Winter in Iceland

I had the great opportunity to visit and experience Iceland this winter. I flew into Reykjavik and from there branched north and spent two weeks exploring and photographing the Eastern and Southern coasts as well as the two peninsulas on the south and west side. Unfortunately, the northern sector was blocked for us during our stay due to the filming of the latest installment from the Fast and Furious franchise. During the trip the weather was not very cooperative so there are lots of cloudy and moody shots. We spent days shooting in the rain and welcomed the clearing skies and took advantage of them when we could. We started the trip with a stop at Stogafoss Waterfall, which is about a 200-ft. powerful waterfall, and then continued to Reynisdrangar, which are basalt sea stacks, accentuated by a black sand beach.

Vatnajokull Glacier is an outlet glacier which originates from the Oraefajokull Volcano and ends in the Fjallsjokull Lake (glacier lagoon). It is located on the eastern side of Iceland and is part of the Vatnajokull National Park. The blue ice on top is clear and clean compared to the portions of the bottom that scrape the earth carving fjords from the volcano to the lagoon. Here are a couple shots of glacier and glacier lagoon.

The icebergs are created from the sheering of the ice from the glacier. The three shots are of the ice lagoon with the first taken during the day, the second at sunset and the final after dark (about 11pm - If you look close you can see the stars).

Some of the Ice Lagoons are open to the ocean and the icebergs can float out to sea and get redeposited on the coast line. Included here is an action shot from the "Ice Beach" of Jokursarlon.

I also had the opportunity to visit and crawl through an Ice Cave which is also part of the glacier. These caves are formed by the ice melt and run off during the warmer months. I have included a few below: First is shooting back towards the mouth of the cave, the second shows a path leading deeper, the third shows how low the ceiling was as we got back towards the rear of the cave and the final shot is an abstract shooting straight up capturing the side of a vent in the ceiling.

You can’t visit Iceland and not capture some of the amazing northern lights. The weather service predicts the quality of the northern lights and issues these predictions with the best times and locations for viewing. The entire time we were there we only had a prediction/rating of 3 on a scale of 10. Here are a couple of shots taken on these nights with only a rating of 3 so you can imagine how spectacular they can be.

Heading back to the south central we went on a hunt for some of the local Icelandic Horses. We didn't have to look for long when we came across this beautiful herd below.

Iceland was a fantastic place to visit and vacation.  The people were all extremely nice and the food was wonderful.  The weather gave us a little trouble but I was still able to capture some of the beauty of Iceland and hope you enjoy!