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During my month-long stay in the Faroe Islands
it seemed like it was always raining in Torshvan
where I was staying and so I'd go north where the weather was
better. Heading there I'd go through this one very long
tunnel and when I came out this is the scene I was greeted
with. I was captivated by it: the enormous bay, the patterns
on the water, the wild sky and I particularly loved the
symmetry of the hills.
The problem was that the spot I wanted to
photograph from was right outside of the mouth of the tunnel
and it was a narrow two lane road. To the right there was a
guardrail and a steep drop to the ocean and to the left a
hillside. It was difficult to find a spot to pull off or to
setup.
I did find a small construction turnout,
walked to my desired spot and jumped the guardrail. I had about
18 inches of space to set up my tripod and shoot, which was
plenty as long as I kept my balance and didn't go down the
hill. But it turns out that was not as easy as it seemed.
There were these sea birds flying overhead and
they were loudly squawking, clearly upset that I was there.
But then they started making another much different sound and
started swooping close to my head. I was suddenly in a scene
out of Hitchcock's "The Birds."
It got so bad that while I was doing a long
exposure, I'd have to wave my cap in the air to keep them off
my head. (in all fairness to the birds, they never did make
physical contact...only liquid) Interestingly, I ran into
that breed of bird several times around the islands and at
one location I was driven away and could not photograph
there.
Now back to the scene: I photographed it many,
many times during that month and in many different lighting
and weather conditions. The composition was always the same
but the lighting and clouds were always different.
This image, No. 33, is the one that I love the
most. I was fortunate to have a great sky just as the sun
illuminated the opening of the bay. It's a very simple
composition and one of my favorites from the trip.
Sometimes you're lucky and can create an image
quickly, while at other times you must go back again and
again and again before you get it right. That's the advantage
of going to one location for a long period of time., you get several second chances.
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