Welcome to the Mavericks storytelling blog by our creative director and chief storyteller Mono Ghose.
You can also find Mono’s writing on his sports, mindset & books Substack publication Reading the Game
You can view Reading the Game on this link or subscribe below: https://readingthegame.substack.com
For those looking for daily life-hacks you can read Mono’s critically-acclaimed daily newsletter The Daily Dad here or Subscribe below
“O land, as some cave by the sea where the treasures of old have been laid, The sword it may be of a king whose name was the turning of fight,”
- William Morris
This is my first photograph released from my film and research trips undertaken during the past year or so (2021/2022).
I call it the ‘meeting of rivers’, and it was taken in a stunning gorge in south Iceland whilst researching a commercial I was directing for a boutique tourist agency. Please read below for my thoughts on the trip and watch or subscribe to the website for more of my travel photography and writing on my experiences in Iceland, Rwanda, hiking Kilimanjaro, Tanzania and a historic Flamenco route in Andalusia.
Copyright Mono Ghose - shot on my Sony A7iii, 18mm (prime), f2.8, 1/320
I took the above photograph from a walkway that hung perilously over this gorge. Landscape photography can at times be difficult to find a story and subject, but in my experience, I like to get the narrative in my head before I click.
Here I noticed the meeting of rivers of various colours: Russet, turquoise, aquamarine and white. The odd folds of moss-covered gorge walls provided a natural vignette and I instantly saw the composition. Personally, I don’t like heavily worked images, and think premier photography and film relies far too heavily on post workflow, so I aimed to get it all in one shot with no tripod, and this is the result.
* * *
“There are elves hiding in the walls,” whispered a mellifluous voice.
Turning I saw a little white-haired, blue-eyed girl grinning. One of our guides on the long trek, she admitted that some in Iceland still believed in the ancient Sagas that have equally influenced so many fantasy writers in the past.
It’s easy to get lost in the landscape and imagine other worlds beyond your fingertips. One minute it’s like being in The Lord of the Rings, another you’re on Jupiter. It’s a stark, arrestingly beautiful and alien landscape that must be seen to be believed.
Stay subscribed to read my next entry and photograph for Iceland and keep posted on future entries for my recent trip to Africa (February 2022), Spain and Costa Rica (Summer 2022).
