Monochrome Awards 2018 (II)

BLACK SAND BEACH, ICELAND

Canon EOS 5D Mark III, EOS EF24-70mm f/2.8L, Cokin ND filters.

These sea stacks are located on Reynisfjara beach on Iceland’s eastern peninsula. According to local Icelandic folklore, these large basalt columns were once trolls trying to pull ships from the ocean to shore. However, these trolls were dim and went out too late in the night; dawn broke on the horizon, turning the trolls into solid stone.

I tried to capture the dramatic and foreboding character of the rocks using black and white processing both in Photoshop and Silver Effex Pro 2. They were captured using both Cokin neutral density and graduated filters to balance the dynamic range in the image.