I found the tidal lagoons along the southeast coast devoid of life. I had hoped to pho­to­graph the colo­nies of swans that made this their sum­mer home, but they hadn’t yet arri­ved. I thought again about the abs­tract and con­cen­tra­ted on sim­ple sha­pes like the ones I found when pho­to­graphing glaciers.

New Year’s fire­works in Reykjavík.

I had hiked all day in search of something dra­ma­tic to cap­ture. Fea­ring the day would end with only tired legs and an unu­sed camera, I sett­led into a motel south of Bor­gar­nes. As I ope­ned the cur­tains, gol­den crags tric­kling down steep slo­pes filled the win­dow, and I found my moment.

If I had follo­wed the tra­di­tio­nal rules of lands­cape pho­to­graphy I would have retur­ned when the water­fall was bathed in per­fect light. In this narrow can­yon, the rays of light illu­mi­na­ted only the rising mist and not the falling water crea­ting it. I like to cap­ture Ice­land des­pite the imper­fect con­di­tions it often presents.

An aban­do­ned farm found while explo­ring outs­kirts of Höfn

The win­ter sky seen from Reykjavík.