Blue and white

There are always so many different types of clouds in the sky at once here, it makes the sky look like something out of a fairytale.

Jökulhlaup

A boy plays under a bridge that was destroyed by a jökulhlaup. Jökulhlaups are glacial flood bursts, often pouring out of glaciers with extraordinary force, usually destroying whatever is in their path, such as roads, bridges, and power lines.
There wasn't much in the way of people or civilization in the areas characterized by these floods and probably with good reason.

Skagastrond

The shoreline by Skagastrond. A gabbro outcrop that Sadi, the other undergraduate was mapping and studying the faults of.

Before coming to Iceland, I emailled an Icelandic photographer whose work I enjoyed to see if he had any advice on gear to bring for working in Iceland. He recommended a wide angle lens, which is way out of my budget right now, and graduated neutral density filters, which isn't. I bought two, although I'm pretty sure I was accidentally sold the same one twice and as I bought them the day I left, didn't notice until I got here.

I really like how they help bring out more accurate colors in the sky, I feel like the blues always get blown out, and I definitely used them for the picture above.

Street Art in Reykjavik

Iceland: When it's nice, it's beautiful

When it's not nice, it's cold and windy, like today.

Iceland

I’ve been in Iceland for three weeks now, and the time is going by so quickly. I’m here as a field assistant with Dr. Jeff Karson, the head of the Earth Sciences department at Syracuse University. For the past week or so, I’ve been with one of the grad students, Aleece, near Borgarnes, doing some field work on part of her Phd project. I’m working on a project mapping dikes for the next few weeks, but I’ve managed to find some time to shoot along the way.

We’re currently camping in a tent, sometimes at a campground, sometimes near a stream off the main road. It’s kind of like I’m getting paid to be a homeless vagabond. We spend from 8 to 10 hours a day at the field site, a stream cut outside of town. Currently we’re at Bifrost, a nearby university using their internet.

Iceland is really, really gorgeous. There is everything from glaciers to volcanoes to huge waterfalls, all on an island the size of Ohio. I’m posting a few photos from the trip so far, access to the internet and those crazy luxuries like electricity isn’t always easy to come by, so a lot of my photos aren’t edited yet.

a roadside stop where we got out to look at the rocks

guest houses in Vik, sometimes the clouds are ground level, it's this really strange misty rain

basaltic black sand beaches

Wilson Hill

I spent the past few days visiting my grandparents at their home on the St. Lawrence River by Massena, NY. It's probably one of my favorite places in the world, one that I've been going to all my life.

The river there has always simultaneously fascinated me and terrified me. I love all of the activities that take place on the surface and by the shore, but the deeper parts, particularly the shipping channel scare the crap out of me because I have no idea what's down there.