Silfra, Iceland

Last month I went for a few days to the Silfra crack at the Þingvellir national park for snorkeling and underwater photography. The special feature of Silfra is it’s visibility range underwater of up to 130 m. The Silfra water is probably the clearest in the world. The water is coming from some big highland glaciers but runs for 30 to 100 years through the lava before entering Silfra. Therefore it is extremely filtered. The underwater experience in Silfra is absolutely incomparable to anything else in the world and should not be missed.

The only problem with snorkeling or diving in Silfra is, that the water temperature is around 2°C, in summer and winter, which is not very warm. On the first day I joined an organized tour with DIVE.IS where some rental dry suits were provided. On the next days I was using my own 8mm neoprene wet suit, which worked better than expected. My body, head and feet always stayed warm, but I made a big mistake regarding the gloves. I thought for a good handling of the underwater housing thin gloves are helpful. But at 2°C water temperature you definitely need the thickest gloves available. After 30 minutes in the water with 2 mm gloves I could hardly move my fingers.

I have some experience in landscape photography but it was only my second attempt in underwater photography (after shooting a few days on the Maldives with a compact camera). Therefore it was also the first real test of my new underwater housing from Seacam which worked perfectly. Considerung my lack of experience I'm quite satisfied with the result. I used a D800E camera with either a Sigma 15mm FE or a Zeiss 21mm lens and no flash.

Here are some images from this trip:

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

If you are interested in some landscape images from this trip or some more background information you can find both on my website wild-places.com.

I would really appreciate a feedback regarding my images.

Boris

And some half-half images:

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

Silfra von Wild_Places auf Flickr

just one word: AWESOME!

The last one with the grey sky is excellent

Chris

those are spectacular, i agree that last one is incredible

Congratulations! This is really fantastic! Considering you are new to underwater photography it makes these shots unbelievable.

Good enough for the fullframe series what I'm concerned!

Wow some magic images there of a special place, love that last moody one too.

Hope it isn't danger of being loved to death eg: shots of the diver churning up the bottom.

Cheers,

Jim.

Thanks Chris, Matt, Andre and Jim!

My favorite image is also the last one.

Boris

Considering you are new to underwater photography it makes these shots unbelievable.

 

The technical skill is amazing...

I love the very first shot, the one third from the bottom in your first post, and your first and last splits - very nice indeed. Great lines, great textures.

I agree with Jim though, those divers ploughing the bottom should be sent to the pool to work on skills. Amazing the vis stays good with that kind of activity.

Thanks Tim and Liz!

Regarding the divers ploughing the bottom: You are right, but I think it's not really critical in that place. There are nearly no fish or plants in this place to get damaged and the water gets quickly clear again after such an event.

Boris

You may not have much experience shooting underwater by it's clear that you know what you are doing, awesome!!

You may not have much experience shooting underwater by it's clear that you know what you are doing, awesome!!

Thanks Andres!

Beautiful set of images, however the last image is very special.

Thanks Matt!

I really like the split level shots

I really like the split level shots

Thanks!