemite Falls, Cook’s Meadow, Yosemite

Molten Stripe, El Capitan, Yosemite

Solitary Leaf, Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite

Upper Kirkjufellsfoss, Iceland

Bridalveil Dogwood, Yosemite

Descent, Whitney Portal Fall, Whitney Portal

Cascade, Grand Canyon

Autumn Spiral, Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite

Spring Cascade, Tamarack Creek, Yosemite

Whitewater, Deer Creek Fall, Grand Canyon

Twin Falls, Ribbon Fall and Bridalveil Fall, Yosemite

Akaka Fall, Akaka Falls State Park, Hawaii

Yin and Yang, Autumn Leaf at Bridalveil Creek, Yosemite

Horsetail Fall and El Capitan, Four Mile Trail, Yosemite