Today is a tale of how wet can it get. Now, don’t for one second think I didn’t know it would be wet, I did. In fact, the weather report was very direct. Tuesday = Rain. So I don’t have to like it, right? Well, I don’t like it at all. But, because today was a travel day, it made it a little more bearable.
The downpours started around the time we arrived at Seljalandsfoss Falls. At first it was just rain. Photographers are OK with rain, as long as it’s not pouring rain or driving rain or heavy wind and rain. So rain was Ok as I set up to make an exposure.
It looked OK but it was dull without a lot of contrast, so I decided to start in another direction. As I did, the sky began to open and I changed direction again and headed back to the van. As I approached, I saw a group of photographers looking at something so I wanted to see what they saw.
I find this amazing; If 10 photographers saw the same thing and all of them make a photo, not one would be the same, probably not even similar. So I made mine and started back.
Now the rain was coming down in sheets, buckets, gallons; the sky opened and there were were… headed into a gas station for a bathroom break and a snack. Down the road was the entrance to the black beach, not THE black beach, there are many in Iceland. Just this one had the famous sea stack formations called VIX. Should I go down to the beach and make a picture? Why not… It’s just water. No one ever died from a little rain, right? Cancel that.
Suiting up in waterproof pants and coat, thick rubber boots up to my knees, gloves, a hat and face protector I felt like an astronaut in a space suit. I headed down to the beach. Now the wind was really blowing. Needles of ice were pelting my face as I continued to approach the teaming ocean, raging at the sky for what seemed like forever. The wind was almost strong enough to lean into and not fall, but onward. Finally, out of patience and tired of trying to keep water droplets off the front of my lens, I gave up with just one image and not satisfied.
Tomorrow the forecast is for no rain mid-morning and clearing later in the day. Maybe finally we will see Northern Lights.
