It was not an easy decision for me to take the large format camera, especially when I am still not absolutely confident with the camera operations and the risk that something goes wrong was very high. Believe me, there were moments when I was regretting my decision, especially when the weather conditions were challenging (strong wind) and I was not able to use my camera at all and I felt that it would had been possible to capture at least some of those moments with smaller Contax 645. However, I have to say that after looking on my developed negatives at home, all my regrets fade quickly away and I am glad for my original decision. Those large negatives are amazing, the amount of detail and the tonality are just special. So sometimes you can struggle on the location and came home with few shots, but it does not mean that those few shots should be bad. On the contrary, they can actually be your best ones.  It is quite obvious that quantity does not always means quality, does it?

Just to demonstrate what I mean with those changes I would like to show you two pictures, one taken this year in March and the other in July 2009. I was never really satisfied with the latter, but I felt that this place has some potential to be discovered. I will leave it up to you to decide whether my photographic vision has improved over the years. I have to admit that to me the new photograph is revealing the essence of this place much better than the first one, especially when I look at the large print and all the little details (which I missed in my previous attempt) has suddenly popped out.

Title: Bird’s Nest, Camera: Ebony RSW 45, Lens: Schneider 90 mm, Filtr: Lee Big Stopper, Film: Kodak T-Max 100, Exposure: 500" , f 13, Vik, Iceland, 2012

Title: Beach End, Camera: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens:Canon EF 70-200 f /2.8L USM, Filtr: Lee ND 0.9 and Lee ND Grad 0.6, Exposure: 60" , f 32, ISO: 50, Vik, Iceland, 2009

The plan came out quite well despite the tight schedule – we aimed to stop at Godafoss for sunset shooting. One more hour of drive to Myvatn. We would definitely used some more time to explore the location but what actually helped was that we have been there before 2 years ago. Unlucky though then, leaving with few documentary shots only. I now happened to have a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do there. And that was to get off the official parking place to the other side of the river. The short walk to the waterfall allowed for a little bit of time to absorb the surroundings while the lighting that was turning to get quite dramatic and beautiful.

Capture: Godafoss at Dusk, Camera: Hasselblad H1, Lens: 35mm, Film: Fuji Velvia 50, Filters: Lee ND Graduated 0.6 Soft, Aperture: f/11, Exposure: 0.8s

It is undoubtedly an amazing place but it has been heavily over-visited (and over-photographed) because it’s located right on the main road. An extremely easy access does not particularly appeal to me so I did not set my hopes too high when we arrived but at the same time, I did not want to waste so good looking sunset and there was not other spot I knew of within our reach. But as we left the car (and a nearby hotel) behind getting deeper into the valley and closer to the waterfall, my perception has started to change. Perhaps it caused the combination of a seriously cold weather, approaching darkness, people-free emptiness together with water roaring stronger, I suddenly got to understand the fascinating yet rough beauty of the place. Photographing from the edge of the rock cliff above the waterfall’s rim, I knew this had been why I was here – to come nearer to who I am through having my mind flourish on a desolate, lonely, empty land…

Capture: Blue Essence (of Iceland), Camera: Hasselblad H1, Lens: 35mm, Film: Fuji Velvia 50, Filters: Lee ND Graduated 0.6 Soft, Lee ND Big Stopper, Aperture: f/5.6, Exposure: 64s

So I’ve had my vista shot with some faded but nicely pastel colored sunset. The film (Fuji Velvia 50) did it a great justice capturing the rich tonality and adding its typical post-dusk blue to emphasize the cold. After the light had disappeared, I decided to head down to the river to look for something less obvious, something mine own. I tried to get as close to the waterfall as possible to simplify the scene to just the water and sky, noticing clouds moving pretty fast. And the water was falling straight from heaven. You never exactly know what you get on your slide but I felt I had got it right with this one. This is the photograph I believe the best expresses the (blue) essence of the place as I experienced it. This is the last photograph I took that day.

PS. On the way back from Myvatn couple of really cold days after, we saw icebergs sailing down the stream, which added another dimension to how to perceive this place. Unfortunately, we have not had time to arrive at the right time therefore I only took this time-lapse from the viewpoint just below the parking place. Still, it shows how gorgeous Godafoss is.

I have started the Open Space project in 2008 on beach in Maspalomas, where I was waiting for the sunrise and I still remember that special feeling I had about the endlessness and emptiness of the Atlantic Ocean. Since then, I have been trying to transform this feeling to my photographs. One day I wish to present the “Open Space” series of at least 10 prints linked trough this idea regardless the places, where the pictures were taken. As of today, I have  seven photographs taken during my trips to Gran Canaria and Iceland. Unfortunately, I can not really say how long it is going to take me to finish the project, since I am already not so sure about keeping the first two pictures in the collection …:)

Title: Open Space V, Camera: Contax 645, Lens: Carl Zeiss Planar T* 45mm f/2,8, Filtr: Lee Big Stopper and Lee ND Grad 0.6, Film: Kodak T-Max, Exposure: 280”, f 13, ISO: 100

I have already mentioned the “Dreaming Dunes” project here and since I am not expecting to visit any other desert areas in the near future I will have to wait for my next trip to Maspalomas.

Title: Dreaming Dunes III, Camera: Contax 645, Lens: Carl Zeiss Planar T* 80mm f/2, Film: Kodak T-Max, Exposure: 1/250, f 2,8, ISO: 100

So the winter is over, but to my big surprise I am also planning to be very active during the summer. I will check out some new areas around the lake before the main summer season begin. Later on, when the snow melts in the mountains, I want to do more hiking. Thanks to my extraordinary experience with Northern Lights in Iceland I also want to try night photography here in the Alps before I will return to Iceland next winter. I want to test how far I can push Kodak T-max films both ISO 100 and 400 and also to find out the best wide angle lens for large format camera. By the way, I have forgotten to mention that I also want to spend more time in a darkroom to continue to develop my printing skills.

Now the main question comes up:  where I can find time for all of this?

We are now left with less than 10 prints of the book yet for sale. The texts in there are in both, Slovak and English. Interestingly written, by the way. Wikipedia was not used, they rather talk stories that are unique and unknown about the 15 different spots. For archival purposes, I embed the code to browse through the book electronically:

It’s been an amazing experience yet a difficult task to deliver photographs on order, from specifically selected places. It may look piece of cake at the first glance but given extreme time constraints, we many times had only one attempt at a destination. So we had to do unusual things to get the shot even if the weather conditions did not particularly play with us.

Capture: Castle at Wind, Camera: Hasselblad H1, Lens: 80mm, Film: Fuji Velvia 50, Aperture: f/11, Exposure: 11 minutes, Filters: A pile of them – Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer, Singh-Ray Vari ND, Lee 81A + CC075 Red and Lee 0.6ND Grad…

The ruins of Spis Castle are one of the largest castles in Central Europe, and are one of the most photographed sites in Slovakia. I had no chance to repeat the session hence it was essential to try various means for achieving results that would eventually stand off what the average image of the castle usually is. I was looking to include Spisska Kapitula into the image as well – it essentially gave the ruins a little bit of context or otherwise I would have to go closer to it I guess. The lighting conditions were not too favorable with the overcast sky moving slowly above the subjects. I’ve been waiting for a break-through but when it got clear to me that the sun cannot get through the clouds, I went for the long exposure (11 minutes) with as many as 4 different filters assisting me in getting the blur and the warm colors on my Velvia. What I love about shooting this way is that one can hardly predict what all these filters combined with long exposures cause to the film but in this case I remained quite happy about the result.

Coming back to the book, even after long time I’m actually extremely happy with how it looks like although I would do many things differently now. First and foremost, I would never allow the kind of time pressure we had been creating it under. It limited our options and artistic notions to much greater extend I was willing to admit. In fact, I think that for this reason I will hardly want to get commissioned again. If it does not lead straight to destroying of an opinion on a subject then at least, it influences it largely.

Capture: Anse Severe at Night, Camera: Linhof Techno, Lens: Schneider APO-Digitar 5.6/24mm, Phase One IQ140, Exposure: 12s, Aperture: f/11, ISO: 100, Filters: No

Some of the most beautiful beaches in the world were supposed to be great subject to photograph. In theory. It goes without saying that the reality provided for amazing sceneries, fantastic colors of the sea in conjunction with giant granite boulders and white sands have been just a pure joy to look at. But here the goodies stop. Seychelles lie 4 degrees south of the equator, which is where the Earth moves fastest (relative to the sun) – 1,670 km/h while in Iceland, for instance, it’s only approximately 680 km/h. In practice, it means that the sun was setting extremely quickly, like it was falling free down to the sea under the almost right angle. The actual colored evening lighting lasted for the maximum of 10-15 minutes depending on the volume of clouds on the west that have held them for awhile. In fact, there were barely any colors anywhere else than on the west in the evenings and east in the mornings. That limited directions of potential compositions unless I wanted to compromise in terms of quality of light and colors.

Capture: Near Anse Severe, Camera: Linhof Techno, Lens: Schneider APO-Digitar 5.6/24mm, Phase One IQ140, Exposure: 4s, Aperture: f/16, ISO: 50, Filters: Singh-Ray Reversed ND Graduated 0.9

Although I love working with my Techno, the slowness of the process to set up, compose, focus and measure the exposure with the view camera together with the extreme speed of the sun caused that every evening or morning session meant only one scene to work on. There was simply no time to jump from one place to another – Linhof Techno is surely not the best equipment when it comes to the need to be fast. So I can’t say I was too productive on this trip. Actually, I think I should have taken my Hassy to get more of it. But the questionmark remains if I really needed to. Anytime I looked on the ground glass, I had a feeling that I have seen the thousands of similar images. My creative side could hardly connect with the landscape that consisted of the sand, sea and skies and nothing more. The lighting did not provide any helping hand to do so. Much desired for drama in the sky was totally absent hence I quickly resigned on creation a masterpiece and did try to click more with still new-to-me equipment as well as practice in composing.

Capture: Anse Source d’Argent After Dusk, Camera: Linhof Techno, Lens: Schneider APO-Digitar 5.6/24mm, Phase One IQ140, Exposure: 30s, Aperture: f/11, ISO: 50, Filters: Lee Big Stopper

Although with practically no tangible results, I’m grateful for the trip. We had a great rest and lots of fun. And I discovered that photographically, I belong to the North. Southern destinations are now reserved for family affairs only.

Everything started on Tuesday morning when we met Stefan, who took us to Landmannalaugar with his amazing Land Rover Discovery adjusted for serious off-road driving.  As usual weather was changing almost ever thirty minutes during the whole trip and sometimes we were not able see more than few meters ahead of us, due to heavy snowstorm. However, after couple of hours we safely manage to get to our final destination, and spent rest of the day hiking and taking pictures around the base camp. The weather continued to be on and off, until approximately 9 pm, when the sky suddenly cleared out and millions of start were shinning on very quiet Landmannnalaugar. It was it, our chance to see the Northern lights, we got out within few minutes and then waiting and waiting, until some greenish light appeared on the northern horizon. Unfortunately, its intensity was very small and disappearing entirely after few minutes, approximately after an hour of nothing happening we decided to go back to the hut, but luckily Marek stayed out there little bit longer and called us back because the light returned. This time its intensity was little bit higher but still nothing extraordinary, but still it was amazing experience, colors, positions and intensity of the lights were changing quite quickly and we were just silent witnesses of this ethereal show, and approximately around 11:15 pm it was over again, but we were still standing out there, chatting and realizing how lucky we were after such day.

Title: Northern Lights # 1, Camera: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon EF 17-40 f /4L USM, Exposure: 120″ , f 5.6, ISO: 800

Suddenly something absolutely unexpected happened (yes, again) the greenish explosion over the sky was really unbelievable; luckily we still had our cameras ready to capture it. This last performance did not last for long but its intensity was very high and for a brief moment I felt closely connected to the whole universe:) When it was over we were still standing there and almost did not believe to what we just had seen, and when clouds covered whole sky we went to bad, and falling asleep with the feeling of victory.

Fortunately, our luck did not end at this point and two days later we had a chance to see even more spectacular northern lights show and again everything happened quite quickly and unexpectedly, but this time I was little more ready for it than before.

Title: Northern Lights # 2, Camera: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon EF 17-40 f /4L USM, Exposure: 90″ , f 4, ISO: 800

One thing I have learned during that week is to never give up and expect unexpected. For the future I set up new challenge to capture Northern lights on black and white 5×4 sheet film. I am starting to test how far I can push Kodak T-Max 400 to achieve as short exposure time as possible without emphasizing the film’s grain. Let’s hope it will work out.

And yes, last night we’ve had a pleasure to witness what I think is one of the most spectacular performance our mother nature can play. Still feeling the neck ache as the most of it appeared right above our heads. We left the south shore for spectacular Hekla volcano and here it is – the initial show happened right above it. Of course, the main goal was to photograph but this is a brief edit of the time lapse I was trying to create with my flexible Sony friend until its battery died.

The solar activity remains relatively high so we hope for more. In the meantime, enjoy and eventually share!

Our hopes for the rest of our stay remains high though. These trips are really great for us to get together and spend some time together and over photography. There’s hardly any better place to do this than moody and dark Iceland.

Within the last two days, we went through different tempers of the mother nature, changing within minutes – all you can imagine from heavy storm snows to beautiful sunshines. I got used to my Sony more than I actually ever wanted and expected. I use to wait for lighting and compositions for long hours but here, in the winter when we tried to get deep into the midst of whites inland, there was often nothing else to do but shoot videos. The one shown here is about how we went up there. Yeah, quite an adventure.

This trip has just been amazing. Much more to come shortly.

It was back in 2009  when I first travelled to Iceland, with two particular interests in mind. I looked for much simplified landscape from what I used to know in the Central Europe. And I hoped to photograph when the nordic sun stays shallow below the horizon and the bright nights still provide enough lighting to do so. But I found much more. Nothing short of the biggest passion for a place one can eventually have. The landscape turned out to be far  simpler than my boldest imaginations. It felt like I returned million years back in time and I carried that feeling even deeper, the more I wandered through the country. Glimpses of light here and there have created dramas and experiences I got fast addicted to. Hard-core overnight photographing of deserted nature in what was like ‘nowhere land’ and ‘no one’s land but mine’ had clearly become the most amazing activity I was lucky to do over many years. Spending endless time studying the landscape (and myself) in perhaps its most brutal form and fashion.

I keep plenty of images unprocessed. They simply need more time to be discovered and understood. This one also resided in my archive for good couple of months until I realized that its essence may be the closest interpretation of my frame of mind for Iceland. The volcanic massif reminds an ancient sphinx, centrally based composition and reflections emphasize stillness and peace. So does the night falling on the landscape. Photographed when we reached the end of one of dirt roads near Landmannalaugar.

No wonder I have been getting regular calls tempting me to return back that grew more and more aloud lately. So this Friday, Ota and I set for another trip. We won’t shoot whole nights this time but we shall experience Iceland different way than before. And weather permitting, we hope to bring some winter pictures of inland and of the northern lights. The same place two-fold as always: color and black-and-white. Watch this space, we’ll be in touch.