Godafoss Grand Scale is a photograph by Mike Berenson which was uploaded on May 7th, 2014.
Godafoss Grand Scale
Before heading up to Iceland, I knew I wanted to make the most of my visit to the big falls of Go�afoss (pronounced goathafoss). They're so... more
Title
Godafoss Grand Scale
Artist
Mike Berenson
Medium
Photograph
Description
Before heading up to Iceland, I knew I wanted to make the most of my visit to the big falls of Go�afoss (pronounced goathafoss). They're so immense that they really need something to give them a sense of scale. I had seen a few images that showed off this little perch so I just kept it in-mind and hoped I could get there safely.
I'll admit this was a challenge with the new snow as I couldn't easily tell the difference between what was safe and what wasn't. Without fences or signs, it was entirely possible to stand on new snow that wasn't stable and to find that out the hard way - falling right over the edge. Adding to the excitement, pieces of snow were regularly breaking away from the edge on their own, falling down into the abyss below.
I took my time doing some scouting in the area to identify what I thought was safe and what wasn't. The route to get to the perch I identified looked safe but as it had about a foot of new snow on it, I couldn't see any footsteps for confirmation. I waited a while until a tour group showed up and after the guide had a chance to take care of his group, I approached him.
I asked the him a few questions and found that he was happy to help with the information I was looking for. He was also quick to say how careful I should be and that there were no guarantees on anything being safe. I thanked him for his help and proceeded with capturing my image.
While I was relatively safe in the position I'd chosen for both me and my camera, I had to laugh out loud when I shot it. While I was looking back at my camera, I saw another one of those big chunks of snow (pretty much right next to my camera) break away and fall down into the waters below. This served as a not so subtle reminder to get my shot and to get the heck out of there.
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How I Got The Shot
Once I had my perch and shooting position selected, I figured out that 3 exposures would give me the wide panoramic view I had in-mind. So I captured all three moving from left to right. Then on the right-most position, I got ready to shoot it again by turning on my camera's interval timer. Since my remote won't reliably reach that far (even with an rf remote), I used my interval timer to shoot continuously while I ran out to the perch and got in position in the frame.
This approach (with the interval timer) uses up some batteries and memory but it's an effective alternative to a remote at the longer distances. I'll admit that an assistant with a walkie-talkie would have been a lot easier, but in a pinch, this works too.
On the post-processing side, I stitched the frames together in PTGui before adding a few basic adjustments in Photoshop (mostly curves) and some tonal contrast in Color Efex Pro.
Photo Gear
� Camera Body -�Nikon D800 Digital SLR Camera
� Camera Lens -�Sigma 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM Lens For Nikon Digital SLR Cameras
� Tripod Head -�Acratech GV2 Ball Head / Gimbal Head with Lever Clamp & Acratech Large Leveling Base
� Tripod Legs -�FEISOL Elite CT-3472 Rapid Tripod Legs
� Remote Trigger -�Vello FreeWave Micro Wireless Remote Shutter Release for Select Nikon DSLRs
Exposure Settings - Three exposures stitched horizontally
� ISO: 200
� Aperture: f/16
� Shutter Speed: 1.6 seconds
Uploaded
May 7th, 2014