I Fell In Love With Iceland, But It’s A Complicated Relationship

I am a landscape photographer. In July 2015, I traveled to Iceland. During two weeks, I took thousands of pictures. Iceland was on my wish list for a long time. If you like photographing landscapes, you must definitely visit this place. However, you should keep in mind couple of things. These are my personal impressions about Iceland.

The weather in Iceland is unpredictable and extreme. Maybe it’s only my luck, but most of the time it was very windy, rainy, and as for July it was rather cold. However, you should always be prepared for shooting. Sometimes it’s raining for a whole day, and suddenly sun rays break through the thick layer of clouds for a while. When it happens, it’s good to be in nice place, so look to the sky often.

When you consider renting a car, get a 4×4 car. A bigger car can be a good place to sleep in instead of a tent when it’s windy. And on gravel roads which are the only ones in the interior 4×4 car is a must. Besides, by such car you are able to cross rivers. However, in Iceland everything changes very rapidly, from weather to terrain, so check river before crossing it.You should be also aware of sandstorms which can completely destroy car paint in a couple of minutes.

In Iceland, there are also some unusual obstacles when photographing. There are places and periods in which thousands of mosquitoes are flying around you and your camera. At some locations, you may smell strong odor of sulphur in the air, and you couldn’t stay in such place for a long time.

Iceland offers a great variety of landscapes’ types. On such small space, you can see an ocean, coast, fjords, mountains, glaciers, waterfalls, rivers, lakes, volcanos, thermal springs, and fields of lava. It’s like training camp for a landscape photographer. I read a guide when I traveled through Iceland, however, the most beautiful places were those not mentioned in the guide, so follow your intuition to choose the way, use the force!

Iceland is the place I fell in love with, but it’s a complicated relationship. It offers beautiful views, but by extreme conditions it challenged me almost every day. Here is my selection of photographs I captured during this trip.

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