Dettifoss, Iceland.

Dettifoss is an un-imaginable force of nature. Considered to be the most powerful waterfall in Europe, it is nature’s unstoppable display of power. Water in biblical proportions gushes down into a deep canyon. There’s so much water spray that you can’t even see the bottom of the canyon. It is like a bottomless pit.

I wanted to photograph these falls from up close, putting the viewer straight into the scene. This is a dangerous undertaking. I had to scramble my way over big boulders with 15 kilograms of camera equipment on my back. A simple misstep and I would injure myself. I wanted to make it as close as possible to the falls, and I composed my shot so I would capture some of the boulders in the foreground. To the right of me was an unforgiving cliff leading straight into the canyon. No room for mistakes here. One slip and it’s game over.

While balancing on these boulders, with my tripod legs in an awkward position, I took a number of images. Within minutes the wind changed direction and before even realizing it; I was covered in water spray. I was soaking wet. Making my way back over the boulders became extra challenging, as now they were wet and slippery. That’s a recipe for disaster. It took me over 30 minutes of scrambling to get back to even ground. Oh well, nobody ever said landscape photography is easy. But it sure is exciting!