7 Photo Spots in the wild and untamed nature of Iceland
Finally, one more destination to tick off my bucket list. In June 2015, I flew to Iceland for a five-day road trip along the famous ring road. After one night in Reykjavik, I loaded my 4WD rental car with a few supplies to see and experience the wild and untamed nature of Iceland.
For this blog post, I curated a set of 7 photos of places I visited during this road trip. Enjoy!
Skogafoss Waterfall in Iceland
Skogafoss is roughly two hours by car from Rekjavik, and it was one of my first stops. This waterfall is not only impressive when standing right in front of it. You'll find several stairs on the righthand side of the waterfall that you can climb and enjoy a stunning view from the top.
While you climb the stairs, watch out for rainbows on sunny days. Usually, they're only visible for a brief period when the light is just right.
And if you have some more time to spend, follow the hiking trail once you've climbed the stair.
Skogafoss in Iceland
I've to admit that I retouched this photo a bit. About two dozen people were standing in front of the waterfall. So I used Touch Retouch App to remove a few of these people. Looks way better, doesn't it?
Black Beach in Iceland
Just 30 minutes from Skogafoss by car is another excellent place to see the black beach. It's famous for, you guessed it, it's a beach full of black gravel and its basaltic rock formations.
Waves breaking at the Black Beach in Iceland
Taking this photo was a bit difficult. To avoid the iPhone getting wet, I set up my iPhone tripod and used a remote shutter release. Also, I used a Moment Telephoto Lens to take the photo from a perceived safe distance. Nevertheless, the iPhone got a bit wet, but luckily, nothing happened. It would have been challenging to find an Apple Store here.
See Svartifoss after a one hour hike
Unlike many other spectacular sights, the Svartifoss waterfall is not located near the ring road. You have to take a one hour hike through a beautiful landscape to reach it. Here's the breathtaking view that you'll experience once you've hiked the last, small, hill.
Hiking to Svartifoss
Jökulsarlon, the Glacier Lagoon
The well-known glacier lagoon was the turning point of my road trip. I spent an entire day here and even took a boat trip on the glacier lake. But the most remarkable experience was that I could witness and iceberg flipping over from the lakeshore. It was simply spectacular. This is a closeup of the iceberg that flipped over, taken during a boat tour.
An iceberg that just flipped over an hour ago
To enhance stunning blue colors a bit, I use the same method that I described in my blog post about how to change the color of water in Lightroom.
Strokkur Geysir
I spent the last two days in Reykjavik and Mae several half-day trips from there. One of these trips led me to the Strokkur Geyser, one of the few Geysers that erupts quite regularly every 10-15 minutes or so.
Strokkur Geyser erupting
Using the burst mode of the iPhone helped me to get this beautiful photo right after they Geyser erupted.
Gullfoss Waterfall
A must-see is Gulfoss waterfall. It's so damn huge - and quite loud, too. To give you an impression of the size of this waterfall, I placed a few people inside the frame. Can you spot them?
Gullfoss Waterfall. Can you spot the people?
Hraunfossar Waterfall
Visiting this waterfall was probably the calmest and relaxing experience during the entire trip. When I arrived, I just saw one bus there - and this bus was about to leave. So it was just me and my camera with no other people there.
So I sat down on one of the benches and enjoyed nature.
A long exposure of Hraunfossar waterall in Iceland
To make this long exposure with iPhone of the waterfall, I used Slow Shutter Cam App mounted to my tripod. By the way, I lost one of my Joby Griptight iPhone tripod mounts there. So if you find it, take it as a present with all the best from me.
