Iceland 2019
A dream came true: despite having a 9-month old son, we made this decision in seconds. Parental leave in the land of fire & ice. A new masterpiece was ordered directly...
A Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 sharpshooter, my new everyday and night lense! In a bundle with my Tokina 11-20mm f2.8 a great duo for landscape photograhy with very wide blue nature. A stable tripod, warm and waterresistant clothes & shoes, ND Filters and a spare body just in case my D500 breaks were essential within my handluggage-sized photobackpack.
Before I could feel prepared fot that once-in-a-lifetime adventure I had to go to my personal trainer "Mark Robertz" and take my second week of lessons and intensive shootings on the isle of Rügen to empower myself for panoramics, long expos and sunrises during our creative adventure.
Iceland is by far the northernmost country I have ever been for photo expeditions.
Reykjavik
Surprisingly awesome and the greatest welcome with a flamed sky above the iconic Voyager of the sun. We took a breakfast to go - directly from the icelandic warm bakery and fell in love.
During the days we discovered the most cosy capital on earth and its cafés, bars and restaurants. With the sun going down, I was going out again to capture the viking's church sunset in different settings from wide-angles to vertical panoramas on top of the city hill, while Julia was enjoying the nice appartment with Joni.
Viking's Cathedral
Viking's symbol
Voyageur of the sun
Sunset
The Golden Circle
Some do it in 1 day from the capitol - we planned to stay more than 3 days.
Strolling out of Reykjavik with our full-sized pick-up, we stopped at the first got spot on our road trip. The children of the forrest captured a scene here. Pingvellir was awesome as well, famous for the old ting-place and with an incredible foss on the rim of the tectonic plates, that crash here. I found a great spot on the edge of a platform to capture Oxara Foss with my Tokina super-wide angle in long expo..
My very first Geysirs and Strokkur was errupting very regularly. Funny to catch with a very short exposure - but wet without a zoom objective.
So close to our lovely appertement, we were stunned as of the first impression: The golden fall Gullfoss. After trying some first impressions on the afternoon we came back as early as possible in the next morning, 1h before sunset:
South Coast
With a big smile on our face, we headed south and visited an interactive volcano center - also a great place for gift shopping. Since that day we understand why many roads are closed in winter when we passed some narrow gravel roads with our spiky winter tires.
We came along super famous Seljalandsfoss - it is still a pitty that I wanted to capture the fall from the backside on the way home 1 week later, winter was coming too fast and cut of the track.
Vik i Myrdal
Icelandic weather can be horrible, it was storming for days. Julia nearly broke her arm when leaving the car. We could hardly leave the wonderful cottage, reading books and visiting the shopping center was the center of the days. I tried to reach the famous volcanic black beach Reynisfjara, but was nearly blown away and my gear crashed from ashes and flying stones.
Kirkjubaerklaustur
Leaving Vik was easy - but we planned to come back some days later. Our next step was just Klaustur for us, we still do not know how to say that. Finding our cottage was an advanteur itself, our green cottage was just awesome and completly integrated into the world of thousand hills. We discoverd the small canyon of Stjornafoss during the afternoon, only 2 other hikers came along.
The sunset was a blast, I enjoyed the 360° panorama captures on one of the green hills behind our cottage and just left when the sun was completely down. Always look behind - the opposite glacier was also glowing.
Skaftafell Nationalpark
We just wanted to stop by, have a break and continue our road trip. Skaftafell was such a beautiful place, a great hike to our first glacier with a small lagoon in the autumn sun of Iceland - just perfect. For this reason, we came back one week later to repeat the hike and the fine lunch. We even paid the parking touchless by credit card, like everywhere on Iceland - we did not see any icelandic currency in our hands.
Diamond Beach
Heaven on earth for landscape photographers. We first came to Diamond beach on a sunny afternoon, perfectly equiped with rain boots, tripod and nd filters. All was white, blue and black - I could have stayed there forever. Julia enjoyed the hike with Joni in her jacket.
Coming back as early as possible was key to success for the next morning. Purple sky and orange glowing glacier pieces on black volcanic sand. The breakfast afterwards could not have been beter serving everything we wanted, even fresh wafles.
A 3rd visit was a no-brainer. Again a different light setting, much darker water and a very mystique atmosphere surrounded the former glacier.
Glacier Lagoon & Ice Cave
When salty ocean water hits the glacier the ice starts melting and large blocks of ice fall into the water and drift out to the sea with the current. Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon is a natural spectacle especially when cruising around with a amphibious vehicle. Julia and Joni also enjoyed this family trip around drifting icebergs that could have sunken the Titanic. A very short expo is a must, as the boat is moving all the time as well as the icy rocks.
Even the ride to the Glacier Ice Cave was awesome. A super jeep drove us up to the glacier, in between we had to flatten the tires to get through the gravel road. Normal cars even with 4x4 would never get there. The cave was absolutely stunning, walking down 15m in a very narrow glacier crevasse. All covered with blue colours I have never seen before, ending in a very dark hole... My ultra-wide angle was the best gear to capture the beauty on a very tiny path through the cave.
Coming home to foss hotel was like a parship dream come true, Julia was waiting with a glass of my favourite red wine at the super cosy living room to enjoy the happy hour with my family. Pure Iceland Love.
Höfn
The eastern most point of our journey was worth each mile as we came along many glaciers and natural sensations. We enjoyed a great dinner with Joni and had a lovely walk in the morning with a great view on glaciers via the morning bay. A specials thanks to Anne and Bernie for adding Iceland into our wedding travel book.
Vik i Myrdal
Back to Vik, this time in a lovely guesthouse with an amazing dining room made from dark glass. It was still windy, but the heavy storm was gone. We finally made it to Reynisfjara and were blessed with a geourgous sunset shooting, orange light and purple sky. Dyrhólaey was part of our trip home and still to windy, but I got a glimpse of its beauty, when standing up on the rock and looking down to this awesome black beach. We really loved the days in Vik, shopping icelandic clothes and dining in very tasty restaurants, soup delis and cafès.
Skogafoss
Iceland farewelled us with a rainbow over icing Skogafoss. Climbing up the steps was heavy, due to the cold wind, but worth its effort as I was getting an impression of the water power up there. It was a long run back to Reykjavik, the last part was awesome when we drove up to a inner highlands leading to the capitol. Iceland was a great adventure for our family, Joni was the perfect reason to get up hours before sunset, to get to the perfect spots.
Iceland took me to another level of photography, not defined by quality primarily, but definitly from a mindset perspective.
