The Reykjavík Marathon 2010

So my brother is a runner. He decided to take part in the annual Reykjavík Marathon. He did not run a full marathon of 42,2 km, but the shorter half marathon or 21,1 km. I decided to come along and cheer him on and take some pictures. There were quite a few people that took part or 7,319 in all (either the 10 km run, 21,1 km run or the real marathon of 42,2 km).

The beginning of the Reykjavík Marathon 2010

Now my brother did well and ran the distance in 1 hour and 54 minutes, which is decent and I'm proud of him! :o) 

Half way through

Near the finish line

Recently my brother bought Vibram Five Finger shoes that are specifically designed for people who like to run barefoot, or at least close to barefoot. So he ran the half marathon in those "shoes" and it proved to be quite good. Next on the agenda for my brother is a full marathon in Vienna, Austria... Go brother, GO! 

Happy happy

VOLCANO!

So I haven't been as active blogging as I thought I would be and time flies when you are busy. It's now the beginning of April, spring and then summer should be coming soonish... I hope...

Just recently we had easter break... It was during that time, just after my final exams for the semester that my brother, cousin and I decided to go hiking. We had set our sights on the newest Icelandic phenomenon, the VOLCANO next to Eyjafjallajökull!

Now seeing a volcano on the TV screen is kind of cool, but seeing one with your own eyes is something to behold!

© Forces of Nature

Fortunately the volcano decided to erupt right on a popular hiking trail at a place called Fimmvörðuháls, so it's quite accessible, either by walking or driving a truck over one of the glaciers next to the volcano. We decided to hike up to the volcano, after sitting on a school "bench" for the last few months I was ready to get some movement! 

© My brother and couson... hmm... roughing it!

The hike was pretty nice. It starts at Skógar next to one of Iceland's most spectacular waterfall, Skógarfoss. From there it is approximately 15 kilometers to the volcano with elevation gain of close to 1000 meters, starting very close to sea level. When we began the hike it started to snow and didn't stop until we got up close to the volcano. We were starting to wonder if we would see anything at all. 

It took us about 5 hours to get to it. We stopped for a few minutes to eat and rest at a cabin thats up there (Baldvinsskáli). The temperature was well below freezing and I feel sorry for anyone that went up there with no gloves, baklava, warm clothing or hiking boots. We had been hearing on the news about fools having to be rescued because of inadequate clothing, some even getting frostbite...

© Baldvinsskáli, our old and filthy rest stop.

Once we got up to the volcano unfortunately it was less than an hour to sunset and we only got about 15 minutes of actually looking around before we were told they were evacuating the area and we had to leave... We were not happy about that at all. We had planned to stay until dark and walk back in the darkness since seeing the volcano in darkness is just spectacular. 

Anyways, the reason they were evacuating was that another crater had started to form next to the already active one and there was a huge cloud of smoke coming from it and it was also raining ash. Pretty neat experience I have to say, but they wanted everyone out of there for safety, the volcano could blow up, they didn't know. It took about an 1.5 hours until people evacuated the area fully, some walking back but most of the people who were by the volcano came driving over the glaciers... no they did not use a Toyota Yaris, but trucks with big tires... Arctic Trucks! 

© The smoke and the Swedish army track vehicle.

Now the experience of coming so close to the volcano, seeing all the people there,  the rescue personnel and a bunch of helicopters flying over our heads felt being in a major disaster or war zone... At least they way I would imagine it or how I've seen it in the movies. :-)

Well, we decided to stick around a bit, which got us a ride back with the rescue personnel in their special Swedish military track vehicle, driving over the glacier. It took a while as we had to wait a bit for the rescue personnel, but we got extra time looking at the volcano from a distance and during night so we didn't mind. I was actually glad since I had hurt my foot early on in the hike and was dreading the walk back, only a small mistake and I could have twisted my ankle really bad leaving us exposed in the cold and darkness hours away from rescue... 

Overall... great hike, awesome seeing a volcano live in action and happy to have arrived home safely! Can't wait to be out of school though and hike up to the volcano again and take some better shots, they say it might be active for weeks to come... SWEET! :-)

© Me, my cousin and my brother, next to the volcano!

National Geographic has some awesome images from Icelandic photographer Christopher Lund! Check them out!


All Images are Copyrighted © Friðrik Páll Friðriksson

The Great American Adventure part #1 - NY/NJ

I began my great American adventure in New York City on the 9th of September 2009! Flying over from London, England. I landed at JFK in the evening and was picked up by my great uncle who lives in New Jersey. Being able to meet with him was great, even though for just a couple of days. I got caught up on family history that I knew very little about, which was really neat for me personally. Apparently, my great grandfather was the original inventor of the 'jaws of life' used by rescuers in card accidents.

I spent a couple of days in Southern NJ and afterwards I headed a little closer to New York to meet up with a friend I had met through flicker, Antonio! Had a great time with him shooting pictures around town and spending time with his family for a few days.

I stayed at a youth hostel in New York City for three days, up on 103rd street and took the subway down every day to look around town. I tried to use my time and money wisely, as New York is quite an expensive city. So finding free attractions in New York became my tourist objective. What I was interested in mostly was finding some unique photographs of the city and the attractions that I visited. Click on images below to view them larger.

Looking over at Manhattan from New Jersey, 

the Empire State Building on the right on 42nd St.

Sailing on the Hudson River

Battery Park with Ellis Island in the Background

Busy Times Square

New York Public Library

The Staten Island Ferry

Statue of Liberty with the sun back-lighting the torch

After all the sight-seeing I met up with a pastor friend, Pr. Anton, who I was hooked up with through friends in Ireland. I spent some time with him and his family on the outskirts of the city in upper New York. I went to a church camp-meeting and later to the Bronx Botanical Gardens with them. Overall I spent some ten days on the East Coast and had a great time!

Small Flower in the Bronx Botanical Gardens

One thing I came across while on the East Coast was something I had never really experienced before in America and that is the after effects of 9/11 (other than tighter airport security). Walking through downtown Toms River, NJ I came across this poem written by an 8th grader on a monument. I think it catches the emotional impact the attacks had on the American people, especially those living close to New York City:

Our Brightest Day

"They want us to remember tons

of dust and twisted steel.

They think they can destroy us,

that we will never heal.

They want out world to crumble

and say that it's "God's plan".

But it's God's love that unites us,

each and every man.

Their evil has attacked us all

and filled our hearts with fear.

So now we must recover and

grow stronger with each tear.

We must pray to God for guidance,

to show us all the way.

Our faith will turn this time of

darkness into out brightest day!"

- Samantha L. Ruocco


All Images are Copyrighted © Friðrik Páll Friðriksson

The Bag I Wanted to Make...

As a photographer and a traveler, finding the perfect bag to carry your gear and even some of your personal belongings while traveling can be somewhat.... cumbersome.

Recently I had been visualizing a design for what I would like to see in a camera bag. I was inspired by the Dream Bag Challenge that that the manufacturer Kata is currently running. Check it out! I haven't made an entry there, but might if I get my idea down on paper. Anyways, the design I was visualizing, well it was a backpack that had space for my camera and extra personal belongings. A nice rugged, fit for the rough outdoors, kind of bag. Something I could take hiking or on nomadic travels. Something versatile and modifiable enough.

Even though I had looked quite extensively I just couldn't find a bag that would fit my requirements or style. The closest I could find was the Lowepro Primus AW, which is in fact quite a nice bag, but still doesn't cut it. Then just in the last 24 hours I stumbled across this...

Image © F-Stop Gear

This is the F-Stop made Satori! (Interesting name huh?) Now I don't want to say they stole my idea or anything like that, but I want to say, this is very close to how I visualized my bag looking like! As an old saying goes "There is nothing new under the sun." Eccl. 1:9  So I guess I should just recognize that my idea wasn't the original one. It just so happened that someone else was brilliant before me.

But yeah, to the bag... It looks great, the features seem very functional, ruggedness doesn't seem to be a problem and best of all it looks really cool! Now, I haven't gotten my hands on one yet, but I surely would love to have one! When I do get one, I'll give a more in-depth review on it's awesomeness!

Definitely check out the F-Stop Gear website, they've got quite a nice line of products, including the Satori's little brother the Tilopa. For me what really makes these bags awesome, aside from the things mentioned above... is the internal detachable/removable camera compartment! Less gear, more gear, normal backpack, camera backpack... versatility, now that's what I'm talking about! Can see the bag in action right here!

Out,

Friðrik

Portraiture

Portraiture is very fascinating genre of photography. The human face, the features and even the wrinkles are unique to each person. Photojournalists and travel photographers especially relate to this genre, as their job is exactly to bring out this uniqueness of the people or cultures they photograph. For some reason faces fascinate us, the emotion of the person being portrayed speaks to us. I've always been fascinated by this very thing. Looking at images from notable magazines like National Geographic or Time, where the objective is often to tell the stories of people, portraiture plays a big role in communicating the essence of the subject. One of the most famous National Geographic covers was a portrait of a little Afghan Girl, photographed by Steve McCurry. It became a icon of it's time (still is), telling a whole story through only one image.

Today I was playing a little bit with this genre. My friend Jacob had to do a school project where he has to do several self portraits, so we got together to brainstorm on how to make creative portraits. He had to do the project on film, black and white, so we decided to see what we could do in the area, playing with available light and gradients. We weren't really trying to tell a story, more just to make visually pleasing images, bringing out the subject. I was shooting with my digital camera, using it as a proofing device (kind of like polaroids), to get the exposure just right. Here are a few shots:

© Jacob

© Me

© Ivan

© Jacob Shooting

Brg.

Friðrik

All Images are Copyrighted © Friðrik Páll Friðriksson