Drone view of Reykjavik near city centre
I’ve just come back from a week in Iceland with a feeling of unfinished business and hundreds of photographs untaken, or that could have been taken better. It is a bit of a photographer’s curse to be so drawn to a landscape that it is hard to peel away from it and I never feel like I’ve really captured the image I was after. It is also what makes me love photography.
Taking photos while travelling is something that brings me far more pleasure than merely travelling without my camera. There are people that say that you are not in the moment, that your lens separates you from the experience and that you are never fully present because you are preoccupied with image taking. I couldn’t disagree more.
My camera (and it doesn’t matter what you are using – your phone, a small handheld or a full bag of gear), is a tool for connection, not the opposite. Because of it, I am always looking at things, taking in sights and paying attention to details I would not otherwise even notice. I am watching for light and how it changes and how it plays across the surface of a landscape. How the shadows of clouds slowly glide down a mountainside, like caresses. How the wind ruffles the mane of a horse grazing in a green field….
Lunch time
The bliss of travel is to experience a place as a newborn but with the mind of an adult so that you can appreciate all that you are taking in. You see, smell, taste, feel a new place in a way that is difficult to do when you are at home in familiar environments. Your senses become more acute.
Postcards from Iceland
Iceland is perhaps one of the best places I’ve experienced yet in my travels for awakening the senses. The sweep of the landscape will often force you to simply stop and stare. (It is so magnetic that one of the leading causes of road accidents in Iceland is people driving off the road, the drivers transfixed on some feature of the landscape they are driving through).
I would be wasting my breath trying to put into words the impression the countryside leaves on the observer. It is a landscape made for poetry. And, happily, photography. There was not another traveller we encountered who was not holding some form of camera in their hands at all times, and though this may bother some people I completely understood the sentiment being one of the worst offenders. I usually had two cameras around my neck, in addition to my phone, as well as periodic stops to fly my Phantom DJI4 over landscapes that were impossible to resist.
There is such an abundance of raw natural beauty wherever you look in Iceland that I can only feel regret for the few hours each night I had to close my eyes to sleep. Luckily, I was there during a period of complete, all-encompassing sunshine, so “night” was but an idea as there was never any darkness. A more perfect experience for a photographer I cannot imagine and I am only sorry I could not linger longer than the brief week I had to explore.
There are some places we travel to that leave us feeling opened up and reconfigured. As if the land itself leaves an emotional impression inside of you. Iceland is one of those places. And I know that I will return.
A word to the wise: bring a wide-angle lens and plan to stay as long as you possibly can.
Below is a link to my Iceland Highlights (with a video to follow):
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000tMP6_iY5M9U” g_name=”ICELAND-HIGHLIGHTS” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]
http://julianhaber.photoshelter.com/gallery/ICELAND-HIGHLIGHTS/G0000tMP6_iY5M9U/C0000a_2IcvB4c5k
As promised, here’s the video:
