The Online Photographer

Gyda Henningsdottir, White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

As I've mentioned before, sometimes a "Random Excellence" post is just about the one picture, and sometimes it's about the photographer's work as a whole. Gyða Henningsdóttir, born 1973, is one of the latter. Iceland has gotten to be a popular destination for landscape and nature photographers from other places in the world; Gyda is one of the leading Icelandic photographers of Iceland.

Her "about" page says she grew up photographing her family in B&W, working long hours in the darkroom, but that later her interest shifted to outdoor photography. She adds, "nature photography is not my only subject. I photograph fitness and bodybuilding competitions for fitness.is and the most popular fitness magazine in Iceland. My most fascinating subject is probably the Icelandic arctic fox. There goes one difficult subject but at the same time exciting. Wandering in the lava fields or the Icelandic mountains is the highlight of my photography so far."

Her caption for the photograph above: "The White-tailed Eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla), also known as the Sea Eagle, Erne (sometimes Ern), or White-tailed Sea-eagle, is a large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which includes other raptors such as hawks, kites, and harriers. It is considered a close cousin of the Bald Eagle and occupies the same ecological niche, but in Eurasia."

Many photographers get "spectacular overload" just visiting Iceland. It must be amazing to be a landscape and wildlife photographer and live in such a small but scenic country.

Here's Gyda at work. You can check out the rest of her work at her website.

Mike
(Thanks to Gyda for permission to publish)

Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Mike R: "My wife and I did a self-drive tour around Iceland in June of 2016. It is everything people say about it, and often more, jaw-dropping at times. We drove counter-clockwise starting and ending in Reykjavik, with our basic itinerary and overnight stays arranged by the good people at nordicvisitor.com.

"So many places to visit on our list, but this is one we'll go back to."

Phil Stiles: "A marvelous body of work, well presented. Thanks for the link. I'll be going back there a few times, there's so much. Don't miss the aerials and the 'the hide.' Meanwhile, Kevin Raber has complained that Iceland has become too popular, and his latest workshop will be the last, at least for while. Cue Yogi Berra: 'Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded.'"

Mike replies: Didn't Yogi Berra also say "I never said half the things I said"? But then again maybe he didn't.

Ken Tanaka: "Some beautiful work that also conveys a lovely relationship between Einar and Gyða. My constructive suggestion to them would be to invest the time and/or money to more tightly curate their online presentation."

Sæþór: "It really is a visual overload living here. Even just random trips to the hardware store often show incredible scenery of distant mountains and the ocean."