It was an impressive trip through the Highlands of Iceland. I was travelling with a group and a guide using a Super Jeep.

Here our trips on the map.

Starting our trip in Reykjavik we used the evening for some pictures of the Harpa, the concert hall of Reykjavik.

On the next day we started our trip to Kerlingarfjöll with our driver Ingi from Boreal Super Jeep Tours.

We took the F435 to Pingvallavatn, and later the F337. The weather was great and it was possible to get a nice picture of the F35 at sun setting with crispy mountains in the background.

On the next morning we used the sun rise at the Gýgjarfoss. We were wating for 2 hours at -10°C to get some nice light in the clouds. It was a pain for my feets, because I used only ordinary hiking boots. But the landscape was fantastic also without taking pictures. And if you are photographing from a tripot with long time exposures, you have the calm to enjoy the nature. The ND soft gradient and my 6 stop ND for the 14 mm did a great job.

After some breakfast and hot tea the took the trial to the area of Lodmundur. While taking pictures of a lost sky station in a white desert of snow and ice the sky opened and the sun gave some spot on Lodmundur.

I visited many times Hjalparfoss. But it is not so easy for me to get a nice picture of him. Hope you like it. At Gjarfoss I focused me on the smaller water falls in the Gjáin area. Lovely green moss and ice gave some interesting contrast. Later, the sun was all ready down, we visited the 3rd highest water fall of Iceland: Háifoss.

We stayed the night at The Highland Centre Hrauneyar – it has also an airport and a fuel station, rhe last for the next 250 km to Akureyri. Next morning we captured the special light over the fuel station of nowhere.

Not only the fuel stations are interesting. The the new way of mobility requires an additional passion.

The way through Landmannalauga was impossible to use, even by a Super Jeep. We drove the F208 soth up to the crossing F225.

On the next day, we took the long way to Kirkjubaejarklaustur not through the Landmannalauga but by the Street 1 having a short stopp at Dyrhólaey.

From Kirkjubaejarklaustur we tried to get to Laki on the F2016. But the early winter stopped us at the Hellisá river. The ice on the usually small river Hellsisá impounded the water so much, that even for our Super Jeep the river was so deep that the ice was hitting the bumper. Not possible any more to crash the ice.

On the way we took a stopp at the Fagrifoss and later we took pictures of the lovely Fjadrárgljúfur.

 

At the last day we took the way back from Kirkjubaejarklaustur to Reykjavik. On the way back the took the F232 west and F210 nord of Katla, Mýrdalsjökull and Eyafjallajökull. It was a n untapped winter scene. Some times no path was any more visible. It was -14°C and sunny weather.

It was a great last day.

Some last words to the used equipment:

Most important for landscape photography is the tripot! It should be heavy and stable. The wind in Iceland might be strong. A light weight tripot starts to shake and you easily risk an fall over.

Second important are the filters. I fall in love in long time exposures. Great for water falls. A gradient grade filter helps to control the dynamic range of high lighted sky and low light landscape.

Third important are the lenses. For landscape I suggest a super wide angle of 12 – 15 mm. A wide angle of 21 mm for moderate angle landscapes and 35 mm for detail landscape and finally some 85 mm for more details. At least for my opinion, longer focal length lenses are quite tricky due to the dust and moisture of long distance pictures. Most of the time the lovely Sigma 1,8/14mm or the Nikon 1,8/20mm which makes the best stars photographing directly into the sun.

At the end comes the camera. It should have a good dynamic range. Water and cold weather resistant. I used my Nikon D810. The sensor is great. For long time exposure I would like the handling of my Fuji X-T2 with the easy T setting and the count down, together with the ingenious MLU of the Pentax 645Z. I also loved the “green” button of the Pentax, which auto adjusts the exposure by a single press in manual mode. On the over hand Nikon did a great job with the highlight weighted spot metering. Almost a zone metering.
The sensor of the Nikon together with the robust body and the great variety of super prime lenses from Nikon and others makes the Nikon one of the best cameras I ever had.