Another fu..... waterfall on another fu..... rainy day. Rockstar heaven. I resigned myself to photographing him on my phone.
That night was another 11 course meal at the Puffin and Whale restaurant over 3 hours and a long hike from our hotel, in the rain. And both Puffin and Whale were courses. We ate elsewhere.
We were ordered up at 5.30 am so the Rockstar could photograph a glacier, icebergs, and lumps of ice on a beach at sunrise for 2 hours. We spent 4 hours there yesterday but he needed the right light.
We then had to go back to the hotel for brekkie and on to the Quad bike place. We were two to a bike but the Rockstar had his own. There was no overtaking, unless you're a Rockstar. At one point someone was a bit slow off the mark so he rammed them.
Overall it was an OK experience.
We then had 4 hours to kill before the Zodiacs in the iceberg lagoon because Rockstar needed the lower light near sunset. He decided we would spend another 4 hours (total of 10 hours) at the same glacier, iceberg location. We spent most of it on wifi in the coffee shop watching the people go out on the Zodiacs. It looked great. When the time came for the Zodiacs they were cancelled due to high wind.
10 fu..... hours in one place and no fu..... Zodiac trip.
Rockstar apology "that was unfortunate".
We spent 6 nights at 3 hotels in outback Iceland. A 5.30 am start one day, a 6 am start another, and the rest were 6.30 am. We returned to hotels at 6-7 pm every night. The hotels are good and the food excellent.
Each shooting location had been hand picked by the pro. At each location he would grab the ideal shooting point and allow us to gather nearby as best we could. Occasionally one or two others would also be in a half decent position. Anyone encroaching into his frame was yelled at. Once he got the perfect shot we were all marched forward to his next shooting position. It was a privilege to take photos of a real pro taking photos. Or so he must believe.
We were occasionally annoying to him, but at least we had the satisfaction of knowing we were paying for him to have his photo shoot holiday.
He was in a bad mood if the light wasn't right. IE if it was un-Iclandically sunny.
One day the light was so bad he had used his sunglasses and accidentally dropped them under his seat.
At dinner he asked everyone if they had seen his sunglasses which were in a small case. The bus driver kindly offered "I saw something under your seat, might be them". HUGE MISTAKE, HUGE. Why didn't you pick them up. Do you think I keep my sunnies on the floor. The onslaught lasted about 5 minutes. The bus driver shrugged his shoulders and then came up with "isn't it nice that someone was looking out for you".
Apparently it's a traditional Japanese manner in which to treat the hired help, especially by Rock Superstar photographic geniuses.
Rain, lashing rain, drenching rain, remorseless rain.
We 4x4'd into a glacial valley near the coast. There were 8 river crossings on the way in and 10 on the way out, the same way we went in.
We could imagine the glacier behind the solid cloud all around.
While the 50 person "Volcano Trail Jogging Club" had their video presentation and then all headed of in lycra, we played I-Spy and sat in the Cafe on WiFi.
Half way, I lay on the ground in fetal position. Partly due to physical exhaustion and partly due to the psychological stress of trying to choose which direction to photograph, all the time. Our cameras were tired also.
The trek ended after we had actually covered 11.2 Km.
This was the most euphoric trek since Lake O'Hara in British Columbia.
Scroll a long way down for picies
