I just returned from a great camping trip with six fellow travelers. We didn’t have luck on our side in terms of weather and there was nowhere to escape as all of Iceland was getting rain and strong winds for days. We started in the Southeast and photographed at the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon and it’s nearby amazing black beach where icebergs drift ashore. Those first two days were quite good and we got a fantastic sunset at the lagoon and a beautiful sunrise at the nearby Fjallsárlón lagoon. We then headed into the highlands to Landmannalaugar but broke camp and retreated to the Hrauneyjar motel when the forecast warned of a rainstorm in the area. Kerlingarfjöll mountains was our base for the next couple of days and when the weather improved we moved back into Landmannalaugar and the Fjallabak region. In spite of challenging conditions, lots of rain and often very strong wind, there were many unique photographic opportunities and we made the best of those moments. Thanks Ed, Cristoph, Bruce, Jeff, Srini and Curtis for a memorable trip through Iceland’s wilderness.

Curtis Budden has been posting images from the trip on a daily basis and will continue doing so on a Northern Iceland tour that starts in a couple of days. You can follow his daily photos here.

The image above is from the sunrise at Fjallsárlón lagoon. The three below are from Hveradalir in Kerlingarfjöll, Jarlhettur by Langjökull glacier and the river Rauðufossakvísl at Fjallabak.

Summer is passing very quickly here in Iceland as usual. In a couple of days I’m off on a ten-day camping trip with a group of eager photographers. I love camping as it gives freedom to follow the weather, or at least break camp when storms hit and escape to other parts of the country. Doesn’t always work though, as bad weather can hit quickly and without warning, especially in the highlands.

The conditions were unique when I was touring the country in June. Ash from the Grimsvotn volcanic eruption in May had colored glaciers black and in the Fjallabak area we drove through an “ash storm”. It’s been unusually dry for the past weeks but rain just hit hard today. Pouring rain is a poor condition for landscape photography but at least it keeps the fine ash from blowing around. And there’s always some place where the weather is good for photography. That’s were we’ll be for the next ten days – hopefully.

Bears that come here from Greenland have had to swim a long way to reach shore and most of the recent bears have been in bad shape when they were discovered. They were all shot as there’s currently no other plan for bears that show up. Greenland doesn’t want them back, considers a bear that finds its way to Iceland a lost and dead one. So they get killed when they’re discovered.

I experienced wild Polar Bears for the first time in early June this year. I was on a photography cruise in Svalbard and we had a number of encounters with bears. Being in the presence of these magnificent animals was one of my most memorable wildlife experiences and to meet them in their high-Arctic kingdom is truly the way to see them. More on Svalbard later.

Luck was not with me this time around and the day after I erected the hide the weather changed, it became warm and the snow started melting at an alarming rate. The wind also picked up the day I started sitting in the hide. The first day was an easy 8 hours but the following one I sat there for about 10 hours. It’s difficult and boring when absolutely nothing is happening and the birds are out of reach. On the third day the female Gyr finally sat down where I was hoping she would sit but the wind had become so strong that I had to hold the hide with my hands. Had I not been in there it would have collapsed. But the extreme wind also created a unique situation. The small tent was flapping as I struggled to hold it up, which made the falcon curious and she hovered above me a couple of times and then just barely touched the ground with raised wings. It was a wonderful moment and I managed to capture a few images.

As the wind picked up even more and it started raining sideways I gave up and left the area only to return in June. Although breeding success was low for Gyrfalcons this season, due to cold and wet weather and lack of prey (Ptarmigan numbers are down), the pair of falcons I photographed in April raised three chicks. I am now just about to travel north once more to photograph their chicks, which should have fledged by now but should be around the nest. This will probably be my last excursion to the north for a book I’m making about the Gyrfalcons. It’s difficult to stop though and I’ll hopefully be photographing falcons for years to come.