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We left our hotel in the Skaftafell National Park last night at 8:30pm for a sunset shoot at Jokulsarlon lagoon in the South of Iceland. We photographed the icebergs carving off the glacier in the lagoon until well after midnight in some lovely soft storm light. We then raced back to our hotel, grabbed two hours of sleep in the semi-darkness before heading out again for sunrise. Now, it’s just gone 8:30am in the morning local time in Iceland and we have just got back from shooting sunrise for the last five hours at the Jokulsarlon lagoon and nearby black sand beach.

Icebergs that have carved off the glacier flow down the channel to the sea and are taken out by the tide before being washed back up on the black sand during the return tide – each one a unique sculpture polished by the motion of the waves.

Now its time to crawl into bed again and get a few more hours sleep before heading back out this afternoon at 3pm for more sunset photography around the Jokulsarlon lagoon. The hours required for maximising the best light for photography in Iceland are torturous to say the least – but given the quality and duration of great light I wouldn’t have it any other way

We have just arrived at our Hotel in the Skaftafell National Park – approximately 350km from Reykjavik. Along the way we stopped to photograph the cavernous waterfall Selfoss, the rugged Icelandic coastline at Kirkjufjara and the black sand beaches at Vik. Iceland is an absolute wonder. The landscape is incredibly surreal with moss covered lava flows, mountains, glaciers and waterfalls – in fact, there are waterfalls everywhere and I have already lost count of how many we passed in just a single days driving.There are photographic opportunities everywhere I look and it is just as well I am not driving the 4WD or we would be stopping every few minutes and never get anywhere. Thankfully our guide Daniel Bergman is steering us toward all of the better locations.

Now its time for a power nap and some dinner before heading out to the Jokulsarlon lagoon at sunset to photograph the luminous blue icebergs that have carved off the nearby glacier. Sunset is about  8:30pm until roughly 11:00pm local time – yes; sunset lasts that long! Then there will be a short period of an hour or so of semi-darkness before sunrise and more photography. Sleep? Nah… to much to see and photograph!

The area around my hotel has a good selection of restaurants and places to eat – its hard to choose when you don’t know where to start! So I started at the end of the street and will work my way back toward the hotel for dinner tonight. For starters lunch today – Black Angus Beef Burger and a Pint of Iceland’s Egills Gull for lunch – Yum!

Today is my first full day in Reykjavik in Iceland and it has already been a totally amazing experience (and the day is only half over). The capital city of Reykjavik is truly beautiful – Its very small (certainly compared to Australian cities), very quaint and even a little quirky in a very loveable way. If I had to try and summarise what Reykjavik is like I would say its almost fairy tale like with a very pronounced Nordic twist. It reminds me somewhat of Kaikoura (but on a larger scale) in the South Island of New Zealand. I could spend a week just doing street photography near my hotel as there are so many possibilities here for composition, subject and colour. Now its time for some lunch and more exploring.