Iceland May 2015 (1 Viewer)

[squidfish]

Hi

Took my first photography trip to Iceland during the last 10 days of May this year. This followed one of their coldest springs in decades and up until a couple of weeks before arrival the island was still blanketed in snow. I have produced a complete write up including the bad idea of trying camping on my blog. To transfer all that information on and photographs on to here would take about a week so instead you can read about the whole trip here.

http://wildlifephotographic.blogspot.com/search/label/Iceland

Please note due to the format of the blog the posts are in reverse order so to read them from the start, you will need to use the 'older posts' link at the bottom right of the page or work through the archive links on the right.

Cheers

Rich

 

[stuartvine]

Great report and superb photos - note to self, do NOT hire camper van! ;-)

 

[etudiant]

Iceland is so spectacularly scenic and the summer light is so good that it cries out for good photography. Your wonderful photos complement an excellent trip report. Thank you for a great write-up!

 

[Edward]

Great report and a really outstanding series of photos. Yes, it was a really freezing cold spring on the back of a terrible winter and in fact a cold summer up around Mývatn (a lot better in south). I like the idea of "Great Northern Loonacy". Great Northern Divers are in my experience often very curious and will frequently swim over to you and check you out if you stand at the water's edge. If you are interested the lake you mention on day 7 where you photographed the GND but say "don't ask me where as I couldn't tell you" is Vatnshlíðarvatn, just west of the village of Varmahlíð. And the seal you photographed on day 8 looks more like Common Seal than Grey Seal to me. Camping in May is definitely an acquired taste but I met some Belgian birders here in February who were camping. I think they found it quite tough

 

[hampers]

Quite simply some of the best photography I have seen of the featured species, thank you.

Phil

 

[Tero]

Good photos. We had to knock on a farmer's door to get to a bit of coast that had seals. The sea birds were harder to find, just with a car on our own and no scope with me. Only found a female eider in late July.

 

[squidfish]

Thanks for the replies. I think camping and photography is a tough ask when conditions are difficult, as it is good to get some creature comforts when you get back after being out all day. Also always good to have a good electricity supply to download, back up images, recharge batteries etc.

Edward thanks for the lake and seal identification an interesting what you say about GNDs. Something to try on my next visit

cheers

Rich

 

[Ian Bell]

Fantastic reading and viewing Squidfish.Your photography Is fantastic. :t:

 

[John o'Sullivan]

Stunning photos. I don't photograph birds myself but I'm guessing the birds are generally tolerant of people? The light in Iceland is conducive also? The breeding plumages also spectacular.

We went to Iceland last January and enjoyed it so much we are going back this January. We plan to go for our 30th wedding anniversary in June 2018. I'll have a good look at your blog when I get a chance for some ideas. Nice work.

 

[squidfish]

Thanks Ben and John.

John, the birds were not particularly approachable. In particular the waders which were incredibly skittish. We had to travel to try and keep with the better weather and light and we're lucky we weren't tied to an area by having not booked accommodation. One issue for photography was given it was so cold when the sun shines the 'heat haze' quickly forms with the wobbley air making it difficult to get sharp images. All you can do in this situation is to try and get as close to the birds as possible to reduce the amount of wobbling air between you and them. It was often at these times when we would photograph Phalarope which tend to be completely oblivious to people. I even had one pecking my thumb at one point.

Brilliant country with an abundance of wonderful birds. It doesn't get much better than that ��

Cheers

Rich