more random thoughts

Walking around the city I see things very spontaneously, which is why I'm glad I don't have to remember to bring my camera, as it's always with me. This is the entrance to the Reykjavik Police station. I like the hideous seventies colors, but the rigid structure.

From the morning walk with Oskar, the grass blowing in the sun, and the cool shade beneath the tree trunks attracted me.

The late night sunset reflecting off the water, flowers in the foreground.

I love this one. I really want a print of it, even though Agust dislikes it. This is the view from our lower doorway, and I love the bright sunlight in the background, and cool shadows in the foreground, with lots of texture inside. The blue and green contrast also pleases me.

The morning bike ride to work with beautiful clouds and strong building lines.

I was really interested in the bright building with interesting geometry, but then I saw the walker and timed it so he ended up in the center. I like it more now.

I like the greys with sparse green of this one, the right is life and vibrant, the left is rough and unfinished.

The twin green trees behind the basketball hoop seemed very structured. I liked it enough to take several framings, one closer, which I also liked, but I feel seeing the tree tops helps the image.

This was a research shot for a later shoot that I'll post in the future, but I liked the soft shading and mood of the image.

This woman was knitting a cover for a tree. I don't like it as a photo as much as I just like it for a document.

This image was interesting for the three very icelandic iconic things. The flag in flowers, the building in the background, and sculpture to the left.

The sunset was so beautiful over the pond, that I had to grab it. This is a two image panoramic. Lots of detail, but slightly noisy full size.

Not very sure what drew me to this, but I think it was the structure and the green being lit by sunset light.

sunny summer

I took a bike ride to the public beach and what should have been a 10 minute ride turned into a 30 minute one, I just kept seeing photo opportunities.

The strong white walls, and fence with details is what I liked about this.

Some of the most interesting architecture in houses is located here facing the ocean.

I like the framing from the trees, and how it feels like this house's yard is secluded, while still having good views from these upper windows.

I love the texture of these corrugated walls, and the height of the antennae. I brought the value of the blues way down to get a nice dark sky.

Again, I love texture, so these pylons made a great scene.

I love bounced light plus perspective converging.

I like this one for the different value ranges almost as much as the composition.

I love this little fisherman's cottage, complete with net drying frames. The sun was harsh but I managed to squeeze it all in.

I love these farmhouses against the misty mountains in the back. (probably have to click for large to really see)

I hadn't seen this before, but it appears to be a shared garden space. I really like the bottom half as garden, top half as apartment complex, showing how a dense city can still grow food.

I like the white posts framing this secluded doorway.

One of the buildings downtown. The bright wall with windows breaking it up, plus the texture of the wall itself, drew me.

I love the framing of this. Tall buildings left and right, wall of almost dead sod in the front with weeds, then a guy in shorts weed-whacking in the middle, all on an overcast day.

Foggy morning. The reduced contrast is what I wanted to capture.

I liked this one purely for the light bouncing.

It was a beautiful day out, so when I saw these sailboats I knew I wanted to try to get a photo with them in it.

A friend gave us a tour of the cruise ship he was working, and I saw this composition and had to snap.

Viðey Island, click for larger. I love how peaceful this island is, just across from busy Reykjavik. This is where Yoko Ono's peace light tribute to John Lennon is located.

The lobby of the cruise ship. Loved this sculpture and the light filtering through the stained glass.

From a morning bike ride, I just liked the value range. The middle window is surrounded by aluminum foil (to block the midnight sun from keeping the sleepers awake).

A spider outside my 3rd floor window.

A male tried to come and woo her, but after 10 minutes of watching, he hadn't yet succeeded.

Bicycling to work

Taking the X100 with me everywhere means I'm always ready to take a shot. I saw this pattern during a brief walk to the insurance company, it's an apartment complex with glassed in balconies. I had to do heavy perspective correction, but I love how it looks as a nice even grid.

Harpa, the new opera house, I bicycle past every morning. I find it so interesting, so I will probably be photographing it a lot. This past morning, the sun was lighting it so evenly, and I could get the entire building in one image with very little clutter, so it seemed like a good idea.

The symmetry of these two doors, plus the rounded overhang and gridded concrete squares on the bottom made me want to photograph this.

The national museum of Iceland is also a building which architecture I like, so I'm always tempted to photograph it, especially when the light is as nice as this.

This shot I saw on the way to drink a few beers with a friend. It's the kind of trip I would never have taken a larger camera on, but now I don't even think. I love the even grid of the windows, but the heavy vertical windowed structure on the left.

Same trip, opposite direction. I thought the sun cutting across the middle of the building created an interesting line of dark and light texture of the bricks.

Another grid pattern that I like so much.

I love the parliament building. It has so many different looks depending on the time of day and the light.

The bright sunlight off the clean white buildings is what attracted me to photograph this afternoon.

I like the strong contrast of this, and the low color building but with strong green bushes. Something solid about the composition.

My bedroom, I loved how the light pouring through the narrow window opening bounced onto the wall, filled the white lamp shade, and reflected off the mirror onto the bed, such an interesting pattern of light.

This is from a morning ride with Oskar. I like the architecture of the building, but the color of the flowers in the front provides a nice foundation for it to rise out of.

I like the grid of this, the clean white wall, the dark doors, and the one splash of color of the greenery.

This one really needs to be seen on a black background (if you click through to flickr and press L you can do that easily) to see into the shadows. I love the soft sun ball coming through the haze over the dark building. It's much easier to see into the shadows on a good monitor, and I would have to optimize the exact brightness for a print, but I really like this one.

Photo walk

A friend from my husband's workplace asked if I wanted to do a photowalk, and it'd been forever since I've done one of those. Delayed it till after off my crutches, but we finally made it out. This is a small park near downtown Reykjavik, and lots of rabbits live there from being released back when they were all the rage as pets (and then quickly fell out of favor)

Also there is Lupine! This beautiful blue flower. Fields of it. I liked how it just seemed to recede into forever in this image.

This is probably my favorite photo of the trip, and I think I'll order a print of it. I love the initial sunlit depth, then the flatness of the tree foliage, then if you keep looking, some volume emerges.

Lupine in the front, forest in the midground, mountains in the back. Love it.

There was a small stream flowing through, and several small islands of plant life. I really liked how the sunlight glints off the water, and that there is just a tiny bit of visible detail in the shadow. Really captures the feel of how nice a day it was.

An in-camera panorama from the highest point. Was a really beautiful view.

I like how the stream leads you through this scene, and visually adds some depth. I also like how three dimensional all the greenery looks.

This one is all about the path, and the motion it moves your eye through and in.

I saw this image from far away, and had to trot over to capture it. I love the light reflecting off the dull shine of the bench, and the sun pouring in from behind. It really adds depth and light.

This one was one of the last ones captured on the way back to the car. I thought the bare rock poking out, combined with the Lupine, would make for a great square, and the sky had so much texture. I really like this both for it's graphical qualities, and the recognizable features.