Keep Exploring, Keep Pushing Through, and You Will Be Rewarded

Even though you are cold, wet, and tired, it might be a great idea just to check what is around the corner. That was what I did, and I was rewarded with several photos.

Back in June, I spent two weeks in the Faroe Islands hosting a couple of workshops. In between the workshops, I had a little time to myself to go and explore an area I had briefly come by earlier. As it was an area with a few waterfalls and a mountain in the background, I had a good idea how I would compose my photo: a waterfall in the foreground leading into the scene and up to the mountain in the background. I just had to find the optimal waterfall and angle. Using an exposure time between 1/8 s and a second, I could get some streaks from the waterfall in the foreground, yet keep some texture in the water.

I had two locations in mind when I began the session, and I got a couple of good photos from these. I especially prefer the second one (above) with the s-curve that leads through the photo. When I had my photos, I considered heading back to the hotel, since I was both tired and wet. However, I was curious to see if I could find something a little farther up the mountain, since you never know.

What I found farther up was an extravaganza of waterfalls, so many I could not even photograph all of them. I forgot how tired I was and started sorting through my different options to see which ones could give the most interesting results. I especially like the shot below here. It is another example of how an s-curve can lead you through the photo.

As I was already wet and had found such a treasure trove of waterfalls, I decided to continue up the mountain. Rarely do I find a location that keeps giving and giving, but this one did — one waterfall after another and all different from each other. When I reached a natural stop up the mountain, I had been shooting, hiking, and exploring for three hours. Around midnight, I decided to call it an evening and head down again. I packed all my stuff with the mind-set of being done for the evening. I went another way down just to explore a little more. Lo and behold, the last stop delivered my favorite photo of the evening.

I absolutely love this photo. I like the strong foreground of the repeating small waterfalls leading into the background and how the clouds form around the mountain. Do you see the dragon? I toned all the photos in the same way as to have them emphasize the gloomy mood.

Had I not checked what was a little farther up the mountain and ignored my tiredness, I would not have got that last shot. Had I just stopped and headed directly down from the top, I would not have got it either. Many small decisions came together to deliver a favorite photo of mine from 2019. It again goes to show how important persistence is in landscape photography. Check out the video above to see more from this evening. Have you had a similar experience? Let me know down below.