Iceland in the Spring

Wayland

Wayland

Messages
101
Edit My Images
Yes
It's been a while since I posted here so I thought I'd bring things a bit more up to date.

I've had an eventful year but one of the better events in our life was the chance to tick something off our bucket list by visiting Iceland.

Skogafoss-D.jpg


How do you even begin to describe Iceland?

Every word you can think of just isn’t enough.

It’s a land that is still in formation sitting on a hotspot and being torn asunder by massive tectonic forces.

The landscape seems impossibly beautiful, as if it has been designed just for landscape photographers.

We took a two week tour in a camper van to see as much of it as we could but barely scratched the surface.

Bruarfoss.jpg


The crystal blue waters of Brúarfoss.

Budir-III.jpg


Frozen lava forms at Buðir.

Anarstarpi-I.jpg


Basalt Columns washed by the sea at Anarstapi.

Kirkjuffellfoss.jpg


Dawn at Kirkjufellsfoss.

Kalfshamarsvik-I.jpg


Pounding surf at Kálfshamarsvík.

Hverarondor-Hverir-I.jpg


Geothermal fumarole at Hveraröndor Hverir.

Jokulsa-a-Fjollum.jpg


Jökulsá á Fjöllum rushing between waterfalls.

(Apparently I can't post more that eight pictures here so I'll try to add some more in the next post.)
 
Stokkesnes.jpg


Black sand dunes at Stokkesnes under the Vestrahorn.

Jokulsaron-Iceflow-VI.jpg


Glacial Icebergs washed by the sea at Jökulsárlón.

Jokulsaron-Iceflow-XI.jpg


More Ice at Jökulsárlón just because I love these shots so much.

Nupsstadur-II.jpg


Turf farm at Núpsstaður. A UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Svartifoss-I.jpg


The dark hanging basalt gallery of Svartifoss.

Arnardrangur.jpg


Arnardrangur and Reynisdrangar from Dyrhólaey.

Gunnuhver.jpg


Gunnuhver on the Reykjanes Peninsula.

After just a few days here we had already resolved to return. Our tour was designed to give us a sample of what Iceland had to offer and it was clear that there was so much more to see. Debs and I will definitely come back to this enchanting and magical landscape before too long.

This is just a small selection of the images I brought home. There are far too many to post up here but if you want to see the whole trip you can find more on my Photo Expeditions web site.
 
We went independently on reconnaissance for some tours we're organising there next spring.
 
I was going to say Wow if it wasn't so cornie and clearly inept! I have not long returned from the Fjords and North Cape and Iceland is next on the list.
Stunning images. Thank you for sharing
 
Very interesting web site, will read more later, looks right up my street!
It never ceases to amaze me how stunningly beautiful this world of ours is ....

As for Norway I spent a bit of time in Terningmoen, at NATO Cold Weather Centre a fair few years ago but no cameras.
Unfortunately Norway is a fairly expensive to visit, but need to go back and add Iceland to the bucket list too!
Keep up the excellent work.
 
We felt that March/April was a great give to visit as the hotspots were much quieter and the residual snow added an extra dimension.

If things go to plan I should be back over in the South and West next Easter.
 
Gary, what a fabulous set ! I especially like the second shot in your first post. I am off to Iceland for 10 days at end of January 2015 (7 days of which are a guided tour with Ronni Hauksson) and am so excited. I must make sure we visit Brúarfoss.
One issue I am working through at the moment is what gear to take and I would appreciate your views :
I shoot with a Nikon D800. I will obviously taking a wide angle lens, but is a 24mm f2.8 enough or could I do with something wider (e.g the 17-35 F2.8 Nikon Zoom)
Is it worth taking a telephoto lens (I have 85mm f1.8 and 80-200)?
Is a flashgun worth carrying (e.g. for ice caves or even back lighting ice boulders) etc?

Thanks in advance.
 
Last edited:
As been said, fantastic stuff. All good so not easy to pick a favourite, but do like the scale and power conveyed in the first, as well as the icebergs and the rock formations at Dyrhólaey.

Looks like a stunning location and one I would love to (and will) visit one day.
 
Awesome photographs. It looks like a truly stunning country. I've often thought about going, but now it's a definite.
The camper van is a great idea, though not sure the other half would be so keen.
 
bigbigblue said:
Gary, what a fabulous set ! I especially like the second shot in your first post. I am off to Iceland for 10 days at end of January 2015 (7 days of which are a guided tour with Ronni Hauksson) and am so excited. I must make sure we visit Brúarfoss.
One issue I am working through at the moment is what gear to take and I would appreciate your views :
I shoot with a Nikon D800. I will obviously taking a wide angle lens, but is a 24mm f2.8 enough or could I do with something wider (e.g the 17-35 F2.8 Nikon Zoom)
Is it worth taking a telephoto lens (I have 85mm f1.8 and 80-200)?
Is a flashgun worth carrying (e.g. for ice caves or even back lighting ice boulders) etc?
Click to expand...

I would say take every lens you can to cover all eventualities although I found 24mm the widest I needed on a full frame. Although I took two flash guns I didn't use either of them and you are much better using natural light in the ice caves to see the range of blues coming through which a flash would wipe out. There are ice cave shots in the link in my sig if you want to take a look. Or here:- http://www.naturalworldimaging.com/
 
What a stunning set of pictures and what a place Iceland is. I just must get there sometime soon:clap:
 
As Andy says, every lens you can carry, you'll probably regret leaving any of them at home.

At that time of year I'll guess you're hoping for Aurora in which case fast and wide is a very big plus.

I rarely crop much in the computer and you can see I favour wide angles.

I was working full frame with a 14mm, 17-40mm, 50mm, 70-200mm and a 2x converter.

The one I used least was the 50mm and I didn't need or use a flash at all.
 
Wayland said:
As Andy says, every lens you can carry, you'll probably regret leaving any of them at home.

At that time of year I'll guess you're hoping for Aurora in which case fast and wide is a very big plus.

I rarely crop much in the computer and you can see I favour wide angles.

I was working full frame with a 14mm, 17-40mm, 50mm, 70-200mm and a 2x converter.

The one I used least was the 50mm and I didn't need or use a flash at all.
Click to expand...

Gary, Thanks for the response. Yes, going that time of year I am hoping for the Aurora - Most of my lenses are f2.8 or better, so should not be an issue. The problem is I have too many lenses and too little hand baggage allowance ! I'll make space for another lens by dropping the flashgun though.
 
I am flying with Flybe - hand luggage allowance is 10Kg, max size 55cm x 40 cm x 23cm. I have a Peli im2450 storm case which allows me just under 6kg of contents.....
Was also looking at a Think Tank Airport Accelerator bag which weighs less than the Peli case and is about as big a backpack as you can get on Flybe as hand luggage.

Other than my tripod and head which I will put in my main suitcase, I really don't want to put any of my photography gear in the hold......
 
Last edited:
I've never had my hand luggage weighed so I'm almost always over.

I have a light weight fishing vest in the bag as well so if they do ever decide to weigh it I can decant all the lenses into the vest and put it on. I've never seen them weigh a person before departure have you?

Once through security I would then be able to repack my bag with no worries.

I think my bag for Iceland was around 16kg on a 10kg allowance.

Some airlines allow you a laptop as extra cabin baggage so that can go in a separate bag with a few bits as well.
 
Last edited:
I have just been looking through the full set of pictures on your website. Wonderful pictures that really inspired me to want to visit Iceland ! Thanks for sharing them with us.
 
Incidentally, my luggage was weighed at Tromso airport and it cost me around £30 for just a couple of kilo's excess !!

Can I ask you whether the images were processed as HDR ? I am not very experienced with the processing side (learning quickly though) and just wondered how you achieved such fine detail and colour.
 
That's the point that I would load up the fishing vest. I've always considered baggage allowances as more of an initiative test than anything else.

Considering the size of some of the passengers they are obviously not going to start telling people that they are too heavy to fly.

Very few were HDR, some were multiple processing of single frames, others were manual blending of two or more frames but most were straight RAW conversions in LightRoom taken as 16 bit files to PhotoShop for final processing.

I usually use "ETTR" exposures which allows plenty of headroom for lifting shadow detail. I use strong ND filters a lot and that allows me to balance some exposures using the "Magic Glove" technique
 
ETTR = Expose To The Right? (of the histogram)
I like the fishing vest idea - I am a fly fisherman too so I already have one :)

I am looking into also getting my D3200 converted to Infrared (665nm) for the trip in January - I have seen some interesting IR shots from iceland and it would give me something a little different from the norm....
 
Sorry, yes ETTR = Expose to the right. It just makes good sense, even with modern sensors, to get as much data as possible in the capture.

The conversion sounds like a good idea, although you might be short of foliage to reflect the IR at that time of year. Snow is more likely.
 
Which one not to buy, dam I would have to take the lots , STUNNING set, 2 is my Fav
 
Last edited:
I can't wait to get back there.

I hope to be leading some tours out there next spring but it seems an awfully long time to wait.
 
I'm thinking about doing three weeks next April and was worried about the ability to actually reach most of the interesting spots. Did you do the ring road or were there interior stops as well? I got the impression that it was basically the ring road only, with it being difficult to get into the interior independently.
 
At that time of year the internal highlands are out of bounds. Not only because of the chance of getting stranded far from help, but also because vehicles cause a lot of damage to fragile habitats and roads in Spring.

We stuck mainly to route one, with a few side trips on major roads so had very little trouble apart from the one incident on the Kálfshamarvík Road.
 
Absolutely stunning set of images....have read your website write up several times & so want to go back . I'd love to get shots half as good as yours ! The ice shot at Jökulsárlón has to be my favorite from those posted ....superb. I went earlier this year but the weather was not good , at all, very very blowy , overcast , cloudy skies & rain...need to revisit in better weather .

I may have missed you saying but who did you organise the camper van through as it sounds an ideal way to do it ?

Cheers
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top