Where My Iceland Photographs Were Made: 18 Locations

I have 33 photographs from Iceland in the Europe gallery, made in 18 places. Most of them are on or near the south coast, which you can drive in a few days. Here they are by kind of place, with what to know about each.

Waterfalls

Skógafoss. A single curtain of water about 60 meters high and 25 wide, falling onto flat ground you can walk across. On sunny days the spray makes a rainbow at its base, which is the subject of Under the Rainbow. The Return shows the fall and the river leaving it.

Under the Rainbow

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Under the Rainbow, Skógafoss, Iceland.

Seljalandsfoss. About the same height, and narrower. A path goes behind the water. Nordic Veil was made here under a dark sky.

Svartifoss. A thin fall inside a wall of dark basalt columns, in Skaftafell. The columns are the picture. The photograph is Vertical Silence, at the top of this page.

Gullfoss. The river Hvítá drops in two steps into a canyon set at an angle to the river, so from some viewpoints the water seems to vanish into the ground. The Divide shows that.

Aldeyjarfoss. In the north, at the edge of the highlands. One column of water surrounded by basalt columns. The photograph is The Stillfall.

Hraunfossar. Not one fall but hundreds of small ones, where water runs out from under a lava field and into a river. The photograph is Fractal.

Fractal

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Fractal, Hraunfossar, Iceland.

Black sand and sea

Reynisfjara. A black sand beach near Vík with cliffs of basalt columns and sea stacks offshore. Gravitas is the cliff. Old Man and the Sea is the stacks in blue mist. Obsidian looks out at them from inside Hálsanefshellir, the cave at the foot of the cliff.

Take the warning signs here seriously. The waves come much further up the beach than you expect, without warning, and they have killed visitors. Stay well back from the water and never turn your back on it.

Old Man and the Sea

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Old Man and the Sea, Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, Iceland.

Ice

Jökulsárlón. A lagoon at the foot of a glacier, full of icebergs that have broken off it. They drift slowly toward the sea. The photograph is Intrepid.

Diamond Beach. Across the road from the lagoon. The icebergs wash out to sea and the waves push pieces back onto black sand. The Edge of Dissolve is one piece of clear ice on the beach.

Vatnajökull. The ice cap that feeds the lagoon, the largest in Iceland. Silent Mass is one of its glacier tongues coming down a valley.

Intrepid

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Intrepid, Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, Iceland.

Heat

Hverir. A geothermal field near Lake Mývatn in the north, with steam vents and boiling mud. The photograph is The Exhale. Stay on the marked paths, because the ground is hot and thin in places.

Grjótagjá. A small lava cave near Mývatn with a pool of clear blue hot water inside. The photograph is The Chamber.

Valleys, highlands and coast

Þingvellir. A rift valley where the North American and Eurasian plates are pulling apart, and a UNESCO World Heritage site. Afterglow and The Plain were made here.

Þórsmörk. A green valley between glaciers, reached by rough tracks and river crossings. The Silver Lining and Dark Horse were made here.

Landmannalaugar. In the highlands. The Grazing, made here, is sheep scattered across a steep green slope.

Snæfellsnes. A peninsula in the west. The Sound of Music was made here, in meadows full of summer wildflowers.

The northern lights

Convergence, Curtain Call and Lightfall are photographs of the aurora, made near Hella in the south. You need a dark, clear night between about September and April, and patience. The aurora can be faint for an hour and then fill the sky for five minutes.

Convergence

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Convergence, Hella, Iceland.

Practical notes

The weather changes fast and it decides everything. Keep a rain cover on the camera, carry a cloth for spray at the waterfalls, and hold on to the tripod in the wind. In summer it barely gets dark, so there is light to work with late into the night. In winter the days are short and you get the aurora.