The Light in Iceland

The light here doesn't follow rules. In winter it barely shows up — a pale glow along the southern horizon for a few hours, then gone. In summer it refuses to leave, circling the sky in long golden arcs that stretch past midnight.

Golden hour, all day

Photographers talk about golden hour like it's a brief window. Here it can last for hours. The sun grazes the landscape at such a low angle that everything — moss, lava fields, the aluminum roofs of fishing villages — turns warm and dimensional.

The challenge is not finding good light. It's choosing when to stop shooting.

Winter stories

The short days are harder but more interesting. You get maybe four hours of usable daylight, and the color temperature shifts constantly. Blue, violet, pink, then blue again.

The best winter shots happen in the twenty minutes you weren't planning to shoot.

I've started keeping a camera in my bag year-round, even on days when I have no plans to use it. Iceland rewards the people who are simply present.

Gear doesn't matter (much)

Most of these photographs were taken with whatever I had on me. A few with a proper camera and lens, many with a phone. The light does most of the work.