Fjadrargljufur Canyon, South Iceland
Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon – There were a bunch of places throughout my trip to Iceland where I felt like I was on some fantasy planet. This canyon, in particular, seemed like it’s straight out of a fairytale—blue glacial water, sheer cliffsides, green mosses blanketing the landscape. The incredible spires and archways made it really feel other-worldly.
We spent a long evening here hiking along the top of the cliffs and then of course it was time to go down into the canyon where I got a little more than I bargained for.
So I brought a flying drone camera on this trip to Iceland shooting some stills but mostly video: ( http://exposurescape.com/aerial-iceland-flight-of-the-drone/ ). After a few previous successful flights in Iceland, I thought it would be a great idea to really test my piloting skills. With no GPS connection inside the canyon, and my confidence high, I took off filming upriver about 700ft. Long story short, the wind quickly took over and panic set in as I saw my drone fly out of sight towards a canyon wall. Then the fun part—a frantic run through multiple river crossings like I was Bear Grylls—completely soaked from the waist down. Luckily ended up crashing 5 feet from the river bank in some bushes. Took 30 minutes but I found it.
And there I was wet, defeated and slightly cold, but my animalistic photography hunger set in as the sky was now getting some nice color. I took another half hour to get a few shots—and since I was already wet, I hopped right back into that river to get this shot. I knew I wanted to include these two dramatic cliff points on either side of the river so I went from there.
As far as processing, I applied numerous luminosity masks to balance tones and colors throughout. I also selectively sharpened (and blurred) this image to enhance the fairytale atmosphere of this incredible place.
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