Photographer in Colorado

There are many fjords on the east coast of Iceland. The road follows the coast for much of the journey to Egilsstaðir. At one location, I passed this very distinctive amphitheater in the mountains, covered with snow.

At Streitishvarf, I passed a lighthouse that is not orange! This one also appeared to have antennae that serve as a beacon.

Farther along the coast is an abandoned farmhouse by the fjord.

Here I found another orange lighthouse! Looking at the image above, just to the right side of the house, one can make out the shape for the lighthouse.

The path to the lighthouse crossed through a puddle formed by a small creek. An orange reflection of the lighthouse was just visible in the pool of water.

Returning to the farmhouse, I passed by some fence posts, with a view of the distant mountains and the fjord. Time to move on!

I reached Egilsstaðir and moved into the hostel just after the sun had set. The following morning, I made a side trip to Unaos to explore the area. Along the roadside, I stopped to make this image of the farm buildings that were located close to the foot of the mountain range.

Continuing on, the road climbed up the mountain side to a viewpoint that offers a great view of the long bay and coastline.

At this point, I turned back so that I could make the rest of the trip to Akureyri during daylight hours. There were several kilometers (or miles) of snow covered roads during this journey. I stopped at Myvatn, where I could make some images of the spectacular Hverfjall crater that were located in the distance.

Continuing on to Akureyri, after cresting a mountain pass, I reached the fjord where the city is located. At this point, there was a magnificent sunset with clouds dropping snow on the mountains.

Here is another view along the fjord towards the open sea.

On the far shore it the town of Dalvik that was to be my destination for the night!

While staying in Höfn, I made trips along the southeast coast of Iceland. At one location, is a lagoon that is separated from the sea by a beach, several kms long. This lagoon has many waterfowl, including these Whooper Swans that passed me on their flight out.

There are several lighthouses and other maritime warning beacons located around Iceland. Most of the lighthouses appear to be painted a bright orange color.

The front door area was one of the few non-orange parts of the building!

When leaving Höfn, I stopped by Stokksnes to make some images of the black volcanic beach sands and low clouds adorning the mountains.

From the overlook, the incoming waves as the surf broke close to the beach. The wind just picked up enough strength to cause spray to be thrown up from the surf.

Further up the coast, there is one location where the wind strength increased significantly. Here there are spectacular waves, surf and wild seas that are caused by the wind.

More to come.

After spending a couple of days in Vik, it was time to move to the next destination. Just after sunrise, this was one scene that I found leaving Vik.

Many areas of Iceland are covered by lava fields. These fields are typically covered by moss.

As I made way towards Höfn, I stopped at the Skaftafell Glacier. Hiking from the parking lot, I headed up the the foot of the glacier.

Later during the day, I stopped at the Fjallsarlon Glacier. From the parking area, there is a one mile hike to the lagoon, where the glacier melts as it flows into the lagoon.

I captured several images of icebergs floating in the lagoon.

The size of the icebergs pictured here are deceptive; the ones above and below are about 1 to 2 feet in height above the water. Of course this represents some 10% of the total size of the icebergs, since 90% of the mass of the bergs are below the waterline.

While at the parking area, I was fortunate to find a Rock Ptarmigan that was strolling along the edge of the parking lot.

All for now.

Here are some images from a trip to Iceland, made in October 2024. Soon after arriving in Iceland, I made my way to Reykjavik. Here are some of the images from the waterfront area.

The Harpa Concert Hall is located adjacent to the harbor.

The dry dock at the harbor always seems to be busy whenever visiting Iceland. Here, the Steffano is getting plenty of work done to the ship.

After leaving Reykjavik, I made my way towards Vik. There are several waterfalls along the route, where I made several images.

Here is a waterfall set back a long way back from the road.

While in Vik, I visited some of volcanic sand beaches. The day that I got there, the wind was really pumping, so there were the wild seas.

At Dyrholaey, one gets an elevated view of the seas and the offshore rock islands.

In this final image, I managed to capture some of the wild surf conditions in the following image.

More to come.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a trip to the Gunnison area to experience the Fall Colors. Here is a selection of some of my images.

The Ohio Creek and Ohio Pass are some of my favorite locations to make photographs of the Aspen forests and fall colors.

This is one of the forest roads that pass through an Aspen forest near Mill Castle.

At the base of the Ohio Pass are these red Aspen trees.

I visited Ohio Pass several times during the two days at Gunnison. The afternoon sunlight lit up the golden leaves behind the tree trunks in the Aspen forest.

During an early morning visit to Mill Castle, I found this chipmunk perched on a fence post.

Close to the base of Ohio Pass is an irrigation ditch that had been shut off for the fall and winter seasons. Fortunately, there was still some water trapped in the ditch; I found one spot that reflected the golden colors of the Aspen trees in the water.

At the end of the last day, I made my way through Ohio Pass and stopped at the Beaver Ponds trailhead. It is a short hike to the ponds, where I made this image that includes one of the ponds and golden Aspens.

Here is another image of the mixture of colors that are typically found during the fall. Most of the Aspens turn from green to golden yellow. But there are some the turn from green to orange and red.

Returning to the trailhead, I found a shaft of sunlight that lit up some of the plants growing on the forest floor.

Enjoy!

A couple of weeks ago, I headed down to South Platte River, near C-470. Several people were fishing by the river, so most of the birds headed to other areas. Walking towards Eaglewatch Lake, several Cormorants were draped on the fallen tree that was partially submerged in the lake. Since I had approached from the east side, the Cormorants were backlit by the evening sun.

I counted ten Cormorants perched on the tree branches. All were busy drying off and cooling down from the hot sun.

Making my way around to the south end of the lake, I made this image of the single Cormorant facing the sun.

Continuing to the west of the lake, the birds were now front-lit by the sun.

The fallen tree is submerged with two of the main trunk protruding above water in two places. Three birds were perched on one section of the trunk. The remaining birds were located on the second section of tree trunk. The long lens prevented me from capturing all birds in one image!

These Cormorants are probably on their southward migration as the leave from the cooler climate of Colorado.

Here are some assorted images of wildlife along the South Platte River, that I captured one evening in July. This Mule Deer was grazing among the scrub and bushes alongside the river.

The Western Kingbird is one of my favorite flycatchers. This Kingbird has some unusual flight patterns while attempting to catch bugs in flight.

Finally, I found a Downy Woodpecker looking for bugs in the bark of a Cottonwood tree.

Almost caught up with my backlog!