TOUR OF ICELAND
TOUR OF ICELAND A PHOTOGRAPHIC TOUR AROUND ICELAND WITH CHRISTIAN FLETCHER & ANTONY SPENCER
SHELDON PETTIT PHOTOGRAPHY
THURSDAY 5TH MARCH Its 7:30am and my phone’s just received a message. It's Christian. He can't sleep, and he's hungry. I'm also starving, so we head down for breakfast. Shortly we’re joined by our other tour guide, Antony Spencer. Eventually the other guys surface and we come up with a plan for the day ahead. We decide to head for Blue Lagoon in Grindavìk. Christian and Tony have to collect our second hire car, so they drop us off to explore. This place is amazing! Lava flow rocks, covered in snow, hail and moss, and this beautiful blue water. The water is the leftover process water from the geothermal power station. Blue Lagoon has a massive swimming area, and it’s full of people in bikinis and board shorts – pretty strange when it's snowing and blowing a gale! Tony and Christian meet us back at Blue Lagoon for lunch. We decide to travel a bit further down to the coast to check out some impressive sea stacks on the Reykjanes Peninsula. Christian’s driving one of the hire cars on the trip, so he needs to learn how to drive a left hand drive car, on the opposite side of the road! This provides a lot of laughs on the trip down to the sea stacks, with Christian constantly using the windscreen wipers as indicators, and reaching for the gear stick on the left hand side (it's on the right!). We arrive at the sea stacks unharmed, and what an impressive sight! The storms around the place have whipped up a huge swell, something I have never experienced before. The 20ft plus waves smash into these sea stacks and coastline, the sea spray is incredible! Not very good for shooting, unfortunately. It would have been awesome to create some long exposures from this 9
area, but the sea spray is just too strong. We try to find some shelter, and we get a few shots off where we can. There's a nice lighthouse up on a hill, Graeme finds out later on that this was the first lighthouse built in Iceland. We finish up here and head back to our hotel. The rest of the workshop crew should start to arrive soon, so we have some chill-out time before meeting downstairs in the restaurant. Tony tells us we might see an Aurora tonight. After dinner we head out to see what we can find. We drive back towards the Blue Lagoon and fire off a few shots but there’s no aurora to be found. We head back to the hotel and get some sleep, ready for our trip to Vik tomorrow
10
FRIDAY 6TH MARCH The workshop officially starts today, but it doesn't get off to a good start. Iceland is experiencing its worst winter in 10 years, according to some locals. Most of the roads are closed. Our itinerary is thrown out the window. We decided it's best to stay another night in Keflavìk – wait to see what the road conditions are like tomorrow. There are
other guys who have stayed in Reyjkavik, so the boys tell them to book another night there. We will pick them up tomorrow when we have a new plan of attack.
11
At lunch time we head out to a nice little restaraunt in Keflavìk. The food is great and the five-time world champion pint of Gull is cold, so we definitely can't complain! We decide to head out to the same areas as yesterday to see what we can come up with.
We travel back up the road to shoot the lighthouse on the hill. There is some really nice light, and everyone is happy to be out shooting. After an hour or so we return to the hotel and discuss our plans for the next 9 days.
At the Reykjanes Peninusla we shoot the sea stacks. The wind is blowing even harder than yesterday, and we’re forced to shooting hand held from the car. Its not ideal, but it does provides plenty of laughs.
After dinner its an early night, as we start early for Reyjkavik to collect the two guys there. From there we will go south towards Vik for our first stop. Everyone's excited!
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SATURDAY 7TH MARCH An early breakfast, check-out wheels rolling, headed for the capital, Reykjavik. When we are picking up the boys, we’re told of the world famous Iceland Hotdog Stand. It is a block down the road, so what are you going to do? A few of us are keen to see what all the fuss is about. We are not disappointed – the hot dog is pretty damn good. I have no idea what’s in the three different sauces they put on it, but it’s tasty. Lay-on the fresh and fried onions and it gets the thumbs-up from the lads. We're on our way to Vik, and the scenery is absolutely stunning! Huge, snow-capped mountains everywhere you look. The roads are best described as “slightly sketchy", a term that gets thrown around
a lot on this trip, being used to describe almost anything to do with the weather. En route we pull into a fuel station and duck across the road to shoot this awesome set of snow-capped mountains. The wind has died down a touch, and it's great to be out shooting something different. We get some really nice light with part cloud and some blue skies. Back in the van, and we're off again. We could probably have stopped another five times along the way, but we decide to push-on, as there's lots more to see.
14
15
Next stop is a waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. The place names are providing plenty of entertainment. This waterfall has a path you can follow and actually get in behind the curtain and shoot from there – but not today. The wind is howling, there's spray going everywhere, and the paths are very slippery – or “sketchy” as some might say. My camera starts playing up and I am struggling to get a shot. It's not easy being up on a slippery edge with a camera playing games. I manage to get a few shots and creep back down the stairs to try front on from the bridge. Another bad idea. There are people lined up shooting from the bridge already, plus a constant stream of folks walking over the bridge to take photos with their smartphones. Don't these people know I've come a long way to shoot this and I don't want their footstep vibrations causing soft images?? Anyway, I move off the bridge, try a few more long exposure shots before walking back to the van. Tony Spencer says he hates this waterfall, and today I have to agree with him. Let's hope things improve for the next stop. Next stop is Skógafoss, and what an impressive sight it is. Only problem is that there are people everywhere! And by everywhere, I'm talking probably 300+ people hanging around all photographing this waterfall. It's massive! It stands about 60m tall with a straight drop down. I push past the crowds to shoot from the base. The wind is whipping up a lot of spray, forming a rainbow at the base. What an awesome sight. Everyone gets their shots, and then we’re back on the road to Vik to find some sea stacks.
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We’re treated to some lovely colour in the sky. We line up along the cliff face in front of this impressive sea stack. A classic, long-exposure, receding wave around the stack on the black sand beach is proven winner. We all search for some different compositions, which isn't easy, since we are confined to the cliff face. There’s some more stuff to shoot out on the coast, but the sea spray is just too strong, and its difficult to get out there. Once everyone has finished here the light has finally disappears. It seems to last forever around here. We jump back in the vans to head for our hotel. One problem: Christian has lost the keys to our van, and it's getting darker. We all head off in search of the missing keys, retracing Christian’s footsteps. I'm not sure how many times we ask if he checked his pockets – all of his pockets – but I'm sure it’s close to 50. We get back to the car only to find them sitting on the dashboard: "Oh, that's right – I forgot I put them there". We get back to our accomodation, eat dinner and head to bed... after a little bit of editing, of course.
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SHELDON PETTIT PHOTOGRAPHY
THURSDAY 5TH MARCH Its 7:30am and my phone’s just received a message. It's Christian. He can't sleep, and he's hungry. I'm also starving, so we head down for breakfast. Shortly we’re joined by our other tour guide, Antony Spencer. Eventually the other guys surface and we come up with a plan for the day ahead. We decide to head for Blue Lagoon in Grindavìk. Christian and Tony have to collect our second hire car, so they drop us off to explore. This place is amazing! Lava flow rocks, covered in snow, hail and moss, and this beautiful blue water. The water is the leftover process water from the geothermal power station. Blue Lagoon has a massive swimming area, and it’s full of people in bikinis and board shorts – pretty strange when it's snowing and blowing a gale! Tony and Christian meet us back at Blue Lagoon for lunch. We decide to travel a bit further down to the coast to check out some impressive sea stacks on the Reykjanes Peninsula. Christian’s driving one of the hire cars on the trip, so he needs to learn how to drive a left hand drive car, on the opposite side of the road! This provides a lot of laughs on the trip down to the sea stacks, with Christian constantly using the windscreen wipers as indicators, and reaching for the gear stick on the left hand side (it's on the right!). We arrive at the sea stacks unharmed, and what an impressive sight! The storms around the place have whipped up a huge swell, something I have never experienced before. The 20ft plus waves smash into these sea stacks and coastline, the sea spray is incredible! Not very good for shooting, unfortunately. It would have been awesome to create some long exposures from this 9
area, but the sea spray is just too strong. We try to find some shelter, and we get a few shots off where we can. There's a nice lighthouse up on a hill, Graeme finds out later on that this was the first lighthouse built in Iceland. We finish up here and head back to our hotel. The rest of the workshop crew should start to arrive soon, so we have some chill-out time before meeting downstairs in the restaurant. Tony tells us we might see an Aurora tonight. After dinner we head out to see what we can find. We drive back towards the Blue Lagoon and fire off a few shots but there’s no aurora to be found. We head back to the hotel and get some sleep, ready for our trip to Vik tomorrow
10
FRIDAY 6TH MARCH The workshop officially starts today, but it doesn't get off to a good start. Iceland is experiencing its worst winter in 10 years, according to some locals. Most of the roads are closed. Our itinerary is thrown out the window. We decided it's best to stay another night in Keflavìk – wait to see what the road conditions are like tomorrow. There are
other guys who have stayed in Reyjkavik, so the boys tell them to book another night there. We will pick them up tomorrow when we have a new plan of attack.
11
At lunch time we head out to a nice little restaraunt in Keflavìk. The food is great and the five-time world champion pint of Gull is cold, so we definitely can't complain! We decide to head out to the same areas as yesterday to see what we can come up with.
We travel back up the road to shoot the lighthouse on the hill. There is some really nice light, and everyone is happy to be out shooting. After an hour or so we return to the hotel and discuss our plans for the next 9 days.
At the Reykjanes Peninusla we shoot the sea stacks. The wind is blowing even harder than yesterday, and we’re forced to shooting hand held from the car. Its not ideal, but it does provides plenty of laughs.
After dinner its an early night, as we start early for Reyjkavik to collect the two guys there. From there we will go south towards Vik for our first stop. Everyone's excited!
12
13
SATURDAY 7TH MARCH An early breakfast, check-out wheels rolling, headed for the capital, Reykjavik. When we are picking up the boys, we’re told of the world famous Iceland Hotdog Stand. It is a block down the road, so what are you going to do? A few of us are keen to see what all the fuss is about. We are not disappointed – the hot dog is pretty damn good. I have no idea what’s in the three different sauces they put on it, but it’s tasty. Lay-on the fresh and fried onions and it gets the thumbs-up from the lads. We're on our way to Vik, and the scenery is absolutely stunning! Huge, snow-capped mountains everywhere you look. The roads are best described as “slightly sketchy", a term that gets thrown around
a lot on this trip, being used to describe almost anything to do with the weather. En route we pull into a fuel station and duck across the road to shoot this awesome set of snow-capped mountains. The wind has died down a touch, and it's great to be out shooting something different. We get some really nice light with part cloud and some blue skies. Back in the van, and we're off again. We could probably have stopped another five times along the way, but we decide to push-on, as there's lots more to see.
14
15
Next stop is a waterfall called Seljalandsfoss. The place names are providing plenty of entertainment. This waterfall has a path you can follow and actually get in behind the curtain and shoot from there – but not today. The wind is howling, there's spray going everywhere, and the paths are very slippery – or “sketchy” as some might say. My camera starts playing up and I am struggling to get a shot. It's not easy being up on a slippery edge with a camera playing games. I manage to get a few shots and creep back down the stairs to try front on from the bridge. Another bad idea. There are people lined up shooting from the bridge already, plus a constant stream of folks walking over the bridge to take photos with their smartphones. Don't these people know I've come a long way to shoot this and I don't want their footstep vibrations causing soft images?? Anyway, I move off the bridge, try a few more long exposure shots before walking back to the van. Tony Spencer says he hates this waterfall, and today I have to agree with him. Let's hope things improve for the next stop. Next stop is Skógafoss, and what an impressive sight it is. Only problem is that there are people everywhere! And by everywhere, I'm talking probably 300+ people hanging around all photographing this waterfall. It's massive! It stands about 60m tall with a straight drop down. I push past the crowds to shoot from the base. The wind is whipping up a lot of spray, forming a rainbow at the base. What an awesome sight. Everyone gets their shots, and then we’re back on the road to Vik to find some sea stacks.
16
17
We’re treated to some lovely colour in the sky. We line up along the cliff face in front of this impressive sea stack. A classic, long-exposure, receding wave around the stack on the black sand beach is proven winner. We all search for some different compositions, which isn't easy, since we are confined to the cliff face. There’s some more stuff to shoot out on the coast, but the sea spray is just too strong, and its difficult to get out there. Once everyone has finished here the light has finally disappears. It seems to last forever around here. We jump back in the vans to head for our hotel. One problem: Christian has lost the keys to our van, and it's getting darker. We all head off in search of the missing keys, retracing Christian’s footsteps. I'm not sure how many times we ask if he checked his pockets – all of his pockets – but I'm sure it’s close to 50. We get back to the car only to find them sitting on the dashboard: "Oh, that's right – I forgot I put them there". We get back to our accomodation, eat dinner and head to bed... after a little bit of editing, of course.
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