The gallery “Japan” with the first pictures of the natural beauty of Japan has been added to the “Landscape” section. Enjoy 😉
Hidden Gem
Forest Magic 1 This one is from Shirakami-Sanchi, Aomori Prefecture, Japan.
Although this area is quite touristy I didn't see many tourists on that particular day, maybe because the weather was not the best. We had (drizzling) rain more or less the whole day.
Good for me, because having everything wet around you means beautiful lush colours in the pictures later.
In this forest I even spottet wild monkeys here and there, but I couldn't get any good shots, they might be a little bit scared of foreigners, which are indeed a very rare species in this area of Japan.
I almost forgot to also upload the rest of the pictures from 2015 of the “Beautiful Germany” Landscapes category. Especially the picture “Gently Touched” has a special meaning for me and remembers me of a good time and days of pure happiness together with an important person in my life. Enjoy!
Mysterious Fog
Gently Touched
Morning Glow
Mohnenfluh Panorama Another sunrise view from Mohnenfluh, this time as a wide 3:1 panorama over the Lechquellen area.
Lately I’ve been processing more shots from my past travels to Japan. This not only includes the beautiful landscapes of North Japan but also includes some modern architecture from Tokyo. I also managed to continue two recent series, the “Observer” and “Zebra” theme got an addition each.
A beautiful sunset at the breathtaking Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, unfortunately photos can’t simply describe how cool this place is.
Green Grotto
This beautiful waterfall is called Aldeyjarfoss, it was our first destination on the way down the F26 which lead us through the middle of Iceland, all the way to the south, passing by many beautiful areas in the highlands. When we arrived it was around late noon and the sun was shining. We immediately started to find out whether we can have some of us posing next to the waterfall for a pictures we’d like to take during sunset or dawn. While we came closer to the waterfall I discovered that there was a beautiful lush green grotto on the other side just below the ledge, where most photographers stand on while not noticing the beauty below them. So I already made a mental note to not take that hackneyed composition from the ledge above, instead climb down to the green grotto below and try my luck there, risking to not get that “moneyshot”, which a lot of photographers are really obsessed about, instead my hope was to get away with an original and refreshing capture of this beautiful place.
We almost spend a good half hour at the rocks right next to the waterfall. While sitting there the noise of the rushing water and the bright sunshine was so soothing that I almost felt asleep on the rock. We decided to go back to the car, have late lunch and get some quality sleep before heading back for sunset and a looong night…
Bizarre Forest
This was the only occasion where we set foot into an Icelandic forest.
Because Iceland has undergone extensive deforestation since Vikings settled in the ninth century there are not many forests to discover.
However we were able to discover a very deep and bizarre birch forest on our way down the F26. I really liked the shapes of the trunks and branches, unlike usual birch trees these had this gnarly zig-zag ppearance, which mad them look really bizarre.
This will be the last entry until new years eve, therefore I wish everybody who reads this a peaceful and restful time over Christmas and new years eve. CU next year!
The name of this waterfall (Godafoss in Icelandic) suggests a more epic story then there acutally is. It is said that after Christianity became the official religion of Iceland at around year 1000, lawspeaker Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði threw all his statues of the Norse gods into the waterfall when he returned from his duties in the national parlament of Iceland. At least I was hoping for a more dramatic story 😉
The lonely Iceberg
I think this glacier lagoon called Jökulsárlón was one of the most impressive scenes I’ve witnessed in Iceland. It’s so surreal and it always changes its look, only a few hours are enough and you get a completely different arrangement of icebergs, because there is a small channel which runs into the sea constantly drawing the icebergs into the sea. Especially during the quiet nights this place can be quite mysterious because of the cracking noise when icebergs break apart or when they run ashore.
Gloomy Vestrahorn
This was one of these places we visited during the night just to be in time for the sunrise the next norming, little did we know how cool this place looks while arriving at around 11pm.
We were really surprised the next morning how cool these sanddunes and those gigantic mountains in the background looked like.
We were also surprised that this place was the only one we found in Iceland where we were supposed to pay 600kr just to drive on a sand road to get to the beach and the local lighthouse. The reasoning behind this “fee” was nature preservation, which I personally really doubted.
