Southern Iceland photography trip
In November 2025 I had a simply incredible 4 nights in Iceland. A last minute trip, entirely dedicated to me and indulging fully in my passion for photography (rather than trying to shoehorn it into family trips). Didn't go to a single restaurant or bar, just had breakfast at hotel / guest house and a car full of snacks, rolls and pot noddles from supermarket on arrival.
Got up at 4:30am for flight from Heathrow on Friday 21st and landed around 10:30. Picked up hire car, supplies from bonus supermarket and headed to Hraunfossar. Some nice shots, but hard to get any with sense of scale, this being around a 12ft drop into the water, but not really clear. I like the colours and shapes, but could do with something to indicate size:
1. Hraunfossar
Drove back to Rejkjavik to check into hotel, then headed back out in hope of Aurora near Kirkjufell, with Friday having a 4/5 index - versus forecast of 1 or 2 for remaining days. Drove 1.5hrs of the 2.5hr journey before accepting I was too tired and if I did make it, I probably wouldn't make it home. So reluctantly turned the car around. Back to hotel about midnight.
Saturday
got up shortly after 7, had breakfast, packed up and drove over to Gullfoss to be there around sunrise at 10:30am.
2. Gullfoss waterfall at midday
3. Gullfoss close-up
Stayed there until 1pm, then quick skirmish over to Hraunfossar which was a real highlight and probably the most photogenic and enjoyable shoot:
4. Bruarfoss
Only there for 60 minutes before back to Gullfoss for sunset from 3pm:
5. Gullfoss sunset
Had dinner in the carpark and a coffee in the Gullfoss cafe from 6-7pm when I got kicked out, then headed back down to the waterfall in hope of some nice star trails with the whole place to myself. Aurora forecast was crap, but skies hopefully cleared. At 10pm, I noticed a slight green tint in opposite direction of the waterfall, but slowly over the next 2 hours it crept round and danced above the waterfall. Absolutely stunning and I was dancing alongside my cameras.
6. Gullfoss aurora 1
7. Gullfoss aurroa 2
Stayed until around 1:30am before the 2-2.5hr drive back to hotel in Reykjavik (tip: don't stay in Reykjavik!).
Sunday
Got up at 9 after 54-5 hours sleep and drove over to Gluggafoss
8. Gluggafoss lower tier
Then headed over towards Seljalandsfoss waterfall on my way to my guesthouse in Hof. Enroute I stopped a few times to snap the stunning scenery of the route.
I wasn't too inspired by Seljalandsfoss, it is huge and impressive, but hard to get a good shot. in the end I asked a passing photographer to go and stand still perfectly silhouetted by the falls to give some scale - but I was disappointed that even a fellow photographer couldn't get the importance of standing dead still!
Irrived at Litla Hof guesthouse around 8pm. Had dinner, then 2 hour nap before heading out at 11pm to Fjallsarlon glacier in hope of having aurora again.
Hiked round from the empty car park only to find very low level cloud meaning I could see nothing, and on chance of aurora. A bit deflated, I headed back after 30 minutes towards the guesthouse. As I got closer though, I noticed the sky was clearer away from the glacier and another aurora show was lighting up the sky. I knew there was beautiful grass covered church at Hof, so I headed there for some excellent foreground to the party overhead. Some big spotlights made getting a shot in shade a challenge, but was fun being creative in the area and was very pleased with the shots here too:
9. Hof church aurora
10. Hof church aurora portrait
The show seemed to wane slightly just after 3am so I retired around 4am. Alarm then went at 9am to head back over to the Fjallsarlon glacier, which was now beautifully lit:
11. Fjallsarlon glacier
12. Fjallsarlon glacier front wall
13. self portrait at Fjallsarlon glacier
14. Ice shapes at Fjallsarlon
I then drove round to Jokulsarlon glacier and the iceberg lake, which had some nice opportunities to capture the blue ice a bit closer:
15. Jokulsarlon glacier lake
16. Jokulsarlon glacier lake abstract
Then headed over to Diamond beach to capture some of the incredible ice laden beach, and the iceberg shards being battered by the wash. It's hard to believe these are all colour images...
17. Diamond black wash
18. Diamond beach blur
19. Dimanod beach blue
I then left around 5pm before the 5.5 hour drive back to the airport to stay overnight ahead of my 11:50am flight. All in all I drove just over 1,000 miles, slept very little, and ate just bread rolls, snack bars, pot noodles and hotel breakfasts, but an incredible 4 nights that I will never forget, and still buzzing from.
These photos and around 40 others of my highlights are in a gallery here if anyone is interested to see more:
I have to close by saying a huge thank you to Ellen Bowness' excellent photographers guide to Iceland which was invaluable helping me plan, and John Greengo's excellent travel photography lesson, which taught me to eat between shoots and be prepared to spend more time in each place than you expect (I actually only achieved half of what I hoped from Ellen's book!). I've used John's photography training videos since 2010 and thoroughly recommend.
I tried to contact each of them to pass on my thanks, but was only able to email John. I was thrilled to receive a reply:
Simon,
Thanks for the note and the kind words. It sounds like you've been along since the very beginning! I took a quick look at your photo gallery from Iceland, and it's very nice work. Iceland was one of my first international destinations but I didn't have nearly as good of photos as you have.
It's great to see that you've really gotten something great from your photography!
Thanks,
John
So if you're planning a trip to Iceland, I'd strongly recommend checking out John's work and Helen's books, and if you'd like to contact me for advice I'm very happy to support.
