Iceland

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LOL

While I was going through my Iceland images, I ran across this beauty. Don’t know why I never posted it before. LOL. I just thought it too good for the world not to see. But the only way I could have been able to capture this so easily is because of my camera hand strap. To be completely honest, I love that thing. It makes taking pictures so much easier and I also feel very secure just carrying my camera around with just that. I don’t think I could ever go back to a neck strap and anytime I hear of anyone getting a new mirrorless camera, it’s the first thing I tell them to get. Especially with the lighter weight camera, it just makes taking pictures so easy. So if you’re ever in the market for a new camera strap, please consider the peak design hand strap. It’s awesome.

And in recent turn of events, it looks like I’ll be driving to Austin, Texas. Yea, super random and totally unexpected. I just found out last week actually. But one of my best friend’s, Sue is actually moving there. If you keep up with my youtube channel, you will probably remember her from our drive across country. I’m so sad she’s moving but she got a job opportunity that she couldn’t pass up. She was always my one friend who was down to do pretty much anything (like a cross country road trip) and I’m going to miss her so much. But I’m grateful she asked me if I would join her on this road trip and at least I’ll be able to spend a little more time with her before she’s gone.

I’ve actually never really spent that much time in Texas before so if you have any recommendations of things to do in Austin, please let me know! After we arrive, I’ll be there for a few days checking out the city. I heard it’s super fun 🙂

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/320th sec at ISO 400 with my A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens AND my hand strap. 

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The other day a friend of mine emailed me asking me if I had Iceland recommendations because they just booked a trip for the summertime. Oh definitely yes I do and basically wrote a book with everything I knew about traveling to the nordic country. All the pros, cons and everything I would do differently. To be honest though, there weren’t that many cons. Way more pros and exciting things to do 🙂

So after that long email, it made me want to go back and revisit some of my older Iceland images. It’s been 2 years since last time I was there but still have great memories of the visit. I’ve never been in the summertime so I definitely noted that it would be interesting to see what it would be like with almost 24 hrs of sunlight. It makes me wonder if sleeping would be difficult .

This image was taken on my last trip there. Vík was one of my favorite places we visited and it’s always on the top of my to-see places whenever people tell me they’re going to Iceland. This was an early morning shot and by early morning I mean around 11:30a in Iceland because we were there in January and the sunrise was around 10:30. It was amazing to get to sleep in for so long but so weird when daylight was only 4 or 5 hours.

An early morning fog had rolled in and seriously illuminated the mountains like I had never seen before. PS Is it me or do you feel like eating a piece of steak now? LOL.

Iceland is definitely one of those places that I could go back to time and time again and not get bored.

My camera settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/50th sec and ISO 200 with my Sony A7ii and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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Now that our Caribbean vacation is just a few days away, I thought it’d be appropriate to post about Iceland. LOL. I don’t know what it is about Iceland that makes me want to keep going back. But I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who feels this way. Everyone who I know who’s been there has been more than once. I’ve been twice but I would like to go back asap.

  1. because I still haven’t seen a great display of northern lights
  2. because I still haven’t gone to the northern part of the island
  3. Last time I was there, we tried to go into an ice cave but it got cancelled because of rain and I would LOVEEEEE to photograph one.
  4. because every single corner of the island is amazing and so photogenic
  5. I had the best smoked salmon of my life on my last trip and can’t wait to eat even more

The list goes on and on. Plus I didn’t even mention the horses! And you know me and fluffy cute animals. So hopefully I can make that happen asap. Or at least when I return from the beach 🙂

But this image was from my last trip to Iceland in the beginning of last year. I remember we weren’t planning on stopping here but ended up getting out of the car because it was so beautiful. It was pretty cool too because we were the only ones on this side of the beach. Everyone else was on the other side of the cliffs. I brought my tripod out with me so that I could get those silky smooth water with my neutral density filter. I loved the way it turned. This image was originally a horizontal image that I cropped to vertical. I think it’s much more dynamic this way.

My camera settings for this image is at F6.3 at 2 seconds and ISO 80 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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So if you are subscribed to my newsletter than you already know, but I’ll be in San Diego, California for the New Year! So excited to be in warm weather! The beach is calling my name. And Andrew’s and FRANKIE’S! Frankie is coming with us too. It’s a whole family adventure and I can’t wait!

This time last year I was preparing for my trip to Iceland. Talk about total opposites. LOL. Iceland was a blast but for some reason I feel like there are better photo opportunities in colder climates than there are in warmer climates. What do you think? Agree or disagree? Either way, I’m pumped to be going to California. Can’t wait to be hanging out on the beach with a camera in one hand and a fish taco in the other with no gloves on either hand. Nom Nom Nom.

This particular image was taken at sunrise right before I took this image. This was honestly my favorite day from the trip. It was my first time visiting the southeastern part of Iceland and it blew me away. Can we just talk about how gorgeous this place is? Iceland as a country is amazing but my favorite so far has definietly got to be Höfn.

My favorite part of the image is that you can see two people close to the water. I’m not exactly sure, but I think they are my friends, Ed and Alejandra. At first I didn’t even notice them but to see them in relation to everything around them, just wow. It really makes you think how tiny we are in this big, big world.

So tell me, what are your new year’s plans?

The settings for this image is 1/40th of a second at F6.3 and ISO 200 with my Sony A7II and my 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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The end of 2017 is fast approaching and I can’t help but reflect on the amazing year it’s been. I think this whole week on the blog I’ll talk about all the fun photo adventures of the year. It started off with an awesome trip to Iceland. It was my second time there but definietly not my last. If you’ve never been to Iceland, it’s hard to describe. It’s just so amazingly beautiful and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the outdoors.

I took this image on one of the last days we were there. We had shot sunrise and was wondering around Höfn when we stumbled upon this group of horses. It was beautiful because the early morning light was hitting them perfectly. But if you look at this guy in the eye, you can totally tell how calm and relaxed they all are. The horses in Iceland are super chill and so great to pet… and hug… and basically obsess over.

Shout out to Peak Design for their awesome camera straps. I have the clutch, which is basically a camera strap for your hand. I love it! It makes it so easy to carry around and shoot from different angles. I was able to get this low perspective without having to bend down. I just had my arm straight out, pointed up, and I didn’t have to worry about dropping it at all. Its kinda fun to see what you end up with. It was not serious shooting but shooting for fun and if you get something that turns out cool, it’s even better!

Click here if you’d like to see more images from Iceland.

My camera settings for this image is F4.0 at 1/100th of a second ISO 80 with my Sony A7II and 16-35mm wide angle lens.

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Be sure to hit the “purchase print” button when you hover over the image. Check out the sky and you see’ll all these little dots. At first I thought they were dust spots (knowing me and my camera) but upon further inspection, they’re all birds!!! How crazy is that! I attempted to try to get rid of them, but eventually I realized there were just way too many of them. Also, I thought it was pretty cool how you can barely see them but if you look deeper, you’ll realize the insane amount of birds that were circling these rocks. For someone who has a slight fear of birds, this whole situation was a little terrifying. Not only were there millions of birds who could have swooped down, lifted you up from off the ground and flown away with you, BUT these waves were extremely huge. I was trying my best to capture just how big they were with the person as scale, but it was pretty difficult. I think you have to be there to really see what I mean. It was like being on another planet with the the beautiful sea stacks, humongous waves and black sand beach.  This image makes me want to go back!

The settings for this image is F6.3 at 1/80th of a second at ISO 80. My main intention was to capture the large waves, but it was also to capture movement. The movement of the water in the foreground and the waves crashing but also the woman who unknowingly became my model. It was funny to watch her because she kept on walking towards the water but would run as fast as she could as soon as the wave crashed down. Its as if she was playing a game of chicken with the cold water.