Iceland Workshop

After the last year's expedition, we decided that we'll go back to this wonderful island. To guarantee the good company we would like to announce a workshop between June 24 and July 2, 2005.

Ice Arch at Jökulsárlón

Canon 1D Mk II - 70-200mm f/2.8L IS @ ISO 100

What to expect?

This expedition is about photography. Lots of it, and almost nothing else. We'll subsume all our activities to this purpose. To get acquainted with what Iceland could provide, you should read the article about the 2004 expedition (unfortunately only available in Hungarian at the time of this writing),  and take a look on my Iceland Gallery page (with some of the bird shots in my Birds page).

We'll travel with 4WD vehicles, 3 person in each, plus the acompanying luggage and equpment. More than two thirds of this 3000 km route will be on unpaved roads. We'll cross rivers (without bridges) a few times.

In the summer, nights in Iceland are quite short: about three hours (although you can read a book easily even in the darkest hour). Yes, at the end of the expedition the entire group will be sleep deprived and deeply exhausted. But we'll try to catch up if the weather is bad.

This is not an expedition for absolute beginners, as there will be no basic photo courses. We'll photograph together, side by side, and we'll have a chance to share our technical and artistic approaches. Also, it time permits, we will review and discuss our images at each night.

It will be a great adventure, with lots of photographic opportunities!

Bench at Seljalandsfoss waterfall

Canon 1D Mk II - 24-70 f/2.8L @ ISO 160

Itinerary

During the nine days of the expedition, we will spend 8 days with photograpy - from the first afternoon till the last morning.

Day 1 - We will depart from the Reyjkavík airport early afternoon. Our first destination is the Snaefellsnes peninsula, where we'll arrive after a coulpe of hours driving. Here we'll photograph cliffs full with gulls in the port of Arnarstapi, and in the Snaefelks Glacier National Park. If weather permits, we'll drive up to the glacier itself - which is a hard mountain track. We will spend the night in Ólafsvik.

Day 2 - This morning we should catch our ferry in Stykkisholmur, which will take us to Brjanslaekur. During this three-hour trip we will have see lots of small islands and some lighthouses on them. If we will be lucky, we would be able to see some puffins and jellyfish besides the boat. We will continue our trip to the westernmost point of Europe: Látrabjarg. During this road we will see various beaches, and finally we will have the opportunity to photograph the world's most confident puffins Látrabjarg, plus some auks and gulls. Hopefully we will have a nice sunset. We will sleep in Breidavik.

Day 3 - Despite that the maps shows this days route as a relatively short one, we'll spend four to six hours driving along the meandering banks of the Northern fjords, photographing along the way. In the afternoon we'll catch Road #1 again, where we will go northeast to Blönduós, where we will spend the night before going to the F35 mountain road. Here we should refill our water and food supplies, and spare gas cans, because there will be no civilization during the following days.

Day 4 - Early morning we hit F35, and go to the geothermal area near Kjölur. We'll spend the entire day here, and in the Kerlingarfjöll mountains. As we leave the civilization behind, we'll start to feel the real Iceland as we travel through glaciers, mountains and geothermal formations. We'll also spend the night here.

Day 5 - In the morning, we will have the opportunity to photograph in Kerlingarfjöll mountains again, and after that we'll head to south on the F35. During the afternoon we will visit the mountains at Jarlhettur. At the late afternoon we will arrive to the Gullfoss waterfall (which is not the largest, but the most beautiful). We will photograph this waterfall, and move to the nearby city of Geysír where after photographing Strokkur, and some other geysers, we will also spend the night.

Day 6 - At dawn we will revisit Gullfoss to photograph the sunrise. Enough civilization for today! We will head into the mountains agains, this time to Landmannalaugar. We will face with geothermal activities again, with melting ice and colored rocks. We will spend the entire afternoon and night here.

Day 7 - After the morning photo session, we will say farewell to the mountains, and head to Skatafell National Park, near the Vatnajökull glacier. Our goal here besides the national park itself is to photograph the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. We'll spend the night again in a good hotel.

Day 8 - Sunrise at the Jökulsárlón agaian, after which we start to go back on Route #1. We will visit the Dyrhólaey Wildlife Reserve, where we will spend the entire afternoon photographing puffins and gulls plus some landscapes. Here we will have the opportunity to see and photograph the puffins returning from the sea with prey in their bills. We will spend our last night in Skogar, in a hotel again. We will evalutae the expedition, show our photographs to each other, and talk about them. We should also pack our equipment and luggages as we will leave Iceland the day after.

Day 9 - During the way back to the Keflavik airport, we'll stop by the waterfalls in this area: Skogafossnál and Seljalandsfossnál.

Terms and contidions of participation

Iceland is very expensive. Everything (food, accomodation, gas) is somewhere 2x to 3x compared to the prices in Europe or the US. The 4WD vehicles add to this, resulting in a relatively high price for this expedition: EUR 1900. This includes, food, accomodation, and vehicle rentals (plus gas), but does not include the fligh ticket to Iceland.

Payments are made in two installments. Deposit of the first EUR 1000 sould be made within 10 days from the registration. And the second EUR 900 is due by March 31st. If you need to cancel before May 15th, you will get a full refund, except EUR 400. After May 15th, you will get a full refund, except EUR 800, but only if a replacement for you could be found.

If you are interested, please contact us at the following e-mail adrress: sefi@fototipp.hu. We'll be happy to answer your questions.