First Pic from Iceland 2012 - Sunbreak through the Storm

I decided that I wanted to spend today doing something entirely for me to make myself happy... turns out the thing I wanted to do the most was work on my photos from Iceland. They've been sitting in one of the computer folders I look at every day, teasing me, and today was the day to make time for them. I got a nice little batch finished, and this is the first one I wanted to share.

Sunbreak through the Storm
Iceland is a phenomenally gorgeous island, but the best part is the diversity - I drove through fjords, black sand beaches, mountains, glaciers, geysers, farmland, fishing villages, and more. I found this moss-covered lava field on one of my last days in the country and got lucky with some awesomely schizophrenic weather. It was early-ish in the morning still, and there was a big storm trying desperately to push across the mountains from one side, and it was hitting the warmer air from the ocean behind me, and creating a fabulous misty rainforesty effect.

I had been driving alone for days, encountering very few people, and was in a very desolate, deserted area. Beautiful as it was, it was definitely lonely. But when I finally drove far enough to make it past the storm and into one of the sunbreaks, the sudden rush of sunshine was like a big huge smile from the earth. All of a sudden I was happy and the world felt right again.