Lögberg-Heimskringla - 15.04.2013, Síða 10

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10 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • April 15 2013
For quite a while now, Rúnolfur Hauksson has been gracing the Lögberg-
Heimskringla Facebook page
with his stunning photographs
of Iceland. We felt so very lucky
when he gave permission for us
to use them, and they quickly
became one of the favourite
features on the page. People
liked them, people shared them,
and people commented on them.
I considered myself even luckier
when Ronni, as he calls himself,
agreed to do an email interview
with me for this newspaper.
Rúnolfur lives in the small
town of Höfn in the south-east
of Iceland. He loves living
there, and shares his home with
his wife Svanný and his two
beloved dogs, seven-year-old
Balto, half Siberian Husky and
half Border Collie and Labrador
Kavú. Speaking about his dogs
seems to bring life to his words
on paper, and his love of them
shines through. About Balto,
Ronni said “many people are
afraid of him and think he is
a wolf. But this is the most
loving dog I have had.” In fact,
Balto has become so famous
that Rúnolfur brings him along
everywhere he can, and has
had to take him on trips just to
show him to tourists. Both dogs
appear from time to time in
Ronni’s photographs. A recent
Facebook posting by a fellow
photographer showed Rúnolfur
crawling out on to the ice to pull
Balto out of the freezing water,
where he had fallen through.
Concern on the Internet was
immediately apparent, for Ronni
of course, but maybe even more
so for Balto.
When asked what had led
him to being a photographer,
Rúnolfur couldn’t honestly say.
He loved being outside with
his dog and his camera. It is as
simple as that. In 2007 he began
to take pictures when he bought
a small camera. He does not
usually have to go far to find the
subjects of his amazing photos.
“Sometimes I just walk 200-
300 metres and take photos of
the sunset here in Höfn,” Ronni
said. However, sometimes he
drives to the icy lakes that exist
in Austur Skaftafellssýslur,
and then his journeys can be
up to 240 kilometres. He never
plans anything, he just goes out
and shoots a few frames if the
light is good. “I know Austur-
Skaftafellssýsla so well, so I do
not have to look for scenes. I
just have to decide what I want
to take photos of when I go out,”
Ronni added.
Perhaps his most popular
and well-known photographs
are those of the aurora borealis.
Rúnolfur started hunting the
lights four years ago. I asked
him how he could gauge when
the “lights” would be best.
When he started he was “mostly
using a website from Alaska
to see when the lights would
show up.” It was not always
successful. “Too bad for me,
because sometimes I drove to
Jökulsárlón when this website
was promising good lights and
was out for eight to nine hours
and did not see any lights,” he
stated. However, two years ago
Ronni was able to download a
program from the Internet which
gives him four hours advance
notice of the appearance of the
aurora “and it has not failed so
far,” Ronni added.
Where are the best places
to go to photograph the aurora,
I wanted to know. Rúnolfur´s
answer was “here we have so
many amazing places to have as
motifs – Hvalsnes, Stokksnes,
all the glaciers and ice lagoons.”
He makes his beloved area of
Iceland seem like something
from a dream, and indeed his
photographs prove it.
I fully admit to knowing
almost nothing about camera
equipment. However, Ronni
willingly helped me out by
explaining the equipment he
uses to produce his wonderful
images. “My camera is an
Olympus E3. It is getting old,
but it still works. It is a really
good camera for everyday use,
but one of the worst you can
get for the aurora.” I find this
hard to imagine, somehow. But
the photographer continued
on to say “I have a few lenses
like 12-60mm Oly, 18-180mm
Oly and 70-300mm Oly.” This
description is, unfortunately, all
Greek to me, but I am sure that to
knowledgeable photographers it
will make perfect sense. “When
I am shooting the aurora, I
use a tripod and my camera
is on manual. The settings
are f2,8 ISO 400 to 800 with
exposure time from 2 seconds
up to 40 seconds,” Ronni added.
Whatever equipment he uses,
and whatever method, this man
is producing some of the most
beautiful images of the aurora I
have ever seen in my life.
Rúnolfur has done other
work in the past, of course. He
recently posted an old video on
Facebook of himself as a captain
at a company named Jökulsárlón.
During his employment there,
he took over 80,000 passengers
out to the lagoon.
What kind of man is this
amazing photographer? From
a story he told me, I concluded
that he is the type of person who
stands his ground and stands up
for his beliefs in what is morally
right. He has done this in the
past, even if it meant difficult
consequences for him. In other
words Rúnolfur Hauksson comes
across as a man of honour.
Ronni was born in Höfn,
Hornafjörður in 1960. His
parents were Haukur Rúnolfsson
and Ásdis Jónatansdóttir. He
is the second youngest of five
children.
I asked Rúnolfur if he
sells his photographs. He
responded that he has sold a
few. He has a few photos on
http://fineartamerica.com and
http://www.imagekind.com He
also has uploaded some of his
pictures to Flickr, and they can
be found at http://www.flickr.
com/ronnihauks However, if
anybody is ever interested in
purchasing any of his images,
the best thing to do would
be to email him directly at
ronnihauks@simnet.is
Ronni has other dreams
for the future as well. “It is my
dream to take people on photo
tours in my area, hunting for
the aurora and taking photos of
amazing landscapes.” I know
that I would go on such a tour
with Rúnolfur Hauksson, and
feel very fortunate to do so.
Personally, I will be watching
to see if his dream comes true.
Judy Sólveig Wilson
Nanaimo, BC
R ú n o l f u R H au k s s o n
This aurora is at Kirkjusandur
and you can see the mountain
Brunnhorn with three peaks. Next
to it is Kambhorn, which is close to
Rúnolfur’s home town Höfn.
PHotos © rúnoLfur HAuksson
The old boat is at Hafnartangi under the mountain Kambhorn, near Höfn.