Vestfirðir phototour
In Dýrafjörður on a cold and misty day
What is better than 9 photo nerds on a tour over a weekend at Vestfirðir (vestfjord), exploring new places. And what is better during Covid lockdown than exploring the nature away from all crowd and without any photobombers.
I was driving home after a long day in Þjórsárdalur shooting Háifoss and Gjáin, when my phone rang. My friend Arnar Bergur was putting together a group of nerds to drive to Dýrafjörður at Vestfirðir and the idea was to drive around the area over the weekend, finding some interesting places to shoot.
The next Friday our journey started in Reykjavík, on a rainy day where I joned Siggi Photo in his Super Jeep. We left the city at 10:00 and headed to Vestfirðir. On the way we saw few interesting places which where pinned on Google Map but we also made a few stops at nice waterfalls. The weather was little misty and the light rather poor. The weather forecast for Saturday was however better but not expecting any sun.
We woke up early on Saturday and after making some breakfast and rewealing each other snoring we decided to drive through Þingeyri and further north the Sléttanes where the roads are not really a roads and into Arnarfjörður, under the famous cliff at Lokinhamrar, ending at Hrafnseyri. Boy was this an epic journey or what. It took the whole day to travel this 40 km as we where constantly stopping to shoot. It was cloudy sky and raining in some places which made our surroundings even more dramatic for shooting which was perfect.
After Coffey stop at Hrafnseyri we just heard about whales swimming around in Arnarfjörður. It took only a short while to find the whales and the Drones where sent out to check it out. Others took their 200-600 lenses but only got to see some tails. This was definitely job for the drones who found the whales and it was just amazing watching them from above where they where feeding just like bulldozers. When we drove little further in the direction of Dynandi we also saw about 10 Dolphins also feeding among other whales.
At Dynjandi we did this nice group photo of the gang and also another with seven drones lined up hoovering in front of us, that was epic. On the way back home we decided to check out Önundarfjörður and that was quite worth it. It was just before dark, the weather was calm and cloudy sky and the waters just like a mirror, perfect for mirror shooting.
On Sunday me and Siggi Photo decided to drive home the same way we came as we had decided to stop at some special place we had pinned on google. This was an old boat shelter at a riff leaning to the ocean, making perfect dramatic photo in a cloudy sky. The unexpected bonus was that very old boat was placed next to this house making the picture even more perfect. While we where shooting there I heard some noise at my back in the ocean, which happened to be a curious Seal that had been watching us for a while. Of course the photo shooting made a 180 degree turn and all lenses where pointed at the most important player in the area.
This was a wonderful weekend. I made a new friends and learned a lot from the others. Even though the weather was cloudy and some times raining, it didn’t stop us from getting back home with some great shots and most of all, being a part of a great company did charge my batteries for the next battle.
