Journey 01 · Iceland
One Lap, Clockwise
1,332 km and a great deal of waiting
Published 17 Oct 2025 · Travelled 12–23 Sept 2025
- 9 moments
- 11 days
- 730 km
- Autumn
- Iceland
- 24-70mm at 32mm · f/11 · 1/60 · ISO 64
- 63.7300° N, 20.0500° W
- Route 1, east of Hvolsvöllur
- 06:55
- 4°C, clear, high cloud colouring
I had been in the country four hours and had not slept, and the sky did this. That is the whole problem with Iceland: it gives you the good light before you have earned it and then makes you pay for a week. I pulled onto the verge, set up, and got maybe eight frames before it went flat.
- 24-70mm at 24mm · f/13 · 1/4 · ISO 64
- 63.6156° N, 19.9886° W
- 24-70mm at 24mm · f/13 · 1/4 · ISO 64
- 63.6156° N, 19.9886° W
- Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss
- 07:20
- 6°C, broken cloud, spray
Seljalandsfoss you can walk behind, which means you spend the whole time keeping spray off the front element and getting one frame for every ten you wipe. Skógafoss is forty minutes down the road and does not care about you at all. I shot the first at seven and the second at nine and then sat in the car for two hours because the light had gone.
- 24-70mm at 70mm · f/4 · 1/500 · ISO 200
- 63.7494° N, 20.2400° W
- Near Hvolsvöllur
- 12:30
- 8°C, flat overcast
I stopped for a horse and got five. They came across the field at a deliberate pace, arranged themselves at the fence, and waited. I did not use the tripod for these — no time and no need. This is the least serious photograph of the trip and I like it more than most of the others.
- 24-70mm at 70mm · f/8 · 1/250 · ISO 100
- 63.4027° N, 19.0448° W
- Reynisfjara
- 16:10
- 7°C, squalls off the sea
Black sand, sea stacks, and a swell that comes twice as far up the beach as the previous nine did. There are signs everywhere and people still stand with their backs to it. I set up well behind the wet line and used the long end, and I still got my boots filled once.
- 24-70mm at 24mm · f/5.6 · 2s · ISO 400
- 63.4187° N, 19.0060° W
- Vík í Mýrdal
- 23:40
- 2°C, clearing, cold
There is a specific kind of tiredness that comes from driving a country where the weather changes every twenty minutes. I had been out for the aurora, got nothing, and stopped here for fuel and a hot dog. Then I looked at the forecourt and went back for the camera, which is either dedication or a problem.
two hot dogs, actually
06 · The forecast, copied out by hand
- 24-70mm at 35mm · f/11 · 1/125 · ISO 64
- 64.0480° N, 16.1800° W
- Jökulsárlón
- 08:40
- 3°C, calm, overcast
The bergs go out of the lagoon on the ebb and come back on the flood, and if you time it wrong you get a car park and grey water. I got the time wrong on the first attempt and drove back the next morning. Two hours, one flask of coffee, and about forty frames of which this is the one.
- 24-70mm at 24mm · f/16 · 1/8 · ISO 64
- 64.2470° N, 14.9840° W
- Stokksnes
- 06:10
- 1°C, cloud lifting at dawn
Black sand, standing water, and a mountain with no manners. I had been on the beach since half past five with nothing but grey. Then the underside of the cloud caught, the wind dropped enough for the reflection to hold, and it lasted about a minute and a half. That is the trip. That is every trip.
- Kirkjufell, Snæfellsnes
- 01:20
- -2°C, clear, no wind
- Last frame
I had written off the aurora after five failed nights. On the eleventh evening I was packing the car and the sky went green over the fjord without any warning at all. I set the tripod up in the road, in a coat over pyjamas, and shot until my hands stopped working.
- 24-70mm at 24mm · f/2.8 · 8s · ISO 1600
- 64.9280° N, 23.3080° W
The route
9 stops
Journey completed
Eleven days, nine stories
- Distance walked
- 38 km
- Frames exposed
- 2140
- Kilometres driven
- 1,332
- Sunrises attempted
- 9
- Sunrises delivered
- 3
- Nights the aurora forecast lied
- 5
- Favourite moment
- Vestrahorn going pink for about ninety seconds
- Best food
- A hot dog at a petrol station in Vík at 23:40, which I would defend in court
