Early morning in the local forest with a nice amount of fog and beautiful light. I had a rough night sleep, woke up way to early. And heading out in the forest was medicine for body and soul. When wandering out in the nature with these conditions you just calm down. Slow down and just start to feel better straight away. All shots were taken with my FujiFilm XT4 and a 16-80mm F4 lens, handheld.
East Iceland - The first images
Early August 2021 was and forever will be a special memory in my mind. Finally going back to Iceland for a photography workshop. After all this time at home (well, just a year, but it felt like muuuch longer) I got to travel again and co-host a photography workshop together with my good friend Páll Jökull. And East Iceland was on the menu.
Together with two amazing clients we’ve explored East Iceland all the way from South to North, and even went inland a little bit here and there. This part of the country was new for me, so I was obviously super pumped to get out there and see new places.
It was special, emotional and everything and more I hoped it to be. To be out in the field with Páll and teaching compositions, timing your shots, several technical aspects together with him is exactly what I needed after feeling quite down and out for a long time. The fact that we always have a tiny and very private/personal group really adds to the great feeling of our tours. It feels like being out with friends and when everyone is likeminded and has the same goal beautiful things are bound to happen. Behind and in front of our cameras. Below are some shots from the trip. Make sure to click them to see them in their original aspect ratio.
Thank you for watching and reading!
I will be updating my Iceland Gallery on my website soon, and there will be loads of photographs from this trip on other blogposts and on my social media: Instagram, Facebook and such.
And of course I did bring my drone, and shoot some video. Here’s the first video of one of the waterfalls we’ve visited and photographed during this workshop. There will be more video and drone footage coming up later on once I’ve gotten round to editing and putting everything together.
Drone Photography - The Tuspeel
The Tuspeel measures 29 hectares and is probably the southernmost toponym that still contains the word 'peel'. With raised bog as the main feature of the area, the name is not so remarkable. Where 'tus' comes from is a mystery. It is a name that has been used for a long time; it was already called that at the beginning of the 20th century. From the very wet core of the area peat has never been dug away to disappear as peat in the stove. As a result, a number of characteristic species of a raised bog vegetation still occur here. The special area can be experienced from the edges. There are several freely accessible footpaths around the wet core.
The Tuspeel remains moist because of a loam layer in the soil. Peat formed in the depressions, but was not extracted as peat as in most of Limburg. This meant that the characteristic bog flora remained intact. This includes one-haired meadow grass and peat moss, white beak rush, sundew and in the pools floating pondweed and water thrift. Small cranberry, heather and lavender heather are also found. In the dry parts of the reserve one finds, among other things, spiny broom and sand blue.
The animal world includes: small green frog, two salamander species, more than ten species of dragonfly, greenhorn and phegea butterfly.
In the immediate vicinity of the area there are large ponds created by gravel extraction, in particular the Lange Vlieter, today a basin for the water supply company, and the recreational lake Lange Peel.
High drifting dunes around the bog core are planted with Scots pine and American oak. This is where the great spotted woodpecker and the green woodpecker nest. A small herd of horses graze the dry areas throughout the year, ensuring that most of the area does not become overgrown with birch forest.
Little stroll in the forest - Fujifilm XT4
Here’s a pretty straight forward blog post. Some shots I took with my Fujifilm XT4 whilst out in the forest yesterday. All shots taken with the 16-80mm F4 lens. Really had some nice conditions.
Zwart Water Venlo - Fujifilm XT4
Yesterday before going to work I went into this area that I really like. It has a beautiful forest and a nice lake. It is located north of the city of Venlo. I had little over an hour to spend before starting my shift at work.
Just walking around with my Fujifilm XT4 and 16-80mm F4 and snapping some straight forward shots. The way the XT4 captures colors and details still amazes me. How I love this camera!
