First post from Iceland

We are currently in Iceland, where we will be setting up a photo tour for next year, to photograph this amazing country in winter time. 

Marsel photographing an artistic viking ship at sunset.

We started our trip with a few days in Reykjavik. It is a very small city and the old center has some interesting buildings. There are a number of nice locations to shoot in and around the city. 

Left: the big church in Reykjavik is set up high on a hill in the old city centre.
Right: When the tide is high at night, the shallow edges freeze, forming white cracked ice balls where rocks and seaweed are, when the tide gets low again.

The third night we already saw the northern lights, so we headed out to a location we had photographed earlier that day: a nice site with white houses and water in front of it. We were very happy we bought insulated rubber boots at a local fishing store, so we could stand in the water while shooting and not get cold feet! The aurora borealis turned up really early and the spectacle started at 8 o'clock at night. It was quite static, but in the perfect position and we could make a really nice composition with the green band of light framing the houses and reflections in the water. 

This photo was taken with my iPhone, photographing the back of Marsels camera.

Weather conditions can be quite harsh, with lots and lots of wind, clouds, rain, snow - we have had it all in our first week. But it is worth it, because if you can shoot, the landscape is just wonderfully rough and the snow really adds to the beauty of the scenery. 

You can't go to Iceland and not visit the many waterfalls it has to offer. There are some that are really spectacular when it comes to their height, width or the amount of water that goes through them with great force. Impressive to see them. 

At the moment we are staying at a glacier lake, with a black sandy beach. The lake itself is probably more impressive in the summer, when more pieces of ice break from the glacier and icebergs float around in the lake. 

Unfortunately the panorama app on my iPhone had some glitches, so it's not perfect, but MAN... what a surreal place!!!

Now it is more ice plates that flow with the tide in and out of the lake, but the blueish chunks of ice that are scattered around on the black sand of the beach make it all very pretty! Now only if that aurora will come back tonight and do it's thing at the right spot :-)

Daniella (all photo's in this post were shot by me on my iPhone)