Back from Iceland

I know its been a been quiet on here this month but I do have a good excuse.

These are the first four random images from my recent trip to Iceland. This was meant to be a walking holiday with my wife M and friends G&S and certainly not a business-based photography trip, so spending hours waiting around for the right light, setting up shots carefully and searching out the best vantage points was not really possible. Instead I simply had to grab whatever opportunity arose for photography as we walked.

Graham Looking Towards Volcanic Steam Vents in the Starihver Geothermal Area on the Laugavegur Hiking Trail Fjallabak Iceland


With that in mind it has to be said that from a photography point of view it could be pretty frustrating at times. There were occasions when I could see so much photographic potential but having to consider others meant I sometimes had to walk away from a shot that given some improved light, or an opportunity to spend more time composing an image would have produced better results.

This is not a moan by the way and it has to be said my wife M and friends G& S are incredibly patient when I stop for yet another photo session. They do have a limit as to how much standing around they are prepared to do though. Especially so at the end of a 14-hour day when all they want to do is get the tent up and have a brew and a meal. There were a few sighs and the onset of transient deafness now and again, but nobody shouted at me in frustration, or threatened to throw my camera in a river.

Trekking wise this trip was everything we had hoped for and occasionally a bit more than we bargained for. We had fun, solitude and adventure contrasting with dangerous river crossings, equipment failures, pain and exhaustion - importantly there was also a great deal of laughter.

Icebergs in the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon Vatnajokull National Park Iceland


There were sights that left us speechless as we stood on mountain peaks, or above snaking glaciers and milky white rivers. We walked through dust storms, clouds of sulphurous steam, past bubbling mud pools and boiling streams. We crossed snowfields, desert moonscapes and miles of ankle breaking lava fields. Got scared crossing rivers, fretted about snow bridges and had to detour around volcanic quick sand. We got burned by the sun and rubbed raw by the dust. Surprisingly we hardly had any rain.

Split Rock and Icebergs in the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon Vatnajokull National Park Iceland


We wild camped and set our tents up on flat grass and soft and bouncy beds of moss with wonderful views. In contrast we also set them up on bleak volcanic ash fields and among the stones and boulders that pass for campsites at Landmannalaugar and the mountain hut Hoskuldskali.

We stood in awe at the scale of it all and on the days we hardly saw a soul felt that wonderful feeling of wildness and isolation.

The View over the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon Vatnajokull National Park Iceland.


The word WOW was certainly used a lot, as was "mmmm I don't think we are quite where we thought we were".

In short it was BRILLIANT

We walked from Halaskjol to Alftavatn then followed the Laugavegur Hiking Trail to Landmannalaugar where we spent a few days hill bagging. Next we headed up to the Skaftafell area to climb a few hills there and do a bit sightseeing.  Once I get the shots processed I will do a more detailed write up and possibly a video.


All images and text copyright David Forster/www.bluestoneimages.com