First Day In Iceland, End of the Day

In my blog last week, I talked about my first day in Iceland and left the story when we arrived at Hraunfossar water falls. But that was by no means the end of our first day in Iceland.

Just up stream from Hraunfossar is a really cool area called Barnafoss. The width of the river is narrower, deeper and swifter than at Hraunfossar. After shooting Hraunfossar I wandered up stream and found this little gem. My only regret is that I did not climb down the bank you see in the shot above and get a better composition with the water coming into the gorge. Just below this area the water moves swiftly and has carved out some very interesting contours.

By the time I had finished with this shot it was getting pretty late and we had a long way to go to get back to Reykjavik, though none of us actually knew how far or which way to go exactly.

The Storm Arrives

We headed west knowing we should be able to find our way to highway one, the ring road that goes all the way around Iceland. But night was upon us and it began to rain. Then the wind began to blow hard and in gusts. And it was now a two lane paved road, in the dark, rainy, windy with big trucks coming at us that created all kinds of havoc. The one good thing was we were now on the ring road heading toward Rekjavik. We had been up almost all of the night before, had been traveling and photographing nonstop all day and now we were gifted with this amazingly exciting challenge: get back to Reykjavik as quickly as possible. . . because we are starving!

When we reached the Hvalfjordor Tunnel we knew we were pretty much home, and I must say the calm in the tunnel (well lit with no wind or rain) was very comforting. We got back to Reykjavik around 10 pm, parked the car and headed for the nearest restaurants. Guess what, they all close at 10 pm. After getting two or three refusals to let us in we found this little café that took mercy on us.

We sat gratefully on stools at a counter. I ordered the salmon dinner and it was, hands down, without a doubt, the very best salmon dinner I have ever had. You could wonder if perhaps it tasted so good because we had not eaten all day and we were exhausted and famished. But there is a flavor that very

fresh, properly cooked salmon has and this salmon dinner had it! In fact, I was so good I kept ordering salmon all over the south of Iceland. But none compared to the dinner I had on this night. When I return next year I will be sure this time to write down the name of the restaurant and share it with you so you can try it out yourself.

Family Life Of Red Foxes

The family life of a red fox is a joy to observe. The kits are very much like puppies, jumping on and chasing each other almost the entire day. Of particular interest is how the Vixens teach the kits to eventually become self sufficient around their food supply. There are two vixen in this family unit, the mother and grandmother, and I can not tell them apart. The kits you see here are still suckling from their mother. But by this time in their young lives she is well on the way introducing them to game. In the beginning she will stash the game, encouraging the kits to forage for it. The next step in the process you can see here, where she brings game directly to the kits. Here she is dropping a rabbit for them. At this stage in the teaching she has killed the rabbit. The next stage will be for her to bring them live game. The little black one grabs the rabbit and makes a run for it getting away from his siblings. A...

Red Foxes

I had never experienced anything quite like photographing red foxes. I was with them nearly all day, for three days in a row. I was so taken by them, especially the way they related to each other. Above is the dog fox, the adult male of the group, with one of his offsrping, a female kit fox. In this family group there were two vixen, one was the grandmother, the other the mother of three kits. The adult females attended the den all day with one or the other going off to hunt, returning with food for the kits. Missing most of the day was the dog fox and when he would return the kits all gravitated to him. All of the kits seemed to adore the dog fox but the moments between him and his daughter were especially touching. What a gorgeous, photogenic animal he is. When I returned a year later he was still there and there was a whole new brood of kits. I am hoping to return again this year having missed last year due to a bout ...

Art Display At The Center For Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, has a wonderful program that encourages artist members to display their work. The work is hung in the Social Hall and typically has about twenty pieces hanging for two months at a time. On March 1rst I will be hanging several images taken in Iceland, along with some wildlife images, including foxes, coyotes, eagles and kites. I will also have some paintings by my mother and two of my own. I am pretty excited about this showing. One of the pictures I will have in the show is of Godafoss, a beautiful waterfall in Iceland. When I first saw pictures of this waterfall I knew I wanted to go to Iceland to take pictures of it. This composition required gettin into some very cold water.

Notes To My Mother

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