Cool

I wonder if those of you who aren't so into music but who love to follow all things Icelandic are tired of hearing about our Airwaves festival. It's definitely been all over all types of media here for the past week, flooding Twitter feeds and print newspapers and everything in between with rave reviews and slightly blurry, colorful concert photos. It wrapped up on Sunday, but even though the music's over we've still got plenty of visitors hanging out, doing last minute touristy-type things, like going to the top of Hallgrímskirkja or buying last-minute postcards for their mothers. In fact, I'm sitting here in the newly-rechristened Kaffismiðjan (it's Reykjavík Roasters now) with three brand-new and very interesting Airwaves friends hearing the happy chatter of international voices surrounding us.

I'm glad I ended up seeing so many excellent and entertaining Icelandic musicians at off-venue sites around town (scroll down the Iceland Eyes Twitter feed for many of the bands I saw.) Their sets were usually on the short side, but when you get to listen to Múm or Berndsen or Hermigervill live, for free, and possibly even dance on chairs at 6:30 in the evening on a Sunday while doing so (here's proof on the Iceland Eyes Facebook Page ) you certainly can't complain. I'm continually stunned by the power and talent of Icelandic music scene, and will be sure to post regularly about it on our social media feeds.

(The image is of a large, random chunk of ice in front of the Harpa events hall, which was the Airwaves main base this year. It is, in my opinion, a very cool addition to our energetic little city : )

Puffin

GUEST PHOTOGRAPHER: Birgir Gilbertsson

Happy 17th of June Independence Day, Iceland! Today we have a guest photographer, Birgir Gilbertsson, an optometrist at Optical Studio in Smáralind who has an excellent eye for Icelandic nature!

Here's what he writes about this very pretty puffin photo:

This picture was taken out at Dyrhólaey and it was the first time I ever went there. There was a lot of Lundi there and they were so used to have people close to them, that they didn't even bother. This one bird was a little bit closer than the others and I crawled slowly towards him. I managed to get very close and was very exited about that, started taking pictures and got that great shot :)

I love the moments when you have your camera with you and you get "lucky"! 

I've never met Birgir, who is also a triathlete and an Ironman finisher in his spare time, but through a twist of fate where I mistakenly thought that he had taken a certain gorgeous photo* and contacted him to see if I could use it, we began a light correspondance. Since he is also into amateur photography, I thought it would be fun to have him share his work here. He sent me a few shots to consider, and when I saw this little lundi I knew it would fit right in here on Iceland Eyes : )

*The photographer who took this shot admits to having added Photoshopped in the water and the reflection in it of our Harpa concert hall. It's a stunning shot and well conceptualized, but not reality.