Barnafoss

This is the waterfall that was not easy to find, but finally I must say place is amazing...

Svartifoss

Iceland is the country when there's really difficult to find tree not planted by people. But I've found such a place. Just next to the glacier. I know it's strange but it's true. There's a path from the parking that leads you to one of the world's miracles - Svartifoss and it goes almost all the time between green trees that are higher than you. After 20-25 minutes of light hike you reach the waterfall and artificially looking rocks. It really rocks!

Waterfall somewhere next to the road

Driving over Iceland from Vik to the East we came across small interesting place with beautiful waterfall. I immediately decided to stop and setup my tripod to take few pictures with longer exposures. My friends did the same. After 10 minutes of photographing it was like 5 or 6 cars stopped and plenty people started to take pictures of same place. They even started to interrupt my ideas, so I decided to pack up and go farther to the glacier. But managed to take at least couple of pictures I like. Here they are!

Seljalandsfoss

The most beautiful waterfall I've seen in Iceland. Very dangerous also. You can get wet in a seconds :)

Skógafoss

One of the most beautiful and often visited waterfall in Iceland...

Kirkjufell

This wonderful place was not easy to find, but only because I was not prepared well. The mountain itself from the road looks a little bit different than on the pictures, but if you finally reach the waterfall, it looks exactly as you remembered it from the Internet. Unfortunately when we arrived, weather wasn't very favorable. However I've decided to take pictures and here they are...

Krka Waterfalls

This year on way back home I've decided to see famous Krka Waterfalls. It was worth seeing, but timing was not perfect. Very crowded and expensive place with difficult access from the side I was approaching it. I also was not well prepared for such type of photography, but somehow managed to take few poor pics of this place...

Scotland: Dochart Falls

Just few pics taken at Dochart Falls...

European Havasu

On our way back home, we decided to stop by Plitvička jezera (Plitvice Lake National Park) - wonderful place in Croatia when you can see waterfalls perfectly lit by morning sun (I'd risk to call these waterfalls European Havasu, because they remind me this famous waterfall). Luckily we packed our tent at 6:30 and managed to get to the spot few minutes after 7 am. Place was not very crowded at that time, but with every minute number of japanese tourists with their toy cameras was increasing rapidly and when we started our way back to the car, place was veeery crowded. Somehow I managed to use the light and take some pictures you can see below. From this national park we started 1200 km drive home. To my surprise it took us about 12-13 hours with some breaks. For example we stopped by some wonderful asparagus in Austria, but we also had about 1 hour queue on Slovenja border.
I must say that Montenegro and some parts of Croatia are really wonderful and I'll definitely get back there to take some more pictures.

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Havasupai and mysterious meeting

It had to be the highlight of our Phototrip 2008. And to some extent it was even more! But let's start from the beginning...
After the very short night spent in Caverns Inn we packed our Hummer very early and headed to the Hilltop Parking. Arrived there about 6 a.m., left the car and started to hike down. Backpacks were heavy, but trail seemed to be easy. We passed the village at about 9 or 9:30 and only stopped by the post office to drop postcards, then went farther to famous Navajo Falls.
I was amazed with the amount of water in the fall - during my autumn visit it was much less water and the falls were more easily accessible. Besides weather was a bit windy and water was everywhere - especially on our cameras. I've to mention that taking good pictures of this waterfall requires crossing the Havasu creek, then standing on the terrace in knee-depth water to take pictures. Of course you have to set your tripod to be stable and sometimes it's not easy while having all the gear on your back, belt and everywhere else. We wanted to make the most of the morning light, but it was changing rapidly and I've only taken few pictures. The worst was endless cleaning of the lens, filters and cameras and covering gear with some protector - water was splashing in a really bitchy way. I must admit that autumn seems to be much better season for taking pictures in Navajo Falls and how later turned out, also other waterfalls. So after not very long fight with nature, we gave up about 1 p.m. and headed to the campground, where put up the tent and prepared some food. Weather was very hot and lazy. After so short previous night and good lunch I fell asleep immediately. Woke up late and was too lazy to go anywhere, so we used the situation to take some pictures of birds, lizards, bats, squirrels, dragonflies and other stuff. It was the first evening we could commune with nature and relax - decided not to take any more pictures of waterfalls that day.
On the next day we woke up early and went to Mooney Falls for some morning photos. Weather was good and not many people came to the spot. We've taken few memory cards of pictures and came back to the campground for breakfast. Sun was going higher and higher and we had a lot of plans - one was to go to Beavers, the other - to check the upper trail. But as usual, life verified plans, we were very lazy and quit both of them.

Instead we went to Havasu Falls to check some spots for the evening session and see how is the light about noon. It was good decision. Light wasn't perfect, but there were two "mermaids" swimming around the corner. I saw them, because just went to the small remote island. They weren't very shy and shown me everything, but I was too shy to take pictures :) On the way back to the campground we took some pictures of cactis and other flowers. Then had a very lazy afternoon - some nap and hunting for hummingbirds and other beasts with a camera of course!

Few hours before sunset we headed to Havasu again. This time with a serious sunset pictures in mind. Light was much better, but wind was blowing stronger and just after setting the tripod and camera on it, everything got wet. It was really a challenge to take a picture in this circumstances. I think we found pretty good spots, and recent ones even gave us some water protection. But this is not the most important thing that happened this evening...
While I was on the remote island (discovered earlier) taking pictures, I've just noticed the guy getting to me through the water like chamois. He came to me and start talking about the place, pictures and just general small talk. Seemed to be a very nice guy and had very deep knowledge of the place. I asked him about upper trail, good spots and some other stuff and he answered to all my questions. Once I started to wonder if by any chance it might be Derek von Briesen (this guy is my photo guru and has best pictures of southwest I've ever seen in my life!), but I've never seen his portrait, so it was just suspicion. My friend was away from me, so I couldn't ask him for opinion. Somehow it was not easy to ask the guy directly what was his name and we finished talking. He left Havasu.
Then my friend came and ask me about the guy and his suspicions. We discussed facts and myths and decided that we are almost sure it was Derek. Decided to walk along the campground and look around. Unfortunately we didn't find the guy. What a pity!
Next day first thing in the morning we packed our tent and all the stuff and started hike up. Just before 7a.m. we got to the Havasupai Office and asked the guy for backpacks transport by helicopter. The price was 20 USD per bag, so we decided to send the stuff up and not to carry it. It was very good decision. With only light bags we reached the top in about 3h30m (from the campground) - much faster then during my autumn trip when I had all the stuff with me. Unfortunately bags came over an hour later, but finally they came and we headed to Phoenix to pick up our new lenses (Canon 100-400), but this is a different story...

From Bryce to Canyonlands

In the morning just after finishing the sunrise photo session at Sunrise Point we left amazing Bryce Canyon. We decide to take road 12 through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and Capitol Reef NP. This is very scenic road going through an interesting part of Utah. We saw some fields watered by machines that generated ice instead of water - quite surprising picture! I'm still wondering for what they do this kind of field icing? Maybe you know the answer?
In the Grand Staircase-Escalante there's very interesting waterfall on the Calf Creek - or even two waterfalls - upper and lower. We decided to take a trip to lower one, because seemed to be easier. Going there is worth every minute and every bead of sweat. What you see at the end of the trails is really wonderful! We took many pictures of the waterfall from different angles - after filling all memory cards decided to get back to the car and finally go to the Dead Horse Point State Park where we had reservation at campground. It took us almost the whole day, but we arrived just in time for sunset photo session at Dead Horse Point Overlook.
In the dark we set up our tent on pad number 4. Of course nobody is working here so late, so we had to do everything ourselves: pay entrance fee, register at campground, set up tent, etc. After quick supper we reviewed our plans for the next day and it turned out that we don't have enough fuel - unfortunately nearest gas is in Moab - 32 miles away. We decide to go there to buy some gas and some food for next few days. We returned to the campground really late and on our way back almost hit the black cow on the black road in the pitch black night - cows are everywhere here, because there's open range.
We sleep in the tent - it is whorishly cold and I have to sleep in all what I have - night temperatures were for sure below 32F. We somehow survived the night and almost 2 hours before dawn we headed to famous Mesa Arch for morning photo session.

The Subway

This morning we've started probably the most challenging trail during Photo Trip 2008 - The Subway. It requires special permit and is a part of Zion National Park. Main goal on this trail is to see the famous Subway - kind of a tunnel created by water in a solid rock (picture on the left). Unfortunately seeing this wonder requires some effort. In all guides it's written that you need about 7-9 hours to go to the Subway and back. It took us about 10 hours, but we had at least one hour standing in cold water and photographing.
It turned out that spring is not a very good season for visiting Subway - water in the creek is too high and everything is more difficult.
All good pictures I've seen were taken during autumn - it was no water in the most interesting part of the creek. Now it was a lot of water and it was very cold. But we had no choice - go now or never - we decided to go this spring. From photographic point of view it wasn't perfect decision, but trail is really difficult and interesting, so we are happy that we've done it and are still alive.
I think I'll be back there one day - that time for sure in autumn.

Weeping Rock and Emerals Pools

Today we started our short visit in Zion National Park. Until now I underrated this park. Probably because the most popular part of it is located across the road 9 that is commonly used for transportation from Kanab to Springdale or Hurricane. Of course views from the road are amazing, but you can find many more valuable gems in different areas of the park.
Our goal was to see Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools and Angels Landing in main part of the park and later go to the Subway. Life verified plans and we saw only Weeping Rock and Emerald Pools and what's even worse, have proper pictures only from Emerald Pools. Photographing Weeping Rock appeared to be a really big challenge and we didn't manage to take a single good picture of this place.
The problem with photographing Weeping Rock lies in the nature of the place. It's a kind of a small arcade in the big rock and you can enter there. From the rock above you water is still oozing and you see a droplets of them falling down. Good pictures I imagined should have a slightly blurred droplets in the foreground and mountains in the background. I could see such picture with my own eyes, but wasn't able to register it with camera. After playing about an hour with this place we gave up and went to Emerald Pools.
Emerald Pools trail leads from the Zion Lodge through Lower and Middle to the Upper Emerald Pool. You can easily get wet on this trail, because water falls directly onto the path. We somehow managed to get to the Upper Pool staying dry and took few pictures. In the Upper Pool I was playing a bit with squirrel and have some nice pictures. Moreover it was a very funny story - one guy asked us if we work for National Geographic (probably because of our impressive gear). We answered that not yet, but would be happy to sell him some pictures. Unfortunately he refused. I hope he was a seer.
Trail to the Emerald Pools took us a lot of time and we had to cancel our plans of visiting Angel's Landing. Instead we returned to Weeping Rock - unfortunately this time we also didn't take even one good picture. We finished the day with some shopping and finding hotel in Hurricane, then preparing for Subway trail.
Both pictures had been taken on the Emerald Pools trail.