In early November, I had the great privilege of going on a photography workshop to Iceland with Nigel Danson and James Popys, two incredibly talented landscape photographers from the UK, and some of the bigger names in the YouTube landscape photography world.

In this post, I share a travelogue of the journey, some of the highlights in terms of experiences and photos, and reflections on the opportunity. Perhaps this will inspire you to visit Iceland one day!

(If you are mainly interested in the photos, feel free to skip ahead and check out high-resolution versions here.)

Prep

I had signed up for the workshop in August 2020 after following Nigel for some time on YouTube and taking one of his online classes about landscape photography. I like his videos in particular because unlike many other channels which emphasize developments in gear and comparisons between different camera brands, Nigel really focuses on the art and practice of taking photos. After watching his videos, I frequently come away with a practical improvement to apply to my own photography, whether it's about composition, lighting, or editing. While I still have a lot to learn, over time I've developed a better sense of what tends to "work" in terms of taking photos of landscapes.

Given that, I was excited to have the opportunity to learn from a truly excellent photographer. And what better setting than Iceland, a beautiful and photogenic country just a direct flight away?

The workshop was originally supposed to be in February 2021, but it was rescheduled to November due to COVID. Since traveling during the pandemic can be dicey, I tried not to get too excited in anticipation of further delays, but thankfully, everything worked out the second time.

Gear

Since Nigel and James were organizing all the lodging and photo locations, the main responsibility of participants was to get to Iceland and be ready for a week of long days in the field. Fortunately, Nigel had prepared a fairly comprehensive packing list which I went through during my several trips to REI.

Iceland in November can be a cold and windy, so two standout purchases were the REI rain pants and the Kamik winter boots, which kept my lower body warm and dry throughout the many days of wind, rain, and wading around the beach shore (more on this later).

Getting to Iceland

From D.C., direct flights to Iceland are available and fairly affordable. The main requirement for entry during COVID was a negative PCR test from within 3 days of departure. Somehow, I had escaped COVID testing throughout the pandemic until this moment, so I had the "fun" experience that is PCR tests in the days leading up to the workshop. Thankfully, it came back negative, so I was cleared for departure and everything was a go!

Although the workshop officially began on Sunday, I decided to leave D.C. on Friday evening, since pretty much all the flights are red-eyes, and I wanted a day to get over jet lag. This turned out to be a wise decision, as it meant I could start the workshop in roughly the right time zone. It also gave me the chance to explore Reykjavik, home to over 1/3 of the ~350k residents of Iceland.

Workshop

A typical day in the workshop went something like this:

• Breakfast at hotel or coffee shop
• 2-3 hours of photography at first site
• Lunch at coffee shop near site or on the road
• A drive, followed by 2-3 hours of photography at second site
• Dinner near hotel

One great thing about visiting Iceland at this time of year is that there's so little daylight (roughly 9:30 am -4:30 pm). This meant that we could typically get a full night's sleep before getting to a site for sunrise, and vice versa for sunset.

The sections below will document the locations we saw on each day of the workshop. In total, our travels took us most of the way along southern coast, from west to east. To visualize the journey, check out this map.

Day 1 - Keflavik to Vik

After a night in Reykjavik, myself, 5 other participants, and the two instructors met at the Keflavik airport for the beginning of the workshop. After brief introductions, we hopped into two Toyota Land Cruisers and hit the road.

Our main subject matter that day was water, and we stopped at two waterfalls, Skógafoss and Kvernufoss. Careful placement of people in the frame help give a sense of scale.

Following the afternoon of photography, we checked into Hotel Vik and had some hearty icelandic food.

Day 2 - Around Vik

As Vik is a coastal town, the subject matter during our stay was primarily oceanscapes.

Reynisfjara Beach

Our first stop was at Reynisfjara Beach, which, together with Black Sand Beach, offers a scenic view of offshore sea stacks. The beach near Vik is also known for having deadly "sneaker waves". Basically, one out of every 50-100 waves is massive, so it can be easy to think you are standing in a safe place, only to be caught by surprise all of a sudden.

There was a fair amount of wind on this day, so much of the morning was spent trying to capture just the right wave at just the right moment in just the right light.

Despite the warning sign, multiple participants in the workshop got a little too close to the water and two of them were even swept off their feet! Fortunately their cameras were OK in the end, but having wet boots led to some discomfort throughout the rest of the workshop. It was at this location that I appreciated the importance of shin-high waterproof winter boots!

Adjacent to the beach and safely away from sneaker waves was a small herd of sheep. They were pretty docile, and allowed me to get relatively close for this shot.

While I was in the area, I was treated to a nice double rainbow! Sadly, the lens had some water droplets on the end, which ruins this shot for artistic purposes. I learned to be more careful in the future. However, it would not be the final rainbow of the day....

An impromptu stop

On our way to the next location, we made a rare unscheduled stop. We were struck by the beauty of this scene with the mountain reflections against the low tide.

While we were there, it began to rain, and before long, we were treated to our second rainbow of the day!

Dyrhólaey lighthouse

Our main stop for the afternoon was a lighthouse on the headland overlooking the same beach we were at in the morning. After we dispersed, some stayed near the lighthouse, but I took the opportunity to explore the headland.

It was here that I took one of my favorite shots of the workshop. To me, it captures much of what makes Iceland beautiful - the hills protruding from a long plain, the simple color palette, and the moody weather.

Day 3 - Vik to Höfn

Reynisfjara beach take 2

We stayed in Vik two nights, but our next evening destination would take us far along the eastern coast. On our way out of Vik, we hit the beach again in search of more waves. We were excited because the waves were forecasted to be three times higher than the first day (8 m vs. 2.5 m)!

As expected, the sea was pretty frothy and there was white water everywhere. I personally struggled to compose good shots because the light wasn't very interesting and the waves sort of obscured everything else.

This one is perhaps one of my favorites from this shoot, demonstrating the raw power of the waves against the shore:

Fjarðarárgljúfur (don't ask me how to say that...)

After leaving Vik, we drove up the coast towards Höfn, where we would stay two nights. Along the way, we stopped at a canyon, which provided dramatic views of the river below.

Diamond beach

Perhaps one of the most iconic locations of our trip was Diamond Beach, named for the icebergs which fall off a nearby glacier and wash up on the shore after floating a short way down the river.

We arrived in mid afternoon with just about soft light, which was just about perfect for capturing the beauty of the place.

Day 4 - Höfn

Vestrahorn take 1

Our first stop the next morning was at Vestrahorn, a mountain range with a scenic view near the Stokknes beach. The beach itself is quite nice due to the grassy dunes, and the mountain range in the background makes it very unique.

The iconic shot looks something like this, but for much of the morning, the tops of the mountains were obscured by low cloud cover!

In situations like this, the best move is to try to be creative, finding alternative compositions and focusing on smaller subjects in the scene.

Eystrahorn

Our second stop of the day was at Eystrahorn, another nearby mountain. We parked at Hvalnes Lighthouse, from which we could see both Eystrahorn as well as Vestrahorn in the distance. This was the farthest north that we went during the workshop, and it was also my favorite location of the trip.

In one of my favorite images from the workshop, I managed to be in the right place at the right time to capture this flock of birds well-positioned in the mid-ground of Eystrahorn:

Another thing that made this location unique was the weather - with fairly strong off-shore wind, the tips of the waves would spray backwards as the waves reached the shore:

But wait, it gets even better! When the sun began to set, low cloud cover on the horizon with a thin opening for the sun made for a really intense sunset. All these factors combined to create a really unique scene with the wave tips illuminated by the late afternoon glow:

Vestrahorn at night

On most days, we'd have just two locations to photograph, but this day was special - we had it on good authority that the Northern Lights (or aurora) would be likely to make an appearance! Iceland is a good place to see the aurora, but even in Iceland you need two things to converge - strong magnetic activity and clear night skies. On this night, they were indeed converging, and where better to see the aurora but at Vestrahorn?

Until this point I had done very little astrophotography, so Nigel and James offered a quick lesson that proved to be very helpful - use your widest lens with the largest aperture (to let in as much light as possible), and go for a 10-second exposure with focus near infinity.

After a bit of trial and error, I dialed in the settings and came away with these. Seeing the aurora is never a sure thing, so I'm thankful we had good conditions on at least one of our evenings.

Day 5 - Höfn to Vik

After our second (brief) night in Höfn, the time came to begin making our way back down the coast to Vik, where we would stay another night before wrapping up the workshop.

Vestrahorn take 2

In the morning, we gave Vestrahorn another try, hoping for some better light and less cloud cover. Indeed, coming back was worth it:

Diamond beach take 2

On our way down the coast, we stopped at Diamond beach once again. The lighting was definitely not as good as the first time, and many of the icebergs had melted or were covered in black sand (looking back, I believe the first time we went was after some rain so the ice bergs were relatively clean by comparison). However, there were still a few opportunities for detail shots.

Day 6 - Vik to Keflavik

Reynisfjara beach take 3

Back in Vik, where else to head except for the beaches? However, rather than return directly to the shore, this time, we went for a slightly different angle from the headland.

This turned out to be a bit of a low point for us since conditions weren't very favorable photographically. And outside of photography, they weren't very favorable either - it was super windy, cold, and generally unappealing to be outside for very long. For completion, here are a couple shots:

Skógafoss take 2

As the penultimate stop, we returned to Skógafoss, but decided to walk up the trail in search of other views. This was a good payoff because there were fewer crowds and the falls, while perhaps not quite as powerful as at the base, have more interesting shapes.

Seljalandsfoss

Our final photographic stop was at Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall that gives me a bit of a chuckle because when pronounced in English, it sounds as if the name is advising you to sell your land. In any case, I doubt Iceland is interested in selling this land given how pretty it is.

Reflections

It should be clear from the photos that I really enjoyed my time in Iceland! I'll close with some brief reflections on what I learned and took away from the experience.

• Be inspired by others, but also branch out: For many of the popular locations, there are a handful of "iconic" shots that people tend to take. While it's worth taking them and enjoying them, I found that many of the photos I'm proudest of are ones in which I felt I brought a little bit of extra creativity or experienced something in a different way. Hopefully that process will become easier over time as I improve.
• Be patient, but not to a fault: It can take time to get a composition to "work", especially if there are variables outside your control, like motion, clouds, and light. It's good to allow yourself enough time to not feel rushed, but to also feel the freedom to move on and try something new rather than getting stuck in a rut.
• Follow the light: One thing I observed from others is the importance of having a good sense of where the light is and how the conditions are changing. Especially during sunrise and sunset, conditions can change quickly, and the difference between dramatic light and average light can be just a few moments. While landscape photographers can't control the weather, we can be thoughtful about it so that we're more often in the right place at the right time.
• Repeating locations: I appreciated the opportunity to come back to locations. It meant we didn't have to feel as rushed and we also had a second chance if conditions didn't go our way or we thought of something new after the first time.

Overall, I feel really fortunate to have had this opportunity to visit Iceland. There's a remarkable amount of variety in scenery - where else can you find beautiful oceanscapes, stunning waterfalls, scenic vistas, and majestic glaciers, all within an 8-hour drive?

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed the images as much as I did experiencing and creating them. Be sure to check out hi-resolution versions here. If you or a loved one would like a print, feel free to be in touch!

Appendix - Icelandic food

The food in Iceland, while a bit expensive, was generally delicious and in some cases really excellent. At most restaurants, you could order one of three things: hamburgers, fish & chips, and seafood. Some restaurants also served lamb. I pretty much cycled through the options above.