Photography in Iceland
The Complete Guide
Iceland has become a bucket-list destination for many travellers, but it’s near the top for photographers. The landscape is wild and varied, and you can photograph everything from volcanoes to ice caves, with spectacular scenery everywhere you go. Iceland is incredible for landscape photography, with the only challenge deciding where to go and for how long.
Iceland is the ideal adventure destination. It can feel like a remote exploration, and you can find yourself alone among the most incredible scenes during the best light of the day. However, it's popular enough to make travel easy and efficient, with places to stay near the best locations and at least a gravel road to lead you to the next one. It’s rare to find a place with such dramatic scenery that is somehow still easy to access.
Although Iceland has plenty of remote wilderness, it's not hard to find a crowd. If you visit the major sights of Gullfoss or Seljalandsfoss in the middle of a summer morning, you’ll be shuffling along walkways with hundreds of other tourists. But you don’t have to invest much effort to find a quiet location in a slightly more remote part of the country.
This is the complete guide to photography in Iceland, featuring all the landscape photography and travel articles I have written about the country. It starts with travel information to help with the logistics of a trip to Iceland and then moves on to a photography guide with advice about where to go and how to best capture the landscape.
Iceland
Photography Travel Guide and Map
Explore my guidebook and map for photographers featuring:
-
A 360-page travel guide designed for photographers, including information, maps and images for planning your photography trip
-
Access to a digital map featuring 500+ pins of photography locations, parking, hiking trails and travel advice
-
200+ Iceland photography locations with detailed advice on capturing the landscape
-
All designed for mobile to be easy to read and use while traveling
Travel Guide
When to Visit Iceland for Landscape Photography
Iceland changes over the course of the year, and the photographs you can capture are very different in each season. Scenes featuring minimalist, snowy landscapes are only possible in winter, but the otherworldly interior is only accessible in summer. The wildlife is most active in early summer and late spring, but you are more likely to see the aurora when the nights are long.
These are the advantages of each season in Iceland.
Spring (March - May)
Spring is a time of change, and your experience will be different at the beginning or end of the season. In March and April, you can still see the aurora, and there’s a good chance of snow on the landscape, although the weather can be warm, and you may only find snow on the peaks.
Wildlife starts to appear in Iceland in May, a good time to visit for nesting birds at some of the coastal locations. It will be easier to move around with less snow on the ground, but the Highlands will still be inaccessible until June.
Spring is best if you prefer fewer visitors, but it’s best to decide on one end of the season and understand that this is an unpredictable time of year in Iceland. Your experience will depend on the conditions.
Summer (June - August)
Summer is the most popular season to visit Iceland, and the only time you can access the interior Highlands of the country. The barren landscapes of the centre are spectacular and make Iceland such a great place to explore and photograph. There is also more wildlife in summer, and the country is fully open, with opportunities to hike, kayak and try other outdoor adventures.
However, this is the busy season, and Iceland can be expensive and crowded. The best light is extremely early in the morning or late at night, and there is no chance of seeing the aurora until late August. A summer trip requires more planning and perseverance, but can be worth the effort for the unique landscapes that are only available for a short time each year.
Autumn (September - November)
Autumn is another transition season and an unpredictable time to visit Iceland. At the beginning of the season, you may still be able to access parts of the Highlands before the snow comes, but this is not guaranteed. There is little remaining wildlife, but fewer visitors mean you can find quiet parts of the country to explore.
By November, there is a good chance of snow and aurora at night, though it's unlikely that the landscape will have much coverage. You may not face the most difficult winter driving, and there will be fewer other visitors, but snowy scenes in the landscape will depend on the weather each year.
Winter (December - February)
Iceland’s winter landscape is beautiful, and appears as barren open plains surrounded by monochrome peaks simplified by a layer of snow. The long nights provide a good opportunity to capture the aurora, and the short days allow you to photograph from sunrise to sunset to make the most of the stunning light.
Driving in Iceland in winter can be challenging, and many restaurants and facilities are closed for the winter. There is also very little wildlife, and you cannot access large parts of the country that are closed for the season. However, Iceland’s landscape looks incredible in the winter, and a trip of aurora hunting can be an exciting adventure, especially if this is your first visit.
The article below goes into more detail about what to expect from each season in Iceland.
Full article | 6 minute read
How to Get Around Iceland for Photography
Iceland has a small population and a relatively large landscape, and these features influence how you explore the island. You can see Iceland with a combination of local tours and public transport, and sometimes this is the best way to access certain areas. To reach the more remote areas during the best light for photography, you’ll want your own transportation, and renting a car will give you the most flexibility.
Driving in Iceland
Outside of a dedicated photography tour, renting a car is the only way to access the best photography locations in Iceland during the best light. Fortunately, Keflavík international airport has a large set of options and renting a car is a relatively cheap activity for such an expensive country.
Keflavík is considerably larger than any other airport in Iceland, and you can rent a car at any time of day or night. I highly recommend renting a car when you arrive at the airport; it’s very difficult to save money or time by travelling elsewhere in Iceland to pick up a vehicle.
Iceland drives on the right and has a main road (Route 1 or The Ring Road) that circles the country, with dozens of smaller routes that cover the small villages on or near the coast. There are major highways around Reykjavik, but most roads in Iceland have a single lane in each direction, and not all of them are paved.
Iceland can be an intimidating place to drive in winter, but possible for anyone with a little preparation. Cars must have spiked winter tyres from November (your rental agency will have already fitted them), and the roads are frequently cleared of heavy snow. However, roads close and reopen as conditions change, and you should check official sources (road.is) for which routes are available. It’s also wise to always keep some supplies (warm clothes, food and water) in the car in case the weather changes quickly.
Iceland’s summer driving challenge is the Highlands, an area of Iceland’s interior only accessible via rough dirt tracks called ‘F-Roads. These roads have river crossings, and you can only drive on an F-Road in a 4x4 vehicle, but they lead to some of the most spectacular scenery in the country. If you do plan on visiting the Highlands, be sure to research your route, the insurance you need, and the recent conditions of the rivers before you set out.
Buses in Iceland
The most popular sights in Iceland are covered by bus routes and tour companies, offering everything from day trips to long tours. No single company or ticket covers the whole country, although you can get information about the available options at www.publictransport.is.
Public transport and general tours are not a good way to explore Iceland for photography, and you will be extremely limited on where you can go and the times of day you can shoot. However, some services to the Highlands in summer can help you get to great hiking locations without needing to rent a car or tackle the difficult F-Roads. If you plan to spend multiple days in the Highlands and hike for your photography, a bus there and back can be a cheaper and easier option.
Flights and Ferries in Iceland
Although Iceland is a relatively large country, internal flights do not always save much time. There are no domestic flights from Iceland’s main international airport (you must transfer to central Reykjavik, 50km away), and you are likely to need a car to drive around most of the country wherever you start the journey.
However, you can reach some of the islands around Iceland with domestic flights, and they can be a good way to access Grímsey off the north coast and Vestmannaeyjar in the south. While domestic flights are unlikely to help with the logistics of a landscape photography trip, they might get you to the right places for remote wildlife photography on the islands.
Similarly, Iceland has a useful ferry service which can help you access the islands. You can find schedules and book tickets online, and many take vehicles, so you can use ferries to extend the places you can reach by car.
The article below contains much more information about how to get around Iceland for photography.
Full article | 8 minute read
Iceland Travel Itineraries for Photographers
Iceland is such a significant destination for photographers that building an itinerary can be overwhelming. There is a lot to see and endless advice about the best places to photograph, and you could travel for months visiting new spots. The article linked below has a set of three suggested itineraries for photographers, but these are the most important factors to consider when designing your own:
Popular locations: The most visited spots in Iceland are not the best photography locations. The Golden Circle, the Blue Lagoon, and other places on top ten lists are often crowded and rarely the best place to watch the sun rise or set. To focus on photography, you may need to miss some of Iceland’s visitor highlights.
The season: Iceland is very different in the summer and winter, and most itineraries work better in one or the other. Summer routes can be more ambitious and include the Highlands, with shorter stops or longer journeys between destinations. Winter trips should be more cautious, allowing enough time to return to the airport or adapt the route if the weather turns bad for a day or two.
Features: Iceland has such variety that it can help to give your trip a theme. You might focus only on the Highlands in summer or coastal scenes during winter. You can concentrate on waterfalls, fjords or mountains. Aiming to capture a particular feature of Iceland can improve your composition and develop your photography, whereas a rush to capture the popular highlights can be repetitive and less original.
Hiking and Camping: During summer, you can make an Iceland trip more affordable by camping and hiking to different locations. Iceland has some beautiful multi-day hikes like the Laugavegur Trail, and hiking can be a way to slow down and explore more of the remote parts of the landscape.
Pace: It is always tempting to explore as many parts of a destination as possible, but this is rarely the best approach for photography. Most visitors try to complete a loop of Iceland regardless of the length of their visit, but slowing down to focus on one area can be more rewarding. No matter how quickly you travel, you’ll always miss most of Iceland on a single trip. It can be better to embrace an incomplete journey and spend more time at a few meaningful locations.
Iceland Photography Itineraries
Full article | 7 minute read
Photography Guide
Landscape Photography in Iceland
Iceland Photography Advice
Iceland has a landscape of incredible mountains and enormous waterfalls, with great photography locations everywhere you go. Many of those sights will be familiar even if you’ve never visited the country, and there are places in Iceland where millions of images have been created and shared. However, there is still a lot to discover, and it doesn’t take much to get away from the busy spots and find yourself alone in the landscape.
When planning a photography trip to Iceland, there are a few features of the landscape and climate to consider for a successful journey. Iceland can be an easy place to explore, with facilities for tourists all over the country. However, it helps to be a little prepared for photographing the remote landscape.
There is too much to see in Iceland in a single visit, and you may have to make difficult decisions when planning your itinerary. You may not have time to visit the most popular tourist spots and the most rewarding photography locations, and you should be clear about the focus of your trip before you go. You’ll generally find more interesting and original photography locations further from Reykjavik, with more popular and accessible visitor spots near the capital.
The weather can be difficult in Iceland at all times of year, with strong winds and rain that can last for days. This should influence how you pack, with plenty of warm layers even in the middle of summer. It also affects how you plan your itinerary, and you should assume that several days of your trip could be lost to bad weather, especially in the winter. The light and landscape can be incredible in Iceland whenever you visit, but the weather will always be unreliable.
The landscape in Iceland is incredibly varied and will give you new opportunities to extend the range of your photography. If you’ve ever wanted to develop your drone photography, Iceland is almost the perfect location to find remote areas where the landscape looks best from the air. In the winter, you can improve your astrophotography and experience of shooting at night. You’ll get the most out of a trip to Iceland by exploring new areas and styles of photography, using the variety in the landscape to develop your skills.
A longer article with more detailed advice and tips about photography in Iceland is below.
Full article | 10 minute read
Iceland Photography Locations
The Best Photography Locations in Iceland
The most popular photography locations are along the south coast and the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. If you want to visit the highlights of photography in Iceland, try the first itinerary above and do some basic research on locations, and you’ll find more than enough spots to fill a first trip to Iceland.
The further you get from Reykjavik and the south coast, the fewer visitors you will find, and you might want to focus more on the north of the ring road. There are still popular destinations in the north, and you’ll find coach tours and plenty of other guests in places like Dettifoss and Godafoss. However, the difference is noticeable, and you’ll have more time to yourself, especially early in the morning or late at night.
If you arrive in the summer, the best approach is to visit the Highlands, which are only accessible for limited portions of the year. Here you’ll find the most dramatic scenery and only more adventurous visitors, although the short window for access does make the Highlights more busy than you might expect for such a remote location.
To find more unusual photography spots and get the most out of your time to explore, I have a detailed guidebook to Iceland featuring more than 200 photography locations.
Photography Locations in Iceland
Full article | 12 minute read
Iceland Photography Locations in Depth
Iceland has so many places to photograph that you could spend each day visiting new areas and embracing all the variety of the landscape. However, we often get the most from a place by getting to know it in different conditions, and there are spots in Iceland where you can spend a week on a single beach and still uncover new ideas.
These in-depth guides explore some of my favourite locations in Iceland, where I have spent at least a few days exploring and revisiting in different conditions.
Vestrahorn
Vestrahorn is an incredible mountain in southeast Iceland, where you can find a huge variety in the landscape on a small and walkable peninsula. The weather constantly changes, and the light makes new compositions possible from moment to moment, making Vestrahorn a beautiful spot to spend a long time for some peaceful and deep photography.
Full article | 10 minute read
Eystrahorn
Eystrahorn is Vestrahorn’s eastern neighbour, a short drive up the coast. There is slightly less space to photograph than at Vestrahorn, but Eystrahorn has just as much variety and fewer visitors. Its location on the coast catches the weather patterns around the edge of Iceland, bringing new conditions and different light each moment and new photography opportunities every time you visit.
Full article | 10 minute read
Photographing the Northern Lights in Iceland
The Aurora in Iceland
Travelers in Iceland in winter constantly talk about the northern lights and where they might see them. There are so many spectacular images of the aurora over the famous features of Iceland that the possibility of a sighting brings a constant sense of excitement during any winter trip.
However, there are real challenges to seeing the northern lights in Iceland. Although Iceland's winters are mild due to ocean currents, it still isn’t that far north, and only a small part of the island of Grimsey is in the Arctic Circle. Iceland is far enough north that the aurora appears often during the winter, but it’s only visible on the north horizon if the solar activity is low. Iceland is also cloudy, and the main challenge to a successful aurora photograph is in the sky above you, not the activity of the sun.
The right approach can improve your chance of seeing the aurora. Firstly, use prediction tools to target your time outside. The aurora can appear whenever the sky is dark, and you’ll only have so much energy for standing outside in the cold watching the sky. Solar activity forecasts can be accurate, especially for the upcoming few hours, and that can help you plan your sleep and know when it might be worth setting an alarm for the middle of the night. The Icelandic Met Office also has good predictions for cloud cover, and Iceland has enough long, straight roads that you may be able to travel and escape the cloud if there is clear sky nearby.
My guide to northern lights photography has a lot more information on how to capture the aurora, and covers finding a good location, choosing camera settings and focusing at night, and the equipment you'll need for a successful image.
Northern Lights Locations in Iceland
There are many great places to watch the aurora in Iceland, but choosing the right spot is about more than deciding whether a scene would look good with the northern lights overhead.
Some locations have a better view of the sky or point towards the north, where the aurora is more likely to appear if the solar activity is weak. If you are new to aurora photography, you might prioritise locations with a wide, clear view of the sky that allows you to capture the aurora wherever it appears. With more experience, you can take on more difficult locations where the right alignment of features is less likely.
Good places to start are Kirkjufell, Jokulsarlon and Vestrahorn, all locations with open views of the northern sky where you are most likely to see some aurora activity. Each of these spots is easy to reach and navigate in the dark, with simple features that can be worked into a composition even when you can’t fully see your camera.
More difficult locations include Skogafoss, which faces north but blocks most of the horizon, meaning you’ll need a strong aurora to appear high above it. Similarly, Reynisfjara Beach has a great view but points south, and only a strong aurora will appear over the beach.
I don’t recommend Seljalandsfoss or Eystrahorn, which are both beautiful during the day but block too much of the northern sky for a likely aurora sighting at night. It can appear at these locations, but it is less likely, and both have better locations (Skogafoss and Vestrahorn, respectively) nearby.
For a full review of Northern Lights locations in Iceland, check out my detailed guide below.
Full article | 7 minute read
Iceland
Photography Travel Guide and Map
Explore my guidebook and map for photographers featuring:
-
A 360-page travel guide designed for photographers, including information, maps and images for planning your photography trip
-
Access to a digital map featuring 500+ pins of photography locations, parking, hiking trails and travel advice
-
200+ Iceland photography locations with detailed advice on capturing the landscape
-
All designed for mobile to be easy to read and use while traveling