We plan to return to Iceland in June for our third visit in the past two years. We chose June to take advantage of the midnight sun, the many hours of beautiful light each night. We expect to have about five hours per night for prime shooting, from approximately 10pm to 3am.

We will be doing a 11-day self driving tour, photographing at night, driving and sleeping during the day – hopefully, not at the same time.  Another major factor for choosing June is the abundance of puffins throughout the southern portion of the island.

Trip Highlights

  • Golden Circle
    • Gullfoss Waterfall. It might be the most beautiful waterfall of all. We photographed this on our first visit but had extremely dull light. Time for a re-do.
    • Bruarfoss Waterfall. We ran out of time and missed this beauty. 
  • Snæfellsnes
    • Kirkjufell. It was pouring during during our last visit causing us to forgo any photography. This time we want to shoot the iconic shot with the Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall in the foreground and the famous Kirkjufell (Church) mountain in the background.
    • Black Church of Budir. It was a constant rain over the church for the entire day and night we were there. It should be a great place to take a minimalistic photo.
    • Londrangar Basalt Cliffs. Another day of torrential rains kept us from photographing this amazing rock formation jutting into the sea. We’ll also search for puffins which reside on these cliffs.
    • Arnarstapi a small settlement with the mountains behind as a frame, and the coastline arch, Gatklettur.
  • Vik – in search of puffins
    • Dyrholaey Arch. We’ve been to this location twice, once during the day when the light was not its best and once early in the morning during another rainstorm. It is a beautiful arch to photograph and there are many puffins that live along the sea wall just waiting to be photographed.
    • Vestmannaeyjar – The Westmann Islands is an archipelago off of Iceland’s southern coast known for its puffins. Although it will have more touristic than we would like, it is the only way to see and photograph the puffins.
  • Hofn
    • Diamond Beech
    • Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon
    • Puffins at Ingólfshöfði Nature Reserve
    • Vestrahorn Mountain and Stokksnes Beach
    • Estrahorn
  • Reykjavik
    • Hallgrímskirkja