I’m currently in the process of planning another photography trip to Iceland, which has had me reminiscing about my last trip, way back in January 2022 when covid masks and travel restrictions were the norm, and film photography seemed like a viable option without selling your kidney on the dark web.
After getting back I’d originally put my favourite images into a short zine, but it didn’t really contain any text outside of a few exerts from the song ‘Ymir’ by Danheim & Gealdŷr. No story of where we’d been, indication of where the photos were taken or information on how they were shot. I eventually never got around to printing the zine, and it’s lived on since as a free download in my store.
Gallery Window | X-T3 + XF 16mm f2.8
During the 10-day trip we originally travelled north from Reykjavic to Kirkjufell, before heading out eastward to shoot the famous Diamond Beach, and the dramatic mountains of Vestrahorn and Stokksnes Beach, then finally making our way back to Reykjavic for a classic trip around the golden circle.
This was still before I’d bought any zoom lenses for the Fuji system, so my gear was limited to the Fujifilm X-T3, the XF 16mm f2.8, XF 35mm f2, and the XF 56mm f1.2, not your typical landscape kit. I’d also packed my Canon EOS 30 film camera but no spare batteries, the current one had lasted months and was still showing full charge, but before even finishing a single roll the -13º temperatures had sapped all life from it in record time.
Vik Church | X-T3 + XF 35mm f2
I’d been to Iceland before this trip, in 2019, but had visited in spring when the terrain is largely green and black, and the sky mainly grey. What hit me straight away in winter was how most of my work was dominated by a white and blue palette, and the odd flecks of other colours such as a red roof would pop out amongst the rest of my work.
Homes in the snow drift | X-T3 + XF 35mm f2
It’s also one of the last trips I went on before investing in some decent Fujifilm zoom lenses (the XF 16-55mm F2.8 and XF 50-140mm f2.8). If you told me now I had to do a 10 day landscape photography trip to Iceland without these two long boys I’d probably have a mild panic attack, but looking back I think the limitations of my set up actually helped me to be more creative, forcing me to approach a scene with more intention and work within my limitations to be creative.
Below is a gallery of the work I created on the trip, which to this day are still some of my favourite photos.
