Ben Willmore Iceland workshop June 24-30, 2012

Ben Willmore

I’ve been to Iceland several times and the reason I keep returning is that it truly is one of the most magical places I’ve ever seen. I’m sure you can tell by the photos that this year’s trip is going to be a visually-rich journey. What the photos might not explain, however, is how our Iceland trips are also a journey into your own creativity and photographic education.

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It allows me to get away from my workstation now and then, get out into the countryside, have some fresh air and share my local knowledge as a photographer.

I can arrange a program for clents from A-Z taking weather, time of day and light into account. I plenty of interesting locations. It is just locations work in different light which is important to keep in mind and keep the fingertips on the weatherforecast.

Sometimes we have to make light, if there is no good light. That is easily done with paining in light with larges flashes or even the lights from the vehicle or constructions in the area.

Sometimes the light is just there, but brainstorming, get ideas and set the stage can be done in so many ways to have fun and make images.

When the attached image was taken the light in the sky just made love to my cleint and me.

Listening on "Riding With the King", an album with B.B. King & Eric Clapton. Just pulled me from my work and to process one image to share.

Have a great day!

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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I could not go to bed after working long hours on a new website for www.focusonnature.is, to be launched around next weekend, before I tried Adobe Lightroom 4 Beta.

So I made a new empty catalog in LR4 and imported some images. I love working with the new Developing mode. Just beautiful operation of the sliders and the changes they have done there.

Not the least I was excited to see how my images would now open in Photoshop CS 5.5 from Lightroom and it was dead-on. Finally I am getting a total match of the Lightroom preview image from the Lightroom developing mode to my Photoshop CS 5.5 rendered image.

I use NEC 30" LCD MultiSync monitor which is calibrated with i1PhotoPro from X-rite.

Tonight I am going to sleep with a smile on my face.

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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Well it is not summer time in Iceland at the moment. We have so far had a very lousy winter. Snow is the least problem, it the thawing, and freezing and blizzard and rain in circles for six weeks now which has made my work great, because I can just concentrate indoor on making an new website for www.focusonnature.is. 

But I look forward to the summer being out in the nature on the road with FocusOnNature workshops and world renown instructors for over 10 weeks. It is just brilliant. Great people, great program and endless adventures.

The image with this blog is of Godasteinn or The Stone of the Gods in Eyjafjalla-glacier, just next to the crater and creak in the glacier that formed in the volcanic eruption 2010. It was taken last summer when I travelled in great weather up onto the to glacier in special jeeps and ATV's. It is above 3000 feet high from sea level and in this sort of sunny weather one can see far in every directions because the air is so clear.

Now wonder I look forward to long days and adventures like that after going through the winter we have now. Today the daylight will be none due to the weather but officially it is around 4.5h from sunrise to sunset.

Touch up later. It is new website work I need to attend to.

- Einar

www.focusoonature.is

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I know JP agrees with my title, but I am not sure he does believe that he can become a famous ballet dancer. I still think that his mind might think similar to the mind of creative dancer. He loves projects, design, to create and to express, of course not as a ballet dancer but as photographer.

JP believed that he could achieve this ballet posture, in his black shoes on a rouged lava rock by a waterfall in the North Iceland. And he did, at least during the time the shutter was open and out came a fun shot as was planed by JP. He achieved the ballet posture because he believed it. 

The title was proofed.

That is what we do at FocusOnNature - International Photography Workshops in Iceland. 

We work, We win and We have fun.

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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At FocusOnNature - International Photography Workshops in Iceland we take security of our participants seriously as you can see.

Actually this is just "Gummi", on of the elite local team of FON and a brilliant assistant to instructors during some of our international workshops. During one workshop both Gummi and me got an FBI cap as a gift from one of the workshops participants.

"Gummi" or Gudmundur is a person everyone learns to love during workshops. You can touch up on anything from photography, music, literature or history and you will always find Gummi is well informed. But not the least he knows Iceland like the palms of his hands and is a brilliant photographer. On top of this his humor is brilliant and his concern and willing to help and serve has no limits.

"No wander our participants have loved having Gummi around during workshops".

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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Sent from my iPad

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The Icelandic tradition has it that a horrible hag called Grýla is living in the mountain. She feeds mostly on children who whine and fret; yet she will occasionally make do with the odd sheep or two. She has several sons, the Yuletide lads, all together thirteen. Yesterday I talked about the four first ones, that started to arrive, one each day on the 11th. December.

Now lets look at the next four Santas, all prankters with their own odd passion.

12/19 that is last night it was Skyr-Gobbler that arrived. He loves "Skyr" which is a special Icelandic type of yougurt.

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We do in Iceland, and what is more, we have a thing or two to tell you about the real old Santa Clause that actually lives in Iceland? And what is more, Santa is a member of a big family, consisting of parents with no less than thirteen sons. 

It is of course much more beneficial to belief in thirteen Santa Clauses rather than just one, and this is a fact that all Icelandic children have learned to appreciate over time. In Iceland, the Santa brothers begin arriving into town one by one, thirteen days before Christmas. They travel from one home to another, carrying little gifts and candy to all the children who have behaved well that particular day. Just to make sure that Santa manages to bring all the presents in time over night, the children leave their best shoe on their window shelf and the window open, so that Santa can quickly place the goodie in their shoe before rushing off to the next house. Please note however that all children who have been caught in wrongdoings during the day, get nothing but a raw potato in their shoe; a rather unpleasant reminder from Santa to brush up your act before Christmas!

But don't be decieved. Underneath the familira ho-ho-ho appearance pranksters are lurking, each with his specail stange obsession I will now try to inform you about on daily bases.

Upto know those following Icelandic Santa have arrived to town:

12/12. Sheep-Cote Clod. Harasses sheep, but is impaired by his stiff peg-legs.

1214 Stubby. Abnormally short. Steals pans to eat the crust left on them.

I think this is enough for you to digest today.

So tomorrow I will get up todate and tell you about few mores and the each day further description of the latest one until the last one has arrived.

Enjoy,

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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*At Thingvellir, where the first parleament in Iceland was founded 1000 A.C.*

Today sunrise was 11:09AM in Reykhavik, Iceland and sunset will be 15:32 and we still have 10 days until the day will be shortest, but then it will rapidly start getting longer again. 

We have had cold winds from the north blowing over the country for some days now, colder than for many years during this time of the year. At the same time we get bright days often in the south and basically from dawn to dusk we have twilight. The sun only gets highest within 4° above the horizon. 

I traveled with privat client this week and took him where the light and nauture played love with us as photographers. It got pretty cold or down to 0°F which was fine until we reached windy areas. Then it got "&"$%/" cold and we shot mainly through the window of the Ford Ragner Heavy Duty vehicle we where driving, but that had all the heat we needed.

Have a brilliant day out there in the world. I am as always.

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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See the full gallery on Posterous

We commonly wisit the place during our international photo & video workshops.

www.focusonnature.is

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There are cold winds blowing over Iceland now from the north. At the same time I saw on websites for *Aurora Borealis* forecasts that there would be a path of the strength 3 crossing Iceland last night. 

One of course never knows where or when interesting activity is going be excactly. It can for example be very strong during the hours of daylight or twilight, but at the same time of course not visible.

I decided that I should give a try to go out well after dark last night and drive for about 20 minutes from my home to see if there would be some Aurora Borealis or *"Northern Lights"* visible in the sky.

One has to get pretty far from any light contamination before being able to photograph the Northern Lights. With exposure time even up to a minute a very little light, invisible to naked eye becomes a light contamination in such images.

First there was nothing visible except the starts and it was a bit windy so the snow was blowing on the ground. I decide to drive to a pond south of the lake at Krisuvik, so I would have the pond to shelter me from some snow blowing. Parked there for few minutes and looking all around there was no Northern Lights activity, but then after waiting a bit they started a little. 

Usually it is best to shoot the Northern Lights in the direction from north west to south east, but when the activity started I basically had only two options. To shoot to the north and get light contamination from the capital into my frame or to shoot activity to the west risking getting to less extent light contamination from Reykjanesbaer, the town next to the International airport and other small villages around in the area into the frame. I tried both and the latter choice turned out to be the better one as I expected. The activity was not much, but I was worth the try. 

If there had been much more activity in the north or east, I new exactly where I would drive to. Either Thingvellir or on to a road going through what we call Threngsli, with mountains basically all around. But the activity was north west and west of me and moving to the west slowly, so both ides where of the map at that moment.

Timing is everything under those circumstances. At least going through some check list practice before heading out, about the camera and exposure settings gave me about 10-15 images of the Northern Lights activity last night, basically in my back yard, if 15-20 minutes slow drive from my home on an icy road can be talked about as such. 

The Northern Lights come and go, so I went 3 times out of the car to take images. A bit more time was spent waiting in the car with no lights turned on staying alert and looking around and just enjoying being there.

Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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Cussing cold sea on icebergs on the beach

It is comfortable to sit inside in the geothermal heated, warm and comfortable housing the Icelanders live in, when the strong wind is blowing outside and the temperature is close to 32°F. With the strong wind the feeling of the cold is multiplied, so it feels really freezing outside.

Today sunrise in the capital Reykjavik was 10:27AM and sunset 16:01PM and with the cloudy sky one only experienced like a dusk during midday. There is not much snow, but the ground has a white look and the roads are icy.

This weekend I will put up the Christmas lights outside my house and so I do expect many of my fellow countrymen will also do. And before one knows there will be Christmas feeling all around town, home baking of cookies and special flat bred,peoples mind busy preparing the Christmas holiday ahead. 

This it the time of the year where I keep very busy studying all the new things I find interesting in the field of digital imaging technology and prepare for my seminars session for the locals in the early new year.

I am just having so much fun during the this time of the year, as always.

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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During my recent stay in the US I passed this place on route to Cape Cod with little flags, each symbolizing the causalities during 9/11.

I have often heard the numbers of causalities during 9/11 and we often hear large numbers of people that die in wars, natural disasters, of hunger and due to all kinds of human disputes.

I stood for a while and looked of the field with the small American flags and it was so much more touching than just hearing a single number. One started thinking about families each person had and in simple terms grasped the size of the 9/11 event much deeper than a single number ever could.

Visualization is a powerful tool. 

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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This will be the fourth year we run photography or media workshop program in Iceland and every year we are convinced that we are on the right track improving our program and not the least all our local logisitcs. Many happy faces and good respons convinces us.

There is no doubt in hour mind that our 2012 program is the best program we have launched, packed with brilliant instructors, many who have worked with us before.

Hope you enjoy studying our FocusOnNature in Iceland 2012 program and please get back to me if you have any questions.

einar@focusonnature.is

www.focusonnature.is

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Vatnajökull or Vatnaglacier is the largest glacier in Iceland. He covers about 8% of Iceland or about 8.100 square kilometers area. The average thickness of the glacier is 400-500 meters and maximum thickness of 1.000 meters. Volcano eruptions are common under the glacier, the latest one in May this year.

We commonly get close to several areas of the Vatnajökull during FocusOnNature Photography Workshops.

In only few days we will launch our 2012 International Workshops Program in Iceland.

http://www.focusonnature.is/page/2012_Workshops_launch

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One has to think about making time and stage valuable moments. For example make time and get the family together in unison. It is easy to make the daily life obscure those oportunities and to find the right time.

I made time with my vife to stage a weekend with our daughters and their families out in the countryside last weekend. It took some planing, but everyone had unforgettable good time. 

The messages afterwards where; "We have to do this every year".

I totally agree.

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iPhone4 + Gorillacam + Juxtaposer + Filterstorm + Snapseed

- Einar

www.focusonnature.is

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