Adobe Iceland Adventure: Practical Non-Lesson #1

Enroute to Iceland: Sometimes there isn't a lesson; there is just a story. In this case, it's really a worry. I'm talking about the weather, and so was everyone else I met today as I left Norway for Iceland and the start of the Adobe Lightroom Iceland Adventure.

On the train to the Oslo airport strangers bemoaned the hottest summer in 37 years. But on the plane to Keflavik it was a different story. Greta Onundardottir, one of the Icelandair flight attendants, lamented the unusually cold and wet Iceland summer. "Fall came early this year," she said. "In May." Iceland has seen 4 days of sun this summer, she explained, "and on the other days people are actually turning lights on to see."

Excuse me? No sunlight. Rain? What am I going to say to a group of photographers flying half way around the world for--as I put it a couple months ago when I sold them on the adventure-- the "wonderful Iceland summer light"? I started imaging them dropping me slowly into one of Iceland's famous active lava beds.

It was raining in Iceland when we landed, of course. It was a light rain, but rain. At the duty free shop, I bought my allotment of cognac and beer. I figured with a week of rain we'd need all the help we could get. I also tried to recall some Photoshop techniques for changing the weather in a shot. Hey, I'm the one that wrote in one of my books, "Don't look at a picture for what it is, look at it for what it can become!"

As I drove from the airport toward town a blue patch of sky suddenly appeared. I nearly crashed the rental car as I pulled quickly to the side of the road and snapped a shot. I wanted proof to show the other photographers when they arrived the next day. Proof that there is light in Iceland in the summer, and hope for me.

Anyway, it's late now. I can't tell by looking out my hotel window what tomorrow will bring. But I'm so excited to be here. I really do love Iceland. There is such an energy to the land, even when they sky is shrouded in gray. And I'm heartened by something else Greta told me on the plane..."You know, in Iceland," she said, "if you don't like the weather, just wait ten minutes, it'll change." We'll see...

P.S. Photographer Michael Reichmann and videographer Chris Sanderson get the prize for most adventure so far. I just received a call from Michael saying their Toronto > Boston leg was cancelled. (See lesson #2 about establishing good communication capabilities.) The earliest they could get to Iceland was Sunday... Well, leave it to fast thinking Reichmann. He booked a flight to London, called our man at Icelandair, Brian Sheffield, and Brian hustled and found Michael and Chris a flight from London to Iceland, arriving... Friday afternoon! So Michael and Chris be here in time for our gala dinner event hosted by ExpoImaging and featuring a slide show by the great Iceland photographer Sigurgeir Sigurjonsson. Yeah!