Photographing the awe-inspiring beauty of Iceland

It’s taken us twenty years to make it to Iceland, but after spending a little over a week this past Autumn exploring the manifold natural wonders of this amazing Island, we just can’t wait to go back!

Overdue

Rewind some twenty years, to a young baby-faced young man and his blushing bride – barely into their twenties – planning their honeymoon. Iceland made it to the shortlist, but budget restraints brought us instead to another, more affordable, North Atlantic Island – Nova Scotia. Over the last few decades the land of Fire and Ice would occasionally beacon, but it wasn’t until early September last year, that we would finally find our ways to Iceland’s black-rock shores on a Covid-belated 20th anniversary trip. The panoply of wonders on this island are an inescapable testament to the creative glory of God that cannot help but inspire wonder.

Something you need to know about us – we’re both planners – and with a trip like this, we shifted those proclivities into high gear. So, we begun by watching a slew of YouTube videos about Iceland, took out our trusty travel excel template, and set to mapping out a grand adventure along Iceland’s 821-mile ring road. We had heard that it was pricey to travel through, but we found that traveling on what is called the shoulder season (the month on either side of a location’s busy season), coupled with a willingness to shop around a bit, and find buy some of our food at grocery stores, made for a surprisingly affordable adventure.

I also knew at the onset that I wanted to fly my drone, so I went through the somewhat arduous process of securing my EU drone license, registering my drones in Iceland, and securing permitting to fly in some of the more popular locations that require such permissions. I am so thankful we did! If you have a spare 15 minutes and presently have a hankering for some epic landscapes from a bird’s eye view, then we’ve got a video with your name on it:

Wonders Around Every Corner

Now, one thing that’s really important to know when planning a September trip to Iceland is that the weather can be, well, unpredictable. In fact, the week after we visited, a not-so-uncommon dust storm spawned by the Island’s notoriously strong winds and wide-open areas of unprotected fine volcanic pumice, wreaked havoc on a few dozen cars parked at one of the hotels along the eastern coast, pushing cars around, shattering windows, and filling cars with the powder-fine sediment carried along by the storm. Thankfully, by contrast, we had a propitious week – and were regularly told by locals that the sunny skies and calm winds that greeted us most days were an unexpected anomaly over typical September weather. In fact, there was only one day where the sun didn’t shine at all – most days were a bit breezy, beautifully sunny with just the right amount of clouds, and temperatures in the high 50’s or low 60’s.

As we circumnavigated Iceland, we were continually amazed by how many corners brought with them an amazing new jaw-dropping vista – thousand foot waterfalls, expansive lava fields, towering mountains and stunning rock formations are seemingly as plentiful here as palm trees are in Florida. And that was just during the day.

The Glory of the Night

With the night came another array of wonders, capped by the a view of the Northern Lights at Kirkjufellsfoss that brought me to tears. To think of God’s merciful graciousness that would allow a wretched sinner like me to behold such beauty, was moving beyond words. We were treated to an unexpected hours-long display of undulating ribbons of intense green and red dancing lights that almost palpably warmed the otherwise freezing temperatures of the evening. It was a spectacular reminder of God’s goodness to all – that this sweet joy, a treat that hundreds if not thousands of us experienced that night – many of whom do not know Christ – yet because of the cross, God’s common grace blessed them with such transcendent beauty.

“But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

Galatians 6:14, NASB 1995

But enough with my jibber-jabbering. It’s probably better to simply share these amazing vistas with you. Below are just a few of our favorites, but please feel free to pay a visit to our full gallery for even more views to inspire a spirit of thanksgiving to Him who created all things!

Please feel free to pay a visit to our full gallery here.