I spent the entire day processing photos from my trip to Iceland and thought I would share a few more related to my driving experiences on the island. Pictured above is a map of where I took photos (minus the first three days before I enabled GPS tagging on my first camera and minus the first seven days on my second camera). If you plan to visit anything off the main Ring Road (i.e. most of the good stuff) you will absolutely need a high ground clearance 4×4.  Even the main roads have sections which are gravel.  Most of the secondary roads are gravel and any road number starting with an “F” is restricted to 4 wheel drive vehicles.  Many of them are only suitable for the so-called super jeeps (normal jeep on steroids). The higher you go in altitude the worse the roads get. I rented the Subaru below which served me very well.

Iceland has as many waterfalls as Minnesota has lakes. For every waterfall there is either a bridge to cross or a stream to ford. 90% of all bridges are one lane and you are as likely to share it with livestock as with another motorist (first come, first served in both cases).

Before fording a stream it is best to get out and make a thorough inspection. I made great use of my waders to check depth before crossing.

When crossing over mountain passes visibility is often reduce to 10 or 20 feet as you literally drive through the clouds which are often present.

Falling rock zones are to be taken VERY seriously. The rocks pictured below were not on the road when I passed this way 1 hour earlier.

I drove a total of just over 2,000 miles during my ten day visit and managed to avoid any serious incidents. I would not, however, describe it as a stress free experience.

Maya turns sixteen next Friday. Today her friends threw her a surprise party which she absolutely loved. Jeanine and I were in charge of on time delivery of the birthday girl and stayed on to watch the fun from an acceptable parental separation distance. We will be celebrating her birthday again on the actual day with family.

Before leaving for Iceland, Jeanine asked that I take pictures of some Icelandic horses. I am honoring that request with today’s post featuring several of the more beautiful horses I encountered. I was amazed by the diversity of mane hairstyles that were to be found.

I spent my final night in a Reykjavík hostel and slept in until 9am at which time I left to track down a pair of hand knit Icelandic sweaters for Jeanine and Maya. I found a nice little shop with the genuine article which happened to be on the same street as the Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran Church, a most impressive work of architecture. I arrived at the Blue Lagoon at noon for my scheduled visit and let my weary muscles soak in the geothermal, mineral enriched, 100°F sea water. I spent 15 minutes under a massive waterfall letting it pound the tension out of my neck and back.  Then I tried a silica mud mask which left my face and scalp feeling totally rejuvenated.  A perfect way to end a perfect photo adventure.

As a bonus treat, my return flight to Boston took us over Greenland which is anything but green.  I may have to add it to my bucket list.

I spent my last full day in Iceland touring the Snæfellsnes Peninsula starting with Mount Kirkjufell, one of the more photogenic mountains I have ever encountered. The lighthouse at Ondverðarnes overlooks the western tip of the peninsula where the mighty Atlantic pounds the cliffs of lava.

Djúpalón is a small cove surrounded by extraordinary lava formations and known by Icelanders for its black pebbles, called “djúpalón-pearls” and giant sea stacks jutting out into the ocean.

Hellnar is another small (seal bearing) cove where the ocean has carved out holes, narrows and arches in the interesting lava tile rock formations.

The harbor at Arnarstapi is very picturesque with sea stacks rising from the ocean brimming with birdlife.

It seemed fitting to end the day at this small black church in Buðir. When photographed from the right perspective (which took me an hour to find in the adjacent lava fields) it provides a dramatic foreground to Mount Helgrindur in the background.

Hraunfossar (“lava waterfalls”) gets its name from the countless streams of clear water which emerge from under the edge of the lava field Hallmundarhraun and cascade into the river Hvítá (“White River”). Hvítá actually has a very nice turquoise colour. The lava is quite porous so rain seeps through until it meets a more dense rock layer, then runs between the lava layers, eventually emerging to form almost a kilometer long series of falls.

When the soft morning rain turned into a torrential downpour, I tried to think of an indoor photographic activity I could undertake during the afternoon. I remembered hearing about a brand new attraction (opened just a week earlier) called “Into the Glacier,” featuring Europe’s largest man-made ice caves and tunnel. Set high on Langjökull, Iceland’s second largest ice cap, and stretching 1/3 mile into solid glacier ice at 100 feet below the surface. What I failed to consider was what a torrential downpour at low altitude would translate to at an altitude of 4000 feet. The answer is a zero visibility blizzard with winds that will knock you off your feet. First, let me share photos of the interior and tell you that it is a very beautiful destination, if a bit tourist oriented.

Now let me share the story of the journey to the cave which was worth the price of admission alone and probably my most intimate encounter with the deadly force of nature. At a rally point several miles from the entrance to the cave, we (about 15 guests) boarded a massive 20 ton, 8 wheeled super truck designed specifically to traverse glaciers. Visibility was about 50 feet and winds were averaging 20 knots (pictured below). As the truck began ascending the glacier, winds increased and visibility decreased until we were in the middle of a complete white out (zero visibility).  The driver is now navigating by GPS alone and must find the tiny opening to the cave and his two colleagues who are madly shoveling snow to keep it open without driving into a crevasse. When we arrive, we are told that we must walk the final 20 feet in groups of five led by a guide wearing goggles and a special face mask.  Until we get outside we think they are joking when they say that you must hold the hand of the person in front and back of you or risk being lost in the storm. The second we exited the truck cabin into the 50 knot wind carrying sleet and snow it became infinitely clear that you were hanging on for dear life. You had to turn your face away from the wind or risk having it sand blasted by ice crystals. Walking that last 20 feet through the deep snow and gale force winds seemed like it took an eternity. When we reached the opening to the tunnel we crawled through the opening and tumbled like Winnie the Pooh down the snow bank, one on top of the other. In an instant it was quiet, warm (32F), and there was no wind. The next 90 minutes were serene and it was hard to imagine that just 100 feet above us a massive blizzard was raging. Fortunately, by the time the tour ended the blizzard had abated significantly making our return to the truck a much less harrowing experience although the additional snow fall meant that we had to climb an 8 foot snow bank and crawl out of the tunnel through the remaining two foot opening.

For a change of pace today, I decided to join a whale watching tour out of Húsavik aboard the good ship Nattfari. It was a lucky decision. The beautiful scenery would have been reason enough to get out on the water. Our first sighting was a small pod of white beaked dolphins.

When the crew of our boat became hyper excited it was clear we were in for a rare treat. They had spotted a blue whale of which estimates place the total North Atlantic population at between 600 and 1,500.  At 100 feet in length and 200 tons or more in weight, it is the largest extant animal and among the heaviest that have ever existed. Our whale dove for about ten minutes at a time and then surfaced to blow its spout two times before diving again without showing its tail fluke. Spotters would look for the first spout (~40 foot high) and then we would race nearer to the whale. With luck you could get a shot of the second spout (~30 feet high) which I was fortunate to do.

Our final sighting of the day was a humpback whale which was far easier to track and photograph.

Hvítserkur is a basalt rock rising about 15m just off the coast of Vatnsnes peninsula in the north of Iceland. The birds, which rest and nest on the rock have deposited quite a few droppings, colouring the rock largely white, hence the name hvít-serkur which means “white- shirt”.  Sea erosion has carved out two holes in the rock‘s foundation, giving it distinct features resembling a petrified monster, an animal of some sort or a troll. An old tale says Hvítserkur was a troll from the Westfjords planning to break a church bell in a fjord a little further east but was caught by the sun and turned to stone.

On the way to Hvítserkur I encountered a beautiful church and a nice lighthouse …

… and about a dozen horses blocking a one lane bridge I needed to traverse. Unmotivated to move by the approach of my rented 4×4 Subaru, several of the horses began licking the hood. Naturally, I rolled down the windows so that I might better photograph this strange behavior (I think they were after the salt spray residue which had accumulated while I was parked by the ocean earlier in the day). I became less amused when one horse began nibbling at my windshield wiper and down right worried when he poked his head inside the car for a look around.  When he started to abscond with my camera bag, I  decided it was time to  nudge may way through the impetuous gang who continued to block the bridge.

Krafla and Leirhnjúkur are volcanoes east of Lake Mývatn. I climbed to the top and around the rim of Krafla whose caldera is now filled by a lake. Regrettably it was still frozen and covered by snow. Fortunately, the lake in the adjacent Viti explosion crater had thawed, revealing the beautiful aquamarine water. It took another hour to hike mostly through deep snow to a vantage point on the rim of the Leirhnjúkur (“clay peak”) crater, a rhyolite formation, rising about 50 m above the surrounding lava field to photograph its lake passing some interesting volcanic fissures and craters along the way.

Game of Thrones fans may recognize Grjótagjá as the place where John Snow is, ahem, deflowered by Ygritte. It is a wonderful little subterranean cave that has a geothermal pool within.

The nearly symmetrical crater of Hverfell demanded that I make the 1500 foot ascent to see what was inside. The effort was well worth it, offering views of both the colder and surrounding mountains.

Goðafoss means “Waterfall of the gods” and the waterfall got its name in the year 1000 when Iceland converted from the old ásatrú-religion (norse heathenry) to Christianity.  According to the Book of Icelanders, the local chieftain and lawspeaker, Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði, was given the authority to decide whether Christianity was to be adopted in Iceland. After the decision was made, it is said, he threw his statues of the old Viking gods into the waterfall, as a symbol that the old religion had been discarded.

Aldeyjarfoss, about 45km upstream of Goðafoss on the Skjálfandafljót River, falls in a rather narrow but powerful current into a large round basin framed by impressive rows of hexagonal basalt columns. It was one of my favorite destinations because of its isolation. Unlike the other falls, I had this one to myself with not another soul to be found for ten miles.

Puffins are so charming that I could watch them for hours and that is exactly what I did this morning at their colony in Hafnarhólmi. They are only one of many different bird species which can be seen in the eastern fjords region.

Seyðisfjörður is a small town/artist community at the end of one of the more scenic fjords. I paused here for lunch and enjoyed exploring the town which features a beautiful blue church and a working telephone booth sculpture built into the side of a mountain.

Working my way around to the northern region by afternoon, I visited the falls of Dettifoss and Selfoss. The former is 330 ft. wide and has a drop of 150 ft. down to the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. It is the largest waterfall in both Iceland and all of Europe in terms of volume discharge, having an average water flow of 193 m3/s. Although it is quite impressive, Selfoss located a few hundred meters upstream is actually the more photogenic.

Sunset happens at about midnight at this time of year (with sunrise at 3:30am) making for a very long photographic day. My destination for the evening is Lake Myvatn. Despite a very late arrival, the area was still being bathed in golden light and I decided to make a quick tour at the Hverir geothermal area to wrap up the day.

I encountered more frozen water than falling water today as I traversed the southeast corner of Iceland with stops at the Svínafellsjökull glacier tongue and the glacial lagoons of Fjallsárlón and Jökulsárlón. Recent volcanic eruptions are evidenced by the amount of ash that can be observed everywhere.  The Jökulsárlón lagoon empties into the ocean through a river which is only a couple of hundred meters long. Icebergs formed by the calving glacier float out to sea where many wash up on the black sand beaches creating a veritable museum of ice sculptures.

My final destination for the day is the Stokksnes peninsula where winds shape the landscape and wildlife of all manner can be found.

Today’s itinerary included visits to several waterfalls including, in order of appearance, Skógafoss (200 ft.), Seljalandsfoss (200 ft.), Gluggafoss (shot from behind the falls) , and Gljúfrabúi (from above and from below).  The shot from above required scaling a very steep 180 foot spire and climbing the pictured ladder and shooting down the sheer cliff on the other side.  The shot from below was taken by wading into a mist filled canyon at the base of the falls. I either use slow shutter speeds to render the moving water as silky strands or fast speeds to freeze every drop in mid air.

By evening, I found myself visiting the costal sites of Reynisdrangar and Dyrhólaey where the water moves horizontally rather than vertically.

Spring in Iceland this year is colder than usual. That was less of an issue than the wind and midnight summer as far as sleeping last night was concerned. A constant 20mph wind buffeted my tent all night and the sky never grew dark. Despite little rest, I found my way to the Brúárfoss (any name ending in “foss” is a waterfall) for morning light and then on to Gullfoss and Hjálparfoss by midday. Gulfoss is part of the popular Golden Circle tour that many visitors take. I found it to be unimpressive photographically speaking even after making a 30 minute drive and one hour hike to view it from the east side bank. I arrived at the oasis of Gjáin and spent the rest of the day there enjoying absolute serenity. My new hip waders proved invaluable as I navigated through and across the rivers for optimal angles and access.

I decided to navigate the Ring Road which goes around the entire island in the counter clockwise direction to give a few more days for the northern regions to get warmer.

I covered a lot of ground on my first full day in Iceland. I started from Keflavik where I spent the night and made stops at the Blue Lagoon, Krysuvikurburg Cliffs, the Seltun geothermal area, Kliefarvatn Lake, Þingvellir National Park, Geysir, and back to Þingvellir where I pitched my tent.  Pictured above is the Strokkur geyser located 50m from Geysir, the first known to Europeans and after which all others have since been named. Geysir erupts infrequently now whereas Stokkur goes off every 4-8 minutes when a telltale dome of water rises under the pressure of steam from below.

Tomorrow, immediately following my soccer game, I leave for Iceland where I will spend ten days camping and touring the island.  I will not be posting again until I return on June 10.

Jeanine, Nico, Maya and I attended the midday memorial service for Grant Backerman, who died at the age of 22. Grant was on Nico’s wrestling team, worked briefly for Kyle at Yard  Dogs, and was a neighbor of ours.  The service was poignant and beautiful.  It left everyone in attendance deeply moved. Mourning the loss of someone in the prime of their life is very different than celebrating the life of someone who has lived fully and to an old age.  No parent should outlive their child and no child should have to lose a sibling. Our deepest and most profound sympathy rests with the Backerman family.

I have decided that bicycle riders are motivated by two basic desires and can be categorized as; (a) go fast types, or (b) find ice cream types. I am unequivocally a member of the later group. Jeanine invited me to join her “go fast” riding group on a 24 mile ride this morning. I opted instead for a 22.6 mile solo ride with stops at not one, but two ice cream shops. Sadly, the first one did not have chocolate almond, my favorite flavor, and the second which does, was not open when I arrived. Pictured above is the altitude profile (one way) of my first real ride with my new bike and on which I learned many important lessons.

• Riding with your mouth closed is highly adviseable unless you enjoy small crunchy protein snacks.
• Sand is a four letter word.
• Best to ride VERY slowly through standing water.
• Unlike trekking, going down hill is better for your knees (and morale) than going up.
• Very wise to uncleat your shoe well before you need your foot.
• As in life, stopping to smell the roses is a good way to ride.

My journey took me into downtown Lexington by way of the Minute Man National Historic Park where I paused to photograph the Captain William Smith House (built circa 1692), a prominent colonial period house with a rare cove cornice, one of only three remaining unrestored examples to be found in Massachusetts.

For years, Jeanine has encouraged me to take up cycling. Foremost, it is an activity she loves and is now something we can do together. Secondarily, it is a great form of exercise that does not put as much wear and tear on the knees as my various other sporting endeavors. We did a leisurely ten mile ride yesterday and I must say it felt pretty good (despite the fact that my rear tire was severely under inflated). The bike is a run-of-the-mill hybrid. I was tempted by the high tech versions but the benefits for my use (exercise and short range photo touring) did not justify the cost and I would be far better served by shaving a couple of pounds off my belly rather than my bike frame.

Jeanine and I joined Maya for her end of the year rowing banquet at CRI last night. Maya looked quite elegant and I have Jeanine to thank for a rare father daughter portrait. I was recruited by the coach to take a team photo (below) which I think came out rather nicely. Each co-captain gave a short speech recognizing a different member of the coaching staff. Maya spoke in appreciation of the coxswain coach who was deeply touched by her kind words. I spent the day finalizing my plans to visit Iceland. I will leave on Sunday and return ten days later. I have rented an SUV and plan to visit and camp in some of the more remote areas of the island.

For the second time in a year, I had a chance to photograph the Blue Angels, this time over Boston Harbor. At $65M a copy this may be the most expensive photo subject I have ever aimed my camera at. With a 10% fatality rate for Blue Angel pilots, this may also be one of the riskiest professions in the world.

I rose early to enjoy a three-hour, 9-mile kayak tour of the Tenny River and Panther Pond. The water was glass flat and the sun diffused by soft clouds. Humans were mostly asleep while wildlife was not. I encountered a bald eagle, turtle, deer, loons, woodpeckers, and a variety of other birds as I explored the waters. I returned in time to join the others for breakfast before making the two-and-a-half-hour drive back to Concord. A lunch stop at Duckfat in Portland completed our gastronomic indulgence for the long weekend.

On this Memorial Day, I would like to add a note of appreciation to all of our nation’s veterans for their service to our country and for the sacrifices they have made on our behalf.

Jeanine, Maya and Nico left yesterday to visit and stay with family friends at their summer home on Crescent Lake in Maine. After my soccer game this morning, a satisfying 1-0 win over Belmont which solidified our first place standing, I drove up to join them. A relaxing afternoon on the water was followed by a delicious salmon dinner with a beet salad prepared by Jeanine and a late night desert created by Maya and her cohorts.

In celebration of the end of the spring rowing season, Maya’s club team hosted a family regatta at the CRI boat house. Friends and family were invited to ride on the launches to observe racing from just feet away. Even more fun, was a chance to take our own stab at rowing on the Charles. The “barge” seats 16 rowers and 8 coaches, 3 abreast. It is the classroom for novice rowers and we were put through a lesson with our daughters as instructors. I picked it up pretty quickly but came to realize just how difficult it is to remain perfectly synchronized with others in the boat. A lot of trash talk was exchanged between our barge and the second one until our lesson culminated with a race that left them less talkative.

Let me explain how is is possible to start the day contemplating a trip to Iceland and end it with the purchase of a bicycle.

I would like to take a quick photo excursion before I start my new job. Iceland is on my bucket list and early June offers good weather and relatively few tourists. Waterfalls there are abundant and beautiful but most good photographic angles require that you setup in the water. Thus began my search for a pair of hip waders. I started in Concord with our local fly fishing outfitter. They had chest waders but they were overkill for my needs. They sent me to the Natick Outdoor Store which had waders but only a left boot in my size (don’t ask). Next, I was directed to Dick’s Sporting Goods which had both rubber and PVC waders in my size. After trying them on, I decided there was no way I was going to trudge into the wilderness with these things on. Perhaps REI, which was just around the block, would have something more minimalist. They did not. They did, however, have bicycles; plenty of them with many on sale. Even so, I could not find a hybrid in my size that was not painted like a Hells Angels motorcycle. Now smitten with the notion of a new bike, I headed over to Wheelworks in Belmont where I found what I was looking for. Why then does today’s post not feature a picture of said bicycle. Because I encountered something even more interesting when I returned home. This hummingbird must have collided with a window because I found him resting on our deck this evening. I find birds much easier to photograph when they are semiconscious and not flying, so I took advantage of the opportunity. Fortunately, the little fellow regained composure a few minutes after I got the shot and flew away.

My plan for a six-month sabbatical between jobs did not even survive the first month.  A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a recruiter who shared an opportunity that was so compelling that I had to put my other options on hold. Today I accepted an offer from MarkForged, to head their engineering team and will start on June 15th. The tiny startup has developed a very exciting product with the potential to dramatically change the way mechanical components are prototyped and manufactured in low volumes.  The company reminds me of Truevision, the company I co-founded in my twenties and where I enjoyed the most enjoyable years of my professional career.  Present is the same level of energy and enthusiasm for a product with the potential to change an industry.

Jeanine was the keynote speaker at the Concord Carlisle Class Act Awards Ceremony this evening for an audience of three or four hundred students and parents. The awards recognize community service and the spirit of volunteerism. The high school senior class in aggregate has donated more than 34,000 hours of service to the community. She spoke at length about her grandfather’s service (he is pictured on the left) and also surprised me with a short story about my own community service as a young man (I was a “hugger” for the Special Olympics; my job was to hug athletes as they crossed the finish line). She used the story to make a point about how we receive more than we give when we volunteer.

I spent a good deal of time today doing spring cleaning. I decided to attack the stacks of paper which include my earliest engineering work, scanning them to my computer for preservation and more efficient storage. Pictured here is my very first design as an engineer at Bell Laboratories completed some 30+ years ago. I drew this electrical schematic by hand on graph paper (in those days engineer’s did not have their own computers). Looking back on it now I am inclined to admire it more as a piece of artwork than a breakthrough in videographics.

Several years ago I purchased a used camera stand (a device for positioning a camera at any height or angle relative to a subject) for my photo studio on Craig’s List. I got a phenomenal deal because no normal person would buy such a large and heavy stand for use in a home. I had to shorten it by several feet so it would fit in my 8ft tall basement. It has always been something of a pain to use because it is just too large for my setting. Today, I replaced the aging casters with new ones that include a pedal lock. That allowed me to remove 10 pounds of locking mechanisms. I shortened the lateral arm by more than a foot which dropped another ten pounds and allows me to navigate much more freely. Finally, I removed a 20 pound ballast weight that is no longer necessary due to the shifted center of gravity. The stand is now perfectly sized for my use and glides effortlessly on its new wheels. Pictured here are a subset of the parts I removed during surgery.

After their harrowing qualification yesterday, Maya and her CRI crew placed first in the Eights final today. At her request, I took an overhead shot of her boat from a bridge that spans the race course. As is customary, her team celebrated their victory by tossing her into the river. A small price to pay for the gold medal she returned with. My sister took the photo of me below. Tell me if you think I enjoy watching Maya race.

Earlier in the day I travelled to Medfield with my soccer team. I elected to give my injured hamstring a week off in the hopes it will be fully recovered for next week’s match. We pulled out a 3-2 win which advanced us into first place over Belmont who we face next week.

Jeanine and I joined my sister, Alissa, and her family to witness the graduation of her son and my nephew, John William, from Babson College. John has been a frequent and most welcome visitor in our home over the last four years and we hope his sister, Rachel, will follow suit when she begins her freshman year at Babson in the fall. At 52 my sister is still quite a saucy number and we were thrilled to join her and husband John for the momentous occasion.

Later in the day we travelled to Lowell to watch Maya compete in a rowing regatta. She coxed an eight in her first qualifier. With twenty yards to go and a commanding lead, her number one seat “caught a crab” bringing the boat to a complete stop. Recovering the oar from under the boat and resetting the crew took almost 30 seconds. So great was their lead that they still managed to place first by the narrowest of margins.

When Maya leaves for college, Jeanine and I have decided we will be downsizing into a more cozy abode. Even though that day is more than two years away we are going to need all of that time to divest of the things we have accumulated over a lifetime. Last week I sold 4 of our 6 bicycles. This week I am focused on old electronics, including my father’s turntable and my first video waveform monitor. Both technologies have been rendered irrelevant by advances in technology. Was there really a time when we listened to music by dragging a tiny needle through an undulating vinyl groove amplifying tiny up-down-left-right vibrations into sound?

The flowers given to Jeanine on Mother’s Day by the boys are now in full bloom. I spotted this one with a lilted pedal opening a window into the interior.  I elected to do a mirror image split in post-processing and to force the background to black.  Normally, I only edit for color correction and cropping but this image really lent itself to the approach and I like the results.

It has been 10 years since I started this daily photo blog and I was moved to celebrate the milestone with an anniversary cheesecake (which I plan to eat on behalf of the blog). According to my statistics page, this is my 5,836th post which works out to an average of 1.6 posts per day (in the early years, each photo was considered a post). Trying to keep the photos and writing interesting has been a great challenge, second only to the grind of producing a post every single day for a decade. I am motivated by my loyal followers which include immediate and extended family, friends, colleagues and the occasional wayward stranger. I have received many thoughtful words of encouragement and appreciation which sustain me on those days when I have little to say or show. Earlier this month I received an e-mail from a former colleague and friend. He wrote:

When it is hard to write or work has taken all the daylight, it is comments and feedback such as this which keeps me going. What started as a simple exercise to improve my photography has turned into a cherished family history and photo archive. To my loyal followers, spelling and grammar checkers, wildlife species identifiers, fact checkers, mystery decoders, angry family members demanding embarrassing photos be removed, trusted business advisors, parenting consultants, and all others who routinely visit this site, please know how much I appreciate your visits.