It's been on my short list of places to shoot for years
The problem is; the Faroe Islands are kind of hard to get to. They're in the middle of the North Atlantic, kinda all by themselves (they are technically an autonomous part of Denmark, and use the Danish Krone as their currency) and it never worked out that I could get there…until my friend Kim (a lights-out travel and landscape shooter) invited me and my brother Jeff as his guests aboard the private cruise ship "The World" (the ship was a trip unto itself. Unreal!).
It was like Iceland…but without all the tourists
I almost didn't get the above shot…
Because we almost just got back in our car and drove away. When we got to the shooting location, it was so fogged in we could barely even see the trail down to the waterfall. We're standing there in the fog, and I'm saying, "Should we even bother walking down there?" and my friend Kim says, "Hey, the fog could move out as quickly as it moved in. Think positive!" and so we grabbed our gear; took the short walk down, and sure enough, Kim was right — the fog started to clear.
We started setting up our tripods, and literally, right then Kim's tripod broke. He extended the leg on his Gitzo tripod, and the leg fell right out of its sleeve, with pieces of it lying there in the dirt. Kim just rolled with it. Once he picked up the pieces off the ground, he looked at me said "No worries (He's an Aussie by the way); I've got my Platypod!" He takes his ball head off his tripod; screws it on his Platypod and he's back up and shooting (see below).
A few minutes earlier, we were shooting cloud banks
On the way to the waterfall we saw the scene below; pulled over; and set up our tripods to shoot the tips of these mountains peaking up through the clouds.
That photo (above) was the scariest one of the trip for me
I'm terribly afraid of heights, and while probably nobody else would think where I was shooting from was scary, I surely did. I wound up slowly going down to a barbed-wire fence, and I took that shot from there with my camera sitting on a fence post.
So, we took a boat tour. It was way better than I expected
And way warmer, too. It was summer, but VERY chilly in the Faroe Islands and it had been so cold on the ship's deck that morning I thought we'd turn into popsicles on that open boat, but as it turned out, it was fine, and despite the boat bobbing around in the water, and me having to boost my ISO a bit to get my shutter speed up enough to hope to get some sharp shots, it came out way better than expected. The reason we booked this tour ($70 per person) was to get out to see these sea stacks and the big mountain thingy sticking up out of the sea. Totally worth it.
Here's some more shots from the bobbing boat tour.
Then we headed to Iceland, and stopped at a really cool island just offshore the main island.
Vestmannaeyjar - what a cool little island!
Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland (also known as "The Westman Islands")
We rented a car, and you could literally drive from one end to the other in about 15 minutes. I am not kidding. It was a gorgeous island, with a beautiful golf course (which my brother Jeff took advantage of, and said it was one his top 5 all-time golf experience, and that's saying something. He's played St. Andrews, Pebble Beach, lots of the great. I think because it was so spontaneous (we just happened to drive by it, and he could literally just walk on and play), and in such a beautiful place, that it really made the experience special for him, and I was thrilled that he got to play a round.
A few more from Vestmannaeyjar
Over to the Mainland. Big Iceland.
We only had one day there before our flight home. First stop; we went to shoot the Geyser. It's cool to see, but it's not the most photogenic thing in Iceland (or perhaps even in the top 100), but we had all been to all the regular Iceland hot spots on previous trips, so…we went to the Geyser.
We drove out to one of the glaciers
In just a regular rent-a-car. The roads were…well…I'm not sure they were roads. It was like driving on the surface of the moon, but with bigger rocks. We didn't have a special rental-a-car either. It was an SUV, but a standard old rental SUV, which made the whole experience rather hair-raising, and I'm probably sure that somewhere in that rental agreement it said something along the lines of "Whatever you do, don't try to drive out the glacier or this car will self destruct." At one point my brother, who was sitting in the back seat, said, "When we return this thing, they're going to have to sell it for scrap." He wasn't far off.
Lets 'Time Travel' Back to the Start of This Trip
We actually boarded "The World" (which was a stunningly, incredible ship with ridiculously good food and absolutely top-notch service. Can't say enough about it. Really just wow!) in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I was actually tickled to catch up with the ship there because there are two places nearby that happened to be on my shooting wish list as well — the "Dark Hedges" and the "Giant's Causeway" both of which are less than an hour's drive from Belfast. So, my brother and I came in a day before the ship sailed from Belfast, we got a rental car; got up early the next morning and headed to the hedges.
NOTE: I had wanted to shoot the Dark Hedges years before they were featured in Game of Thrones. Well, I can't say that for sure, because I only binge-watched GOT in the past year, so it could've been featured before I knew about them, but I wanted to shoot there before I knew they were famous. I'm not quite sure why I'm telling you this other than to say, "While I am a Game of Thrones fan boy, I did not shoot the Dark Hedges out of fandom. That was just a bonus."
But it really looks more like this when you're standing there
But even with having to patiently wait out, or clone out, an Instagrammer or two, it was still way better than my experience at the Giant's Causeway.
SPOILER ALERT: If you don't go at dawn, don't bother bringing your camera. It is over-run with tourists, many of whom must think it was a filming location for Game of Thrones, but I don't remember seeing it in the series, so I'm thinking not.
Here's what it looks like an hour or so after sunrise:
So, I came up with a game.
The game was to try and take a photo of the stone pillars without having a single tourist in them. Now I know there are some Camera and Photoshop tricks I could have used, but the only work if everybody is continually moving from place to place. However, these folks would pick a rock and camp out. Some literally brought breakfast and would eat it on the rocks. There were first aid people everywhere because I can't imagine that people aren't tripping and getting hurt, or possibly killed left and right. People have fallen and died. Children have been swept out to sea by an unexpected wave. I am not making this up. I can't believe they allow anyone, let alone children, climb pretty much anywhere out on these stones. One little slip and it's goodbye, Charlie. Anyway, back to the game.
So, should you visit the Giant's Causeway?
"Super no!" Well, how about super-maybe, but probably "no!" Unless you can be there and get set up in place before dawn, and you get lucky and get a great cloudy sky, which of course there's no real way to know that 100% in advance, I would say skip it. In fact, I'm not certain it's worth even getting up early for.
I saw where MSN.com wrote, "Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway is the most disappointing tourist attraction in the world, according to a survey conducted by the Irish Times." That may be a little strong, but I'd say it has to be in the top 5. Also, if you're not taking a long lens to the Dark Hedges, you can skip that one, too because when you're there, you wouldn't actually know you're in the Dark Hedges at all. It's more of a photographic effect. It looks great in pictures. In real life? Meh.
How about some behind the scenes shots of "The Lads" (OK, mostly me, but also my brother Jeff, Kim and his buddy Donny).
A few last shots from the Faroe Islands
Thanks for letting me share my Faroe Islands trip with you
Thanks to my friend Kim for inviting Jeff and me on this trip — it was an absolutely epic trip and one we'll never forget. I have fond memories of our breakfasts each morning, our Karaoke night; hanging out in the bar after dinner telling stories, riding around in various rental cars and praying for our lives while driving way too fast on the surface of the moon. So many great, and yet harrowing times! Wouldn't change a thing! :-)
CAMERA INFO: All photos (except the Behind-the-scenes shots, mostly taken by Jeff) were taken with a Canon EOS R full-frame mirrorless using a Canon 16-35mm f/4 lens; a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens; a Gitzo traveller tripod, an Oben BE-117 Ballhead, and a Platypod Ultra camera base. Also, 10-stop and 3-stop Haida ND filters.
Credits:
All images Copyright 2019 ©Scott Kelby. All rights reserved.