Nothing Last Forever

This is probably my favorite photograph from both trips to Iceland. I took it last year in the northern part of Iceland in area called Krafla. There were definitely much more interesting subjects to photograph, but I was quite impressed with this view, where the last remaining snow splotches created a great contrast against green grass and dark cloudy sky. It was also one of my first experiences with medium format analog camera. I had had my Contax 645 for just few weeks before this trip. Unfortunately, I do still do not have a long lens, so I had to use standard 80 mm lens instead. I was little bit worried that the sky will be little bit to big for such small motive like that, so I decided to use long exposure, and was hoping that the moving clouds will get the very much needed third dimension to this relatively flat scene, and I was also hoping that the photograph would get the kind of feeling of “unstoppable time”.

When I came back from the trip I was slowly developing my films and almost forgot about this one. I was almost shocked when I saw this negative, I really like the sky and the contrast between snow and the rest of the scene. My excitement was even bigger when I scanned the negative and saw the fine grain and the structures on the sky. I took me few quick adjustments in Photoshop and the picture was ready to print on my Epson printer. I still have that first print at home and unlike some others photographs from Iceland I still enjoy watching it, I can not explain it, but there is something in this photograph, which makes me happy. Now is also the right time to take the negative to darkroom, I finally got and access to a very well equipped darkroom here in Geneva, so I can not wait to the the “real” print.