I’m no stranger to cold, northern climates. Having spent a fair bit of time up north in Norway, I was excited to explore what Iceland had to offer over the following 2 weeks.
I was prepared for extreme weather, gale force winds, and crowds that would be mistaken for armies, overloading every beautiful tourist site there was to see.
Albeit, my experience was far different, leaving a sweet sweet taste in my mouth and a longing for more.
Iceland: Sorcery, Rhubarb Crumble and $10 Tinnies
First stop on the trip was Reykjavik, Iceland’s bright and colourful capital city. I’d heard good things of the town and the food. We spent two nights here, hanging about in our little airbnb. The weather was dashingly sunny, and quite warm. It was a nice change to Sydney’s miserable weather (never thought id say that, thanks La Niña!)
Two nights in the city proved to be enough, as we were increasingly keen to get out and explore the rest of Iceland.
I was determined to capture this new place in a way I hadn’t necessarily seen before.
I feel like Instagram has destroyed many parts of content creation and travel photography.
Photographs are no longer a representation of how you see a place in relation to your own experience, but a search for popular locations to have your own take on them.
Iceland’s Renowned for its waterfalls, and that’s because there’s plenty of them, and they’re all seriously beautiful. Glymur was the first stop and it was incredible. The second largest waterfall in all of Iceland, and one that you can view from the top.
It feels like a place you’d see in a movie, mind blowing.
Aesthetic houses. Everywhere…
My mum had never seen the northern lights before, and its not very common to see them this early in the year, so I didn’t want her getting too high hopes. This night was quite clear and we had a fair bit of driving to do before we reached our campsite. We were up in the North Eastern part of the country, in the West Fjords. One of the best places to see the northern lights!
Driving along, we kept peering out the windows, to hopefully catch a peak, not too much luck. Until mum spotted a light green looking cloud, lifting her phones camera up to see if it could reveal a bit more green colour… We were on.
I drove further as it kept developing and getting stronger. We came across a famous spot, a black church, that has been heavily photographed with the northern lights behind. It proved to be a good foreground spot.
As we arrived to the church and set up, the lights got stronger and stronger. For anyone who’s never seen the lights, they move extremely fast as solar particles interact with particles within our atmosphere. The lights run across the sky, dancing and moving, producing green and sometimes pink colours. It’s an experience you’ll never forget.
Endless winding roads. Too many leading lines to say no.
I think it takes the cake for country with best churches.
We got super lucky with the weather. Apparently this Summer in Iceland wasn’t the best, and it had come late, right at the start of Spring, just for us.
We spent 11 of the 14 days there in mostly sunshine, which seems incredibly for a country like Iceland. One of the days we spent most of the day in fog, which for a photographer, was a welcomed change.
Moody. Moody. Moody.
We pulled up late to this campsite, which happened to have a thermal pool next door to it. It was about 11pm, and it looked seriously like a movie scene. I think I walked around it for 30 minutes taking photos from every angle. It’s nice to be excited and inspired by an arrangement of compositions, light and colour.
Passed this cool ol abandoned ship. Fun to explore and take piccys in, never going to stop being a kid.