The need to roam!
A guy chasing his dreams…
I have always been drawn to rough and cold landscapes, I am of course born and raised in the westfjords of Iceland, the most remote area of the country, so maybe that is not surprising. The small towns I lived in had rough mountains rising high above them and then the open ocean all around.. So I basicly grew up with that rough nature right outside my door… I could not imagine any other way to grow up… The freedom that I had as a child to roam around and the feeling of respect for nature that I learned on the way has guided me to where I am today… Sometimes the freedom was a bit to much.. I often got in trouble, falling in cliffs, getting bruised and broken bones, almost drowning… or in fact drowning… Thankfully I was brought back… I do not know how many times my life has been at risk because of poor choices or going against what I was told… My parents know all about that.. as they were picked up by police to bring them to the hospital after I fell 7-8 meters in cliffs after trying to climb to a ravens nest. In a place that my father asked me specifically not to go to! A rock came loose as I grabbed it and I will never forget that moment.. It felt like forever until I hit the ground below… Broken bones and bruises… that was my childhood..
But let´s talk about today!
I still get that urge to explore as I did when I was a kid. In fact I think it only grows.. I LOVE going to places that I have not been before to roam around and seek for the “shot”!
But there is a country that always pulls me back… The country I was born in, Iceland. There is no country like it for exploring! There are endless locations to hike and search for angles to get that perfect looking shot. I went back few weeks ago for the purpose of just that…Roaming around in a camper van in a search for cool places!
I contacted a camper company in Iceland called Happycampers and they offered me an epic 4x4 camper that would be my home on the road around Iceland. My goal was to chase the light and I was hoping for a stormy one…
I flew from the Faroe islands with Atlantic Airways and arrived on a cold friday morning in Iceland.. It was looking promising with the forecast so I went straight to the south coast after I got my camper. I had some locations in mind but mostly I wanted to just roam around and see what I could find!
The gear I had with me was my Fujifilm cameras, Fujifilm GFX100, Fujifilm XT4 and Fujifilm XT3, some lenses and then the Dji Mavik pro 2 drone. I have always loved shooting with the drone, catching some epic angles and selfies that are otherwise hard to get.. But in this trip it failed me.. Most of the shots that I took with the drone were grainy and not useable.. I was not happy with that as I was shooting some EPIC riverbraids in the south of Iceland and many of them were ruined.. But these came out preeeetty good, if I might say so myself.. But I can not rely on the Mavik Pro 2 for quality shots any more obviously!
The locations that I HAD to go back to were the glaciers and of course mountain Vestrahorn.. There is something about those locations that have a HUGE pull on me. The feeling I get when I stand in front of a huge glacier is phenomenal, I can feel the cold from it, smell the ice.. I know it sounds weird, but there is a specific smell around them.. A cold and fresh smell.. Can´t describe it better! I fell alive, free, and all my worries and thoughts leave!
It is the same with mountain Vestrahorn.. I could spend hours there, just roaming around and looking for different angles to shoot it! There is a specific smell there as well.. Smell of the ocean and grass.. If you believe in such a thing then I would say that there is a certain force around it.. And after seeing the movie TROLL I think that is it… The Icelandic trolls are sleeping there… haha!
I have been photographing landscapes since I was a child in the westfjords, but it never gets old, never gets tired. I think I will do this for the rest of my life. Even if I am changing my direction professionally these days I will never stop roaming.. I just simply can´t… I would both go insane and drive everyone around me insane.. Thankfully I can continue, I still have my health…ish… And the full support of my family to do so.
Next up is… who knows… Norway… Greenland… Australia… Antartica.. So many places that I want to visit.. But we will see.. Hopefully it will be soon though!
But if you are planing a trip to Iceland, most definatly go with a campervan! I highly recommend Happycampers because they are very professional and they have so much variety of campers from small to big to 4x4! Check out the link below to see their website!
I really hope that you enjoyed this story and I plan to make many more… Next up.. A story about my shoot with an epic brand in Iceland!
