Skeiðará Bridge Monument
The Skeiðará Bridge Monument preserves two massive, mangled steel girders that were torn from a bridge during a catastrophic glacial flood triggered by the 1996 Grímsvötn volcanic eruption beneath Vatnajökull glacier. The wreckage has been left in place as a permanent marker of the flood's power, and the raw, twisted metal makes for a striking subject against the surrounding volcanic landscape. Shoot wide to include the expansive black sand outwash plain and the glacier in the background, or move in close with a standard to short telephoto lens to emphasize the scale of the damage and the texture of the warped steel. Overcast days work particularly well here, as the soft diffused light brings out the detail in the metal without harsh shadows. The monument sits just off the Ring Road and is easy to pull over and access directly. (Svínafell, Iceland)
