Iceland

August 2013

Iceland

In August 2013 I travelled to Iceland. It was my second time and I always love being there. My love to Iceland started in the late nineties following the upcoming Iceland music scene. I really enjoyed listening to Sigur Rós, Rökkurró and other bands. What I really liked was the spheric and melancholic side of this music. Moreover I was impressed by their courage to make music with such a strong focus on their homeland – regardless of any commercial success.
All this made me curious to see Iceland myself. Finally in 2007 I made the trip. I did the beautiful trekking tour from Landmannalaugar to Pórsmörk and I spent time in Reykjavik strolling through music shops, book shops and cafes. Right from the start I have felt deeply connected to the Icelandic way of life and especially the landscape. One of my most favourite memories is the moment when I reached the wide mountain scenery around lake Álftavatn listening to Sigur Rós. To me this was a perfect blend of music and landscape.

In 2013 I wanted to travel to Iceland to do landscape photography – not only at the coastal areas along the main highway, I also wanted to spend time in the highlands. Therefore I decided to join an organized 4WD Tour with tent accommodation. What I really liked about the tour concept was the fact that the group members could decide on the tour itinerary themselves.

The following two weeks we had the opportunity to explore some of the most beautiful places on Iceland – e.g. Askja, Jökulsárlón, Mývatn or Landmannalaugar.

All images below were taken with a Canon 5DMK2 with two lenses (70-200 L 2,8 II and 16-35 L 2,8 II).

We drove along the Kjölar route up north and stopped at Kerlingarfjöll. The landscape reminded me of Landmannalaugar. But becauce of the vast amount of hot springs and small streams with boiling hot water, Kerlingarfjöll has a very special and different atmosphere. Everywhere you look there is something steaming and bubbling.
Hiking up and down the clayey hills I observed a group of mountain bikers. I was both stunned and facinated. How can you ride a bike in such an area? The ground was so clayey that I was worried to get stuck with my walking boots and lose one of its soles (what unfortunaltely happened some days later in Húsavík as a result of clayey ground and shoe cleaning in a steamy stream in Kerlingarfjöll). I was very lucky to caputure this brief moment of contemplation in front of a typical Kerlingarfjöll scenery.

Vik is the rainiest spot in Iceland. I obviously got a lucky moment without the rain. It is hard to imagine that this rather quiet and peaceful picture has been taken from a very busy and loud car park right next to a tourist shopping center and a petrol station.

I cannot make up my mind which image of Dyrhólaey I like most. So you have to make do with both of them. When I visited Dyrhólaey beach – with its beautiful small and big black stones – it was a very windy and rainy day. Dyrhólaey is – in my opinion – the perfect spot for such rough weather. I observed tourists approaching the shore line to get a close look at the enormous waves. But when the waves crushed, they realised that the waves would capture them and they ran away panicky.

It was a very rainy and windy day. It wasn’t a pleasure to set up the tents. Part of the camp ground was a building which looked like a community center. As you can see this place had lots of character.

I was really looking forward to seeing the ice lake of Jökulsárlón. It’s located right next to the biggest glacier of Europe – the Vatnajökull. While taking photographs I completely forgot about the huge amount of tourists around me. The scenery changed rapidly due the floating iceblocks in the lake and due to the fast moving clouds. So every minute a new interesting motive came up for a photographer.