Adam Monk Photo Tours & Images Gallery

Actually on the way out of Pinvellir National Park in West Iceland, shot from the side of the road.  Mountains are such a novelty to me that after the first couple of days of travelling around Iceland in my camper van I concluded that at the rate I was going, or rather my frequency of stopping, it would take me about 2 months to get back for my return flight to Europe…

The scenery was so spectacular that I was stopping every few minutes and hiking off into the fields  and ravines either side of the road.  Since I had only given myself 10 days this clearly wasn’t going to work.  After that realisation I set myself a final destination each day where I would want to be for sunset and then try to budget my stops to only those that were truly spectacular… Trouble is, all of Iceland is truly spectacular.  Next time I think I allow more time!

This image is yet another un budgeted stop when the combination of the stream, the mountains and the light just could not be ignored.  This was on the way out of Pinvellir National Park West Iceland, where I had spent the whole day saying “wow!” a lot.

The first few of days I was in Iceland on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula the weather was nuts!  It rained every day, the wind blew like crazy, and it snowed… sometimes all at once.  Apparently that’s normal, and the Icelanders say if you don’t like the weather, wait another 5 minutes.  It really is true.  I would pull up to a location and the car would be rocking on its suspension from the wind blowing so strong and visibility would be 10 metres due to the rain… then a few minutes later, it would be calm and dry… or at least calmer and dryer.

Of course the best thing about weather like this is the wonderful skies with wild clouds zooming overhead at high speed.  It makes for a great place to play with ND filters and long exposures.  For this shot below, I was literally hanging off of the tripod to stop it blowing off the cliff, with camera attached… a camera that costs more than my car… actually a lot more than my car.

Shot with the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 28mm lens and an ND 1.8 (6 stops)… and 78kg (Me) clinging to the tripod…

Kirkjufell on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula of Iceland is a mystical mountain that looks like something out of Lord of the Rings, in fact it may have even been used in the Lord of the Rings.  I didn’t see any Hobbits, but then it was about 2 degrees and raining when I was there, so they were probably all at home in front of the fire!  The waterfall strategically placed in front of Kirkjufell, Kirkjufellsfoss (Foss is Icelandic for waterfall), only adds to the magic of the place, especially for photographers.

Shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 28mm lens at sparrows fart with frozen fingers!  This image has had about 3.5 minutes of post processing in Lightroom (along with the 2 previous images), so it looks very “raw”.

Autumn colours in Iceland are mostly pretty subtle, they don’t have much in the way of forests to turn bright orange and red.  What they do have is a wonderful variety of  small perennial plants that turn beautiful shades of red, orange and yellow…  There is also an abundance of amazing waterfalls in Iceland…  Though not strictly a waterfall, Hraunfossar is beautiful none the less, especially in Autumn.

Just a short drive out of Reykjavik, But it seemed to take ages as I wanted to stop every 20 metres!  Shot on the Hasselblad H4D-60 with the 100mm lens.

Back in Amsterdam after an intense 10 day whirlwind tour of Iceland and driving nearly 2000km.  All I want to do just now is sleep, something I didn’t do very much of over there.  But before bed here is a picture from the first day or so of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula Lava field with this amazing moss that really is this green.  Really!

Image shot with a Hasselblad H4D-60 and a 50mm Lens.  So did Iceland live up to my expectations?  Oh yes!