As one first approaches, you can hear the thunder of the falls, but the crevice is obscured from view, so that it appears that the mighty river simply vanishes into the earth with its rising golden-foss mist highlights shining in the early morning sun, such as seen in this image just as sunrise began. On a sunlit day, the mist clouds surrounding the hammering falls are filled with dozens of rainbows, providing an unparalleled spectacle of color and motion. I wish I could have stayed longer, but the golden light on these golden falls soon turned to overcast for the next several hours, so it was time to go.

Gullfoss, translated as "Golden Waterfall" is an iconic location of Iceland offering many spectacular views of the forces and beauty of untouched nature. It is located in South Iceland on the Hvítá (White) river which is fed by Iceland´s second biggest glacier, the Langjökull. It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland, making it their most famous waterfall and is considered Europe’s most powerful. About 2 million people visit it each year, but that number is steadily increasing as tourism continues to spike by leaps and bounds in Iceland. 2014 was considered Iceland’s strongest tourist season to date, and by August of 2015 that measure had already been surpassed according to my very knowledgeable and proud driver, Kristinn. Thankfully however for a sunrise shoot, only crazy photographers like myself were there, so I did not have to fight for unobstructed views to photograph.

Gullfoss is an example of a waterfall forming where the water has followed a fissure in the lava-laden landscape and carved a passageway through it. The falls themselves consist of a three-step cascading staircase, which then abruptly plunges in two stages into a thundering 2-mile long, 105 foot deep crevice, about 66 feet wide.