A week on the south coast of Iceland with Marc Rassel, Henry Eiland, and a group of incredible photographers. Brilliant sunsets, soaked clothes, no sleep, and the philosophy of setting yourself crazy goals on a trip to push past the postcard shots. The first of several Iceland posts to come.
It's that time again where I took my seemingly yearly trip where I pretend to be a landscape photographer with Marc Rassel and Henry Eiland, this time to the wonderful south coast of Iceland. These trips are always something I look forward to, see I'm mostly a locally based wildlife photographer and I don't travel much for my photography, but one week of dedicated photography in one of the most beautiful places on earth, with some of my favorite people to shoot with, well how could I say no to that.
Armed with my trusty z8 and z9, a 14-24, 70-200, my massive 600 f4, a Fuji GFX100RF, and a ton of anxiety about flying with all this gear I boarded the plane and headed to Iceland where I was joined by my old friends Kate and Steve from Utah, and a new person, Charles who is just a lovely and wonderful photographer, ready and excited to get almost no sleep for the next 7 days (you don't go on a Marc Rassel trip to rest).
I'll be splitting up the Iceland content into several parts over the next several weeks as we did so much stuff, outside of the landscapes I did a ton of birding, I'll be reviewing the Nikon 70-200 which I used way more than I thought I would, also reviewing the Fuji GFX100RF which was lent to me for this trip. I'll be doing a piece just on visiting the Ingólfshöfði puffin colony as it deserves it's own piece, and likely one of birding in Iceland with our registered driver Havar (who was lovely, seriously book him if you go to Iceland you can find him here). But before all that let's talk about the trip overall shall we.
I took my first trip with Marc on a whim last year to go to the desert in Utah and shoot astro and quickly made great friends with the other guests and with Marc himself who is just a wonderful photographer to work with so when he told me this one was coming, and that it would mean another change at puffins, well really I just wanted to hang out with these people again so I was down. All that said, I can't recommend a Marc trip enough, but know you won't get a ton of sleep, you don't go on these trips to rest and you'll get more out of it if you look at it that way going in. Marc won't push, he will let you move at your own pace, but these are once in a lifetime trips, so I suggest you push yourself. For instance when we get to location I tend to wander and find my own compositions, theres an ongoing joke with the group that I need a mylar balloon so people can find me, but its always been encouraged which I appreciate.
Marc will pretty much meet you at whatever level and he understands that on a trip like this each person has different goals, pace, and capability, which is the mark of any great teacher. Seriously check him out here. It's also worth mentioning that group trips like this have a unique value regardless of photographic level, and that you learn from other peoples eye, your constantly collaborating and talking through compositions with people and sharing excitement, theres just so much passive learning to be had. Charles and I followed each other around for a day because we liked the compositions the other was making for instance.
Now I set a few goals for myself on this trip, I find that to be really useful. I mean I wanted to do wildlife when possible and puffins, and I was always gonna take the postcard shots but I had goals outside of that. One was to use primarily the GFX100RF for most standard shooting, that was a huge failure and we will get to that in the review of that camera. The other ones were more successful though, take the not postcard shots, and use the 70-200 as much as possible. The last one might have been the easiest, I'm a wildlife photographer, I think in compression and zoom, and I'm so glad I had some telephoto capability when I was there, I used it a ton and many of my favorite compositions came from shooting that way. I won't be sharing those images here though we will save that for the 70-200 field review (I know I'm a tease). Anyway setting goals for yourself can be really valuable as it'll push you into new compositions or framing. For instance we shot this waterfall:
Easily the most beautiful place I have ever been in my life by the way, but you can walk the path and go behind the waterfall. I found the sky to be quite distracting cause it was blending with the water so inside the cove I set a goal for myself to find a composition that included no sky, it was difficult with a 14-24, but it pushed me to be really intentional with where I was and what I was doing and I got this shot from it.
And in my desire to not only take the standard postcard shot, it led me to what may be my favorite frame from the trip, this one:
The thing is, I'm not a landscape photographer, and I have a limited amount of time. So I can't take a better picture of the icons than someone else, what I could do was try to take a different picture, or focus on different details or places and I'd like to think I succeeded in that to the best of my abilities.
All to say, set yourself some crazy goals, both before and during a trip, it'll force you to grow in fun and interesting ways and takes you out of the stagnation you may fall into when you shoot.
Wow what a beautiful country and we really were met with every type of weather. Brilliant sunsets (although far less than I would have liked), and I'm pretty sure I'm still wet from all the waterfall spray and rain and cold from the wind. I've never been anywhere that looks quite so alien (not that I've been to a ton of places), but the colors are otherworldly, the landscape is amazing, we all looked out the window every 5 minutes with a are we stopping here? No? Why? It's so pretty! vibe.
It's the kind of place where you turn a corner and suddenly there's a thousand foot waterfall, and you just have to keep driving because there's another one a mile up the road that's probably more beautiful. The roads themselves are a thing too. Driving on the south coast feels like driving through three different countries in an hour, you go from black sand beach to moss covered lava field to glacier valley to fjord and back again. We'd be in fog so thick you couldn't see fifty feet, and then we'd come around a bend and the entire sky would open up over a beach.
The light is the other thing. Iceland in early summer barely gets dark, so you're shooting in a kind of perpetual golden hour for hours at a time, and then when night finally drops it's barely a soft twilight before it's coming back. That sounds great until you realize you're shooting for fourteen hours a day because the light just won't stop being good, and at some point your knees give out and Marc has to threaten you with sleep. Worth it.
Truth is it's hard to take a bad picture in Iceland. I'm not even a fraction of the way done processing the thousands of images I took, you are seeing a small subset of shots right now cause I was so excited to talk about the trip.
I want to take some time to call out the amazing people I took this trip with, and the people we met along the way. They deserve it and I'll provide links where you can find these other photographers or services that definitely have my recommendation.
Marc Rassel: Seriously Marc is awesome, take a trip with him you won't regret it. He is an exceptional photographer, friend, and teacher and you'll have a once in a lifetime experience on any of his outings, I liked him enough that I've done two now and thats saying something.
Henry Eiland: Henry is an exceptional photographer and it was a joy for me to see him go from workshop guest to instructor. He's so kind, patient, and brilliant to work with, I highly recommend following him and learning from him if you get the opportunity.
Havar: Our registered Iceland driver was incredible, he was so knowledgeable, so accommodating, and a bonus for me a huge birder so at every hotel we took me to the nearest birding location and we had a great time. If you go to Iceland and want to have an amazing trip, book him, seriously.
Einar and the Ingólfshöfði Puffin Tour: This is the place to go for puffins, and great skuas. Not only because the location is excellent and you can get a few feet away from the puffins, but because Einar is so knowledgeable and has such a deep love and care for the safety of the birds. It's such a big deal to me when I visit areas like this to know that animal wellbeing is first and foremost and here it really is. Don't worry I'll have a whole piece coming about this soon.
And now onto my lovely workshop compatriots. All of whom you should give a follow cause they are exceptional photographers.
Anyway thats all for me this time I'll leave you with this:
And a full res version of the cover which is my best postcard shot by far and I'm not sad about it.
