In just under 2 weeks, I’ll be hopping on a plane to Iceland to do some focused landscape photography of this beautiful place.

We will be spending some concentrated time photographing black sand beaches, glacial lagoons, ice caves, moss covered lava fields and towering waterfalls.

I will be assisting Bruce Percy again on his 9 day South Iceland Photo Tour. I assisted Bruce in September of 2013, and I must say his tours are top notch. Bruce is an extremely knowledgeable and accomplished photographer, artist and a fantastic tour leader.

I have not yet seen Iceland in winter, and am very excited to see a familiar landscape in a new light. After spending about 9 days on the south coast, we will be heading to the North East.

The landscape in this region is a fascinating collage of lakes, mountains, plains, rivers and lava deserts. We will be based out of a fantastic little guesthouse on the shores of Lake Mývatn, where photographic opportunities are literally right out the front door.

Dyrhólaey Beach, and the Earth Shadow.

I will be taking my 2 trusty Mamiya 7ii camera bodies, 80 rolls of Velvia 50 film, and 3 prime lenses:

• 43mm
• 80mm
• 150mm

The medium format focal length equivalent on a 35mm system is roughly half of what is stated above, so Ill have a range of 21mm to about 85mm…more than enough for this trip. I find if you have too many lenses, you spend way too much time fussing with your gear, which will pull you out of the image making process.

Simplifying your system, in my opinion, is a great step to help you become more present and more aware of your surroundings while out in the field.

Jökulsárlón Glacier lagoon.

 

I’m told that the possibility of Northern Lights is quite high this time of year so I will also be taking a Nikon D800 and 17-35mm 2.8 lens for some night photography.

It is nearly impossible to capture the Milky Way or the Northern Lights on film as the exposure times would be well over a couple hours. In my opinion, this is where a digital system really shines. The fact that I can get well exposed images of the night sky in under 45 seconds on a D800 and a 17mm lens makes it a perfect system for this subject matter.

I hope to have a couple new portfolios up and ready for viewing by the end of April.