Vik

This little church in the village of Vik is often photographed from numerous perspectives.  There are a couple of cool rock formations in the ocean off the coast of Vik (behind the church from this angle).  In the future, I’ll share a photo of this church from a different angle where you’ll be able to see them as well.  In this photo, I was trying to frame the church with the purple Lupine wildflowers in the foreground.  By the way, the Lupine flowers are everywhere in Iceland.  Anyway, I hope you like this photo as much as I do.

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Nati

I captured this photo when I was in Cincinnati last season covering the Steelers/Bengals game.  Jake and I carpooled down there to cover the night game.  The next morning before heading back to Pittsburgh, we went over to the Kentucky side of the river to get this photo looking back into the city. 

 

Side note, Cincinnati has a bunch of nicknames including Cincy, The Nati, The Queen City, The Queen of the West, The Blue Chip City and The City of Seven Hills…….

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Halsanefshelier Sea Cave

Here is another great spot in Iceland.  You can’t see the three sea caves (one to our right and two to our left) in this photo.  There are a number of spots around Iceland where you can see basalt shaped rocks like this created by past lava flow.  This spot has tons of them, and they are super big.  The make up the entire structure of the caves and the area around them. 

You can get some idea of the scale of them, just by seeing us sitting on a couple of them.  This photo probably includes 1% of them in this area.

The location also has a very cool black pebble stone beach.   We didn’t go to this spot on our first Iceland trip, but I’m very glad we did on this trip.  Great experience!!    

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Hvitserkur

I know this is just a rock formation sticking out of the water, but this was a “must see” on our recent trip to Iceland.  It’s one of those iconic spots that everyone goes to see, photograph and post on IG.  I’ve been watching people post photos from this spot since before our first Iceland trip back in 2013.  We didn’t make it to this location on that trip, so it was a “must see” this time. 

I was a little worried about feeling let down due to the anticipation, but honestly it was great.  I enjoyed the visit, which included a small hike, climb down (and back up) the cliff and our time down at beach photographing it.  Plus MJ and I did this on our 32nd wedding anniversary…..  Great day even though the detour to see Hvitserkur added an hour of dirt roads to our drive that day.

Side note…the locals believe this was a troll caught in the sunlight, which converted the troll into this rock formation….  I’m not judging their thoughts and beliefs, just sharing….

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Chernobyl Crane Assembly

During our 2018 Chernobyl trip, we explored the city of Pripyat, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plants and the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.  In the Exclusion Zone, we came upon this waterfront crane which was used to load and unload ships.  The entire crane is cool, but I focused my time capturing smaller sections of it to highlight the details. 

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Icelandic Horse

One of the wonderful things about Iceland are their pretty horses throughout the country.  I can’t explain what makes their horses different, but they just are.  We pulled over during our trip at a random spot to conduct a little horse photo shoot and I captured this great image. 

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Hengifoss

MJ and I visited this waterfall back during our 2013 Iceland trip as well.  From the parking lot to the waterfall, is an incredible long uphill hike.  Last time, we hiked 80 percent of the way and then I took a photo with my telephoto lens.  This time we didn’t plan on hiking that close.  I planned all along to fly my drone close to it and save us the long hike and time.  I wanted some closeup photos and some photos looking down on it.  This is one of my favorites.

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Shutter Rush at Hvitserkur

During our Iceland trip, MJ and I stopped at this rock formation on our 32nd anniversary.  The locals believe this was a troll that was caught in the sunlight which converted it into this rock formation. 

Either way, I made sure everyone knew Shutter Rush was there…. Note:  I didn’t cover anything on this sign that wasn’t already covered by prior stickers….

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Puffin....

I don’t know about you, but I think Puffins are the cutest birds in the world.  They are sort of cute like bunnies, panda bears, etc…. MJ and I just completed our 2nd trip to Iceland (which is why I’ve been absent online for a couple of weeks) with the last one taking place back in 2013.  We saw puffins on that trip as well and I loved them.  So, on this trip, we made it a point to go see these cute little birds again.  Of course, I took tons of photos of the puffins and all of Iceland.

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