It was my first stay in the Faroe Islands, so I didn't really know what to expect. I expected mainly rain and wind, but I was wrong. The Faeroe Islands can be colourful, as in this photo. I spent the two last days near Gasadalur. I had hoped I would come through the mountains, but the weather did not allow me to do so. So I rented a car for two days, with great difficulty. The first day was cloudy and I only made a reconnaissance. I discovered a rocky harbour near Gasaladur, where not everyone gets to. You can't see the village from here, but that's what I wanted to do: just to capture the pure nature in the picture. On the second day I returned there. The weather forecasts were not very good. This was the last chance to take a photo. The sun illuminated the bay and the cliffs literally for ten minutes. That's what I needed. Then the light went off and I drove from there straight to the airport.
Waterfall falling from a high and waves hitting the cliffs cause the mist to remain in the air. I hoped that the mist illuminated with low sunlight would show interesting effects. I think I have been successful. The long exposure increases this effect and highlights the roughness of the rocks. I needed the first plan for a better, closed composition so I also needed a great depth of focus. F13 was safe and I could expect that the second chance to shoot would not be. It was already quite dark and I put a grey filter on my 16-35 mm f/4 Zeiss Vario-Tessar, so I had to raise the ISO a bit. You can take such a picture when you have been in similar conditions several times already, but there is always a risk anyway. This time I managed to fit all the necessary elements. 200 seconds of exposure proved to be optimal because the wave structure is clearly visible. This photograph cost me a lot of nerves.
I wanted the final picture to be as dark as possible. This allows the depth of colour to be excavated in the illuminated areas thanks to high contrast. Actually, it was almost dark. When the sun came out, the contrast became so high that I had to use a second frame with a shorter exposure time (25s) when editing. Sony A7r has a very capacious matrix, but it did not manage to cope with these conditions. The source material was so good that there was not much work in Photoshop. I think I have managed to show how light enlivens this cosmic landscape. I have to return there. The Faeroe Islands are more beautiful than I expected.
Wojciech Kruczynski
