Long description of Iceland photographs

Please bear with my attempts to learn how to use the longdesc attribute on image tags.

Telsa at the Ugly Duckling

The photo is taken in bright light casting sharp shadows. Telsa is wrapped up in a heavy coat, hat and scarf. Behind her is a wall made of pale blue-grey corrugated metal with two windows and a door in it. She is between the two windows. The door has coffee and beer labels and logos on it. In one of the windows is a large green board with a cartoon representation of a cheery yellow duck on it.

Alan at the Tjorn

The photograph is taken on a bright day. The right-hand half of the picture shows Alan in coat, blinking at the light behind the camera. Behind him and very visible on the left of the picture is an expanse of water stretching about 50-100m back. At the shore of the water at the back of the picture are buildings with their walls and roofs many different colours: a white building with a black roof and a red building with a green roof are most obvious. Thirty or forty ducks, swans and geese are swimming on the water.

Thingvellir, first picture

The photograph shows a view over a harsh rugged landscape in overcast weather. Most of the view is below the level of the camera, as the view is down into a valley. Rock, dark soil and low scrub are the main features. A very winding low flat river meanders along the bottom of the valley. Sunrays from under the clouds illuminate the area with the river. There is nothing manmade visible.

Thingvellir, second picture

Four people and one shoulder are visible here. They are all gazing away from the camera but in varying directions. The landscape is green and brown with a skyline of hills at the horizon. In the background is a carpark. A white minibus is parked there.

The Rock with the Lava Vent

The ground is dark green where it can be seen through the snow which does not quite cover it. The sky takes up most of the picture. Only the lower tenth or so is the ground. Rising up out of the ground almost in silhouette is a cone of rock which is slightly left of centre of the picture. The cone is triangular in silhouette, with the sides rising at angles of about 45 degrees each. Standing on top of the cone is a figure outlined against the skyline. Standing in the near foreground at the left is a figure in windproof clothing. Between those figures are two more evidently following the first figure to the top of the outcrop. The head of the lower of these two is lower than the feet of the figure on top of the lava vent.

Snowy View

This is a photograph of a landscape with no visible evidence of humans on it at all. The lower half of the picture is taken up by a rise of land which stretches into the distance for about 150m. Behind it, high hills rise. The sky is darkly cloudy. Snow is scattered over all the ground in the photograph, highlighting channels and sheltered spots in the ground.

Clouds at Geysir

Flat ground which is a reddish-brown earth fading to greener colours in the background. Little more is visible. The key feature is great clouds of white smoke and two figures visible within it. The smoke rises to twice their height.

Strokkur

The left-hand bottom corner of this photograph is obscured by the back of a head, but at least it provides a sense of scale. Dark grey rock which looks as though flat puddles of rock simply froze there in successive stages takes up the foreground. The background is bleak and empty until the skyline. A pillar of steam and white smoke is in the centre of the photograph, rising to a height of about 30m. It is less than 10m wide. The whole pillar is leaning slightly to the right as it rises due to the wind. A low cloud of smoke is also drifting to the right along the ground.

Gullfoss

This description applies to two photographs. The second of the two is slightly closer to the subject. They are both taken from the same angle and rather hard to describe!

The waterfall has several cascades in it. The viewpoint is from the bank of the chasm it has cut and is therefore on a level with the higher cascade and above the lower cascade. The dark brown ground with yellow-green vegetation is visible in the foreground at the left, and a tree in (dark-green) leaf grows on the right. The higher cascade is in a V-shape with the point of the V on the midpoint of the left-hand side of the photograph. On the far side of the V the water falls about 5m with black rocks visible behind the very white water. On the near side where only the top is visible, it falls out of sight of the camera (it's actually at least twice that depth). The water which has dropped 5m then falls again into the chasm on the nearside. Clouds of spray are visible at the far end of the higher cascase.

Alan looking smug in shades

This photograph is of a large jeep with extra-large wheels facing the camera and surrounded by snow. The jeep stands in tracks made by vehicles. The track is about four or six inches deeper than the snow all around but it is only a track by virtue of compacted snow. There is no other evidence of a road. The track goes back to the skyline, where a roadsign is visible in silhouette. A hill, also covered in snow, begins to rise at the very left of the picture. In front of the jeep is a well-wrapped Alan Cox wearing sunglasses.

Elevenses

This is a photography of a group of people with a jeep behind them, a hill sloping off to the right behind them, and only an outcrop of black rock which is not covered in snow. The snow is everywhere else. They are wearing anything from woollen jumpers to heavy jackets. They are talking to each other, and some have cups or unidentifiable food in their hands. In the foreground are two figures looking directly at the camer and smiling whilst brandishing food or cups.

The tow-rope

A photography of flat landscape in the foreground entirely covered in snow. The horizon meets the sky in the distance. A jeep facing left is barely visible on the left of the photo, with a person slightly obscuring it. On the right is another jeep, also mostly out-of-picture. It faces right. There are trackmarks between the two. Above the trackmarks, connecting the jeeps, is a tow-rope. Standing about ten metres distant from the rope is a small figure (me -- Telsa) looking very small indeed in the whiteness of the snow.

Nothing but snow

This photo is almost completely white. It is a view over a flat snowy landscape with no vegetation to the snowy hills beyond and the overcast pale-grey sky beyond that. Just visible are two rock outcrops which are not completely covered in snow. They are about 200m away and do not make up a large proportion of the photograph.

Geysir erupting

This description applies to two photographs. The second is taken from a slightly closer angle.

The lower third to half of the photo is red-brown earth with sombre and very low-to-the-ground grass which is more yellow-brown than green. It rises gently to the horizon, with the low rise darker and gloomier. The centre of the picture is taken up with a great column of cloud and steam rising beyond the top of the photograph. The cloud is dense and dark grey, with more at the top than at the base. It rises seemingly from the ground, or from a round hole in it which is surrounded by dark grey flat rock with no vegetation of it.