The Great Untouched - a photo on Flickriver

            "Ah but yes, you see he's gone into it hasn't he?"  Apparently this was the only comment that had come in response when Ali attempted to show one of my images to her cousin's husband, a man who'd apparently worked for Kodak for most of his life.  He comes from the branch of the family that Ali refers to as the "Stoke lot," her mother's sister having married a man from the Potteries somewhere back in the mists of time, and being antisocial as she is, she's only met them once or twice in the eighteen years since I persuaded her to take a chance on me.  I can't remember exactly which shot she told me she'd shown him, but I'm fairly certain a pink sunset was involved.  Exactly what he did for the Eastman empire I've no idea, and I've never met the man anyway, so the feedback had only been provided to me second hand.  By all accounts he's one of those whom, if you tell him you've been to the moon, he'll reply that he's been to Mars twice, the second time as a personal guest of Elon Musk or Richard Branson.  Of course, the industry expert was correct - I had "gone into it," if by that concise appraisal of my creation he meant that the RAW file had been through Lightroom and Photoshop.  I sighed for a moment and then showed her the next image that I was "going into" on my computer screen to see if she approved.  I expect most of us have been there from time to time.  My brother Dave's wife and middle son always just say "you're cheating" when he produces another masterpiece, no matter how much he complains.  They're just taking pleasure in winding him up of course.  It seems to work pretty well for that matter.

So here today for your eyes is what I think may be the only image I haven't "gone into."  Taken in RAW of course, I looked at it in my Lightroom catalogue and couldn't see a single thing I wanted to change from the shot of the huge single drop waterfall in the pristine landscape of the Canyon of Suprises - of Haifoss as it's more usually known.  If you read my previous tale, you might have picked up on the fact that there had been a deal of uncertainty about this location until about a week before we got on the plane.  Uncertainty that in the event had no business to be hanging around, given the many possible compositions available from both here around the top of the canyon and the world 128 metres below in Hades alongside the river that races away from the huge cascades of Haifoss and Granni.  Usually, I'll only post one image from an outing, but it doesn't work like that in Iceland.  Three already from Kirkjufell, and two from Budir and I'm by no means finished with either of those outings.  I'm nowhere near Eystrahorn or Vestrahorn yet, and there are an enormous number of files to work on from those.  It's really quite overwhelming when you go to such an extraordinary country as this, no matter how much preparation and planning went into the trip.  This isn't the last shot you'll see from this vast and abundant beauty spot either.  Hence my soubriquet, the Canyon of Surprises.  And once again - who put that rainbow down there?  I certainly didn't.  After all, I haven't "gone into it" have I?  I haven't even cropped it - another deliberate decision.  Maybe even Mr Kodak would approve as he casts his eye over it for a split second before buckling up aboard his rocket ship for the all-inclusive to Saturn, day tour of the rings an optional extra. Especially as I haven't added any unicorns to the bottom of the rainbow.  As we left Haifoss, the sun was replaced by a gathering grey sky that took the rainbow with it and consigned it to lasting memory.  A good job we were there at the right time really.

It's an image that I would probably have taken very differently if we'd stood here three years earlier on our previous visit to Iceland.  Would I have just gone for the bigger view and not used the telephoto lens to zoom into the base of the fall?  I certainly wouldn't have shot it at 1/640th and f5.6.  I did try some different shutter speeds of course, but this is the image that jumped out at me from the handful of this composition that I'd taken.  Those settings seemed to deliver exactly what we were seeing as Lee and I gazed down at the scene below as the endless wall of water seemed to hang like curtains against the dark backdrop of the cliff behind it.  Progress?  Hopefully.  It doesn't mean I've taken on a puritan streak of course (although I've never added any unicorns) - but beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the untouched version of the image is that one that worked for me.  It's so unusual for a RAW file to work without assistance in my experience.  The next image could easily have thirteen stops of ND filter on the front of the lens - in fact I think it will have, because I've got a good idea what's in the pipeline.  Keep watching folks, the Iceland stories are going to keep running for some time to come yet, even if I will probably need to "go into" all of the other images I post here.

Taken in: Iceland / South / Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppur (show map)

Taken on: September 12, 2022

Tags:

Haifoss

Iceland

waterfall

cascade

canyon

drama

landscape

rainbow

foss « less

Sets appears in: • Golden Circle • Book - Landscape more » • Iceland 2022 • Waterfalls « less

Groups appears in: • Iceland. • Water (and things) more » • Iceland - Landscape • Flickr Social Club • Photography Week • Flickr Social « less

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/5.6, 1/640 sec, 100mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM
Aperture:	f/5.6
Exposure Time:	0.002 sec (1/640)
Focal Length:	100mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	-1/3 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Aperture-priority AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Manual
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 11.5 (Windows)
Show full info

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