It is 1 a.m.; after sunset we stand alone on the shore of Þingvallavatn in the middle of the night at twilight and we enjoy the great view of the only place in the world where divers can swim between two tectonic plates. The shore is full of plants, flowers and animals. While the red-throated-divers call in the distance, a troop of little Odin's grouse flies directly in our direction and we watch them for a while at close range. The mood is exuberant, the air is cool - I take a deep breath and think, "YES, this is it" in this tremendous scenery.
With these lines I would like to share one of the great moments of our trip, which Christina and I were able to spend with a wonderful group of 5 enthusiastic landscape photographers. As a nature-based photographer, the fascination and vastness of Iceland often lie in the quiet moments; neither a waterfall, nor a volcano, nor a flyover is necessary.
Again, we enjoyed Iceland in summertime, which is becoming my personal favourite time due to the distinct fauna and flora. Therefore, we also decided to spend more summer time there from next year.
This year we also turned the day/night times upside down. The longest session lasted from about 20:00 to 06:30 in the morning. During the day, when the light was too harsh and the spots too full, we rested a lot and kept ourselves busy with some theory and useful exchange. At night we were completely alone again - so you could really enjoy the spots. 😎
What I personally find remarkable about Iceland is that even if you've been there many times, there are always new perspectives or motifs. I will first show 2 series of 20 pictures each and 75% of the perspectives or motifs I have not been able to photograph even close to this in the last few years. So for the first time I managed to take decent pictures of a rocky landscape that I had already scouted 2 years before; also an extraordinarily beautiful lupine field, waterfalls that were unknown to me, and for the first time snow buntings, red-throated divers, skuas and golden plovers.
This is mainly due to the diversity of the places. I always tell my participants to take note calmly, to capture maybe 1% of the possible motifs on a trip, otherwise you put too much pressure on yourself. A good example is the glacier lagoon Jökulsarlon. You could drop me off there for a whole month with just my 600 telephoto and I would devote myself in detail to the Odin's coots, star divers and Arctic foxes, of which I now know several habitats within a 10-minute drive. But I'll have to catch up on that in the future 😉
In the first part I have selected 20 landscape pictures for this blog entry and in the second part there will be 20 pictures from the fauna and flora of Iceland, paired with a small report on the Nikon Z 400/4.5.
Thanks at this point to my Nikon dealer Klaus Rudolf from the Servicepoint Munich, who got me a second Nikon Z8 and a Z 24-120/4 at very short notice for this trip, which I could put to good use, more about that in the second part.
A special thanks to our great "troop": to Holger, Elke, Rebekka, Vicky and Séverine 🙏 Furthermore, Christina und Kathrin (Brockmann Phototravel) have made this beautiful trip possible, which I definitely could not do alone.
In September we will be in the north again for a longer period of time - until then I will be happy to put my feet up in the heat, after this intensive first (photo) half-year. The only thing I'll be finalising before the next trip is a series I've started on rabbits and deer.
I hope you enjoy the pictures and send my best regards 🖐
Thomas
I hope you enjoyed the series 😀🖐