Iceland

I've talked about the cookies—now let's talk about the vacation! Actually, let's talk first about what the vacation failed at!
My boyfriend called me into his office one day a few months ago to ask if I wanted to go on a trip. This is not an unusual thing, but this time the location really captured my imagination. Iceland, land of fire and, well, ice. You might be wondering why a reptilian soul like myself would ever consider traveling to a place like Iceland – ever, let alone in March – but I do love me some rocks, and Iceland is well known for its spectacular geological features. Also, there was the promise of seeing the northern lights and even puffins! Prolific hot springs offered a counterpoint to the cold weather, and also, the airfare was impressively low. So yes, even though I expected it to be a less than enjoyable climate, I was excited about the trip.

I had also recently purchased a Lytro first generation camera and was looking forward to the opportunity to try out a new type of photography (and go on a vacation without a monster wannabe SLR dragging me down). I had grand plans of taking fabulous after-focus photos, processing them into works of art, and then writing a compelling narrative that would be told through the captions of the pictures.

Sadly, my hopes were dashed in a number of ways. First, though I had been expecting cold weather, I had not known at all about the biting wind or the added chill of near-constant rain. Even bundled up in my puffiest coat, I spent most of the trip, even when indoors, runny-nosed and chilled to the bone. Consequently, I was frequently too cold to dedicate much effort to the cause of photography. Most of the photos I did take turned out grainy and blurry (and some were obliterated entirely by what I can only believe was a software error). The next blow was when I found out the captions on Lytro.com are limited to 140 characters each—hardly enough for a compelling narrative.

So, somewhat less impressively than I'd hoped, I'll just be sharing the photos (with their non-narrative but still informative captions) at Lytro.com. The cool thing about the "living pictures" is that you can change the focus on them at your whim, and even watch little animations if you so desire.

And then, as time and my interest level permits over the next few days, I might top off the whole production with a few more photos taken with other cameras.


Blurry though it may be, here is one of my favorite photos from Iceland. You can see more in my Lytro album!