Travel

ICELAND’S BEAUTIFUL FLOWS ARE HAPPENING NOW

by Martin Schulz. Brúarfoss Waterfall in Autumn, Iceland.

MARTIN SCHULZ

One of the most beautiful places in the world, to experience pristine, wild flows is Iceland. There, fire and water flow powerfully across rugged landscapes.

German photographer Martin Schulz has a passion for Iceland’s flows. He has been photographing them for over 8 years.

Perhaps it is because, beyond his obvious skills and talents as a photographer, Schulz works as an audiologist and maintains IT infrastructures. He’s also a heavy, heavy metal music fan.

Waterfalls, rivers and streams release their torrents in springtime, when winter’s ice melts. The ocean carries chunks of melting ice, called “ice diamonds” in its flows. Volcanoes spew flows of molten glows. Schulz captures their power and majesty with a very unique view.

Using grey and graduated grey filters and long exposure techniques, Schulz’s flows have a magical plasma-like feel.

Iceland’s biggest flowing natural wonders include Geysir and Gullfoss. It’s glaciers are spectacular ice flows. And while Schulz has taken wonderful photos of those, he also explored less well-known, smaller runs of waterfalls like Brúarfoss (Bridge Waterfall).

The Brúará flows feed the falls.

“Thousands of small runlets were running down a step of about 2.5 meters. In the middle of the river was a deep cut where the water bubbled along with a fast drift,” explains Schulz in his post on Stuck in Iceland.

“It was really awesome to watch the water flow while I was standing on a wooden bridge right above the water and I couldn’t get enough of all those impressions,”

When the massive Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in 2010, Schulz made a v-line to Iceland to watch its fiery flows.

“I was very much impressed with how small you are as a human being when faced with such immense forces of nature and how well the people in Iceland dealt with it all,” says Schulz.

He captured the glow from the volcanic eruption in Holuhraun, reflected in the Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon and the sky above.

Schulz has captured a number of other volcanic flow events as well, including that of Bárdabunga, a large volcano that sits under the icecap of the Vatnajökull glacier. His images of Kerlingarfjöll shows how the lava flows sculpted the mountains and valleys there.

Schulz captures active eruptions from a birdseye view as lava shoots up 30 to 40 meters high, in screaming hot fountains, that land and start flowing down the sides of the mountains.

“It was incredible to see this untamed power of our earth,” says Schulz.

To see more of the untouched splendor of Iceland’s Beautiful Flows, check out more of Schulz’s spectacular photos here and his web site.

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