Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice (1 Viewer)

[Scott Merryfield]

I mentioned elsewhere that my wife and I recently returned from a cruise around Iceland through Smithsonian Journeys on a 184 passenger ship. This was to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We saw lots of interesting things, and were very lucky with the weather -- foggy/overcast for the first part of the trip, with sunny skies the last two days. Temperatures were usually in the 50's, but did dip down into the 40's at a few stops. The previous week, the ship was unable to even make two ports of call due to high winds and rough seas.

I brought along all three of my cameras, but only a few lenses. My combos were the Canon 5D3 + EF 24-105L f/4 IS, Canon 7D2 + EF 70-200L f/4 IS (plus sometimes a 1.4x TC), and Canon M5 mirrorless with either the EF-M 11-22mm or EF-M 15-45mm mounted (depending on which other body I was carrying). I left the big, heavy EF 100-400L telephoto at home, and never really regretted it. The 70-200 f/4 + 1.4x TC got me close enough to the birds and whales we encountered.

I will try to add more photos to the thread over time, but here are a few highlights:

Our ship, docked near Vigur Island

Goddafoss Falls

Lava field at Dimmuborgir. Game of Thrones filmed some scenes here.

Geothermal pools of Namaskard

Waterfall and wild flowers at Seydisfjordur

Glacial lagoon at Jokulsarlon, with Vatnajokull glacier in background

Icebergs washed ashore on Black Diamond beach at Jokulsarlon

Town on the island of Heimay, where a volcanic eruption in 1973 wiped out 1/3rd of the village

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Here is some of the wildlife we encountered while on the trip:

Arctic Tern on Vigur Island

Black Guillemot on Vigur Island

Atlantic Puffins on Grimsey Island

Golden Plover on Grimsey Island

Orca whales, off the coast of the Westman Islands

 

[Mike2001]

Beautiful pictures Scott. Thanks for posting.

 

[John Dirk]

@Scott Merryfield - Congrats on 30 years sir! We just hit the 15 year mark. Beautiful photos and a fitting once in a lifetime trip to commemorate an equally special occasion.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Here are a few more bird shots from the trip.

Arctic Tern

Black Guillemot

Atlantic Puffins

Iceland Gull

Gulls diving into water to feed while Orcas stir up the fish

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Some shots from the villages

Hallgrimskiekja Lutheran Church in Reykjavik

Herring fishery museum in Siglufjordur

Village of Seydisfjordur

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Meridian Pro was having a sale on metal prints, so I just ordered a 24x16 metal print of this photo:

EDIT:

I also was deleting some photos, so here is another shot of our ship docked near Vigur Island from the initial post in this thread (I can no longer edit that post).