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As you venture around the Geyser area, in the South Western part of Iceland, you come across some most marvellous shapes and forms. Those of you who have been there might have had the chance to see the Great Geysir erupt (the one that regularly erupts every ten or less minutes nowadays, is the Stokkur - not the Geysir) and perhaps even dared to take a closer look at its quite intriguing shell.

I was surprised to find a rope in front of the Geysir, probably put there to stop people such as myself from going any closer. I understand that a few thousand litres of boiling water dropping on you probably isn't the best experience ever. Being a bit nonsensical (I can hear the lot of ecologists crying out already) I stepped past the rope and onto the shell of the big Geysir.

Now, you might wonder why I call it a shell, so let me explain.
As I stepped onto the area surrounding the wide boiling basin of water I felt slightly insecure. Not so much because of the (not) potential shower of boiling water but rather the sound the ground made underneath my feet. It didn't give in at all but there was an odd sensation about it, as if it was very thin and extremely brittle. I proceeded with extreme caution, taking the time to quietly and carefully take each step. As I came closer to the area (which I could not see!) where the Geysir sprung up from, the ground below my foot sounded thinner and thinner and as I felt a slight surrendering of the ground beneath my feet, a chill ran up my spine and my mind was filled with the image of me falling through this shell of minerals and into the boiling water.

Needless to say I made my way further from that point and lower into the outer rings of the shell. As I passed behind (like the Stokkur, the Geysir rises from an almost perfect circle of water which you can walk around of) the ground was definitely tougher. What also marked it were the more pronounced shapes on the ground and the thousands of faces that seemed to pile on top of each other. Having seen the Geysir erupt some twenty minutes before, and knowing that it wouldn't do so again until a few hours, I spent a good bit of time right where the water normally falls down and where the deposit of various minerals seems to be at its freshest.

This is one of the few pictures that I managed to cram into my filled memory card (it was a long day). It's a pain to delete pictures directly from the camera but when faced with the kind of view I was looking at, I couldn't help myself.
I hope it was worth it and that you'll also appreciate the shot!

I sharpened before resizing the image and then darkened it a bit for the save for web version. Besides for adding the frame (any good?) and my name I haven't done anything else. The colours are as they were that day (if my memory serves me right... ;D)

A big Thank You in advance to those of You who take the time to comment and/or criticise!

Nikon D70
2005/08/12 20:44:00.8
JPEG (8-bit) Fine
Image Size: Large (2000 x 3008)
Lens: 18-70mm F/3.5-4.5 G
Focal Length: 55mm
Digital Vari-Program: Landscape
Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern
1/125 sec - F/9
Exposure Comp.: 0 EV
Sensitivity: ISO 200
White Balance: Auto
AF Mode: AF-S
Flash Sync Mode: Not Attached
Color Mode: Mode IIIa (sRGB)
Tone Comp.: Auto
Hue Adjustment: 0°
Saturation: Normal
Sharpening: Auto
Long Exposure NR: Off