We have traveled through Iceland many times since Iceland Air often has very good rates to/from the US and Europe. They cleverly offer extended layovers at no change in your flight prices and this year we took advantage of that, spending two and half days there. In one day, we visited the following places:
- Keflavík (town near airport)
- Reykjavík Old Harbour & Reykjavík
- Þingvellir National Park
- Great Geysir (with Strokkur and Geysir)
- Gulfoss (waterfalls)
- Kerið Volcanic Crater
At some locations I only had my iPhone 13 Pro Max. It has excellent cameras and did very well in most situations. Elsewhere I was shooting with my Nikon D810. On the “Puffin Express” boat tour of the harbor I only had my Nikkor 80-200mm ƒ2.8 so I was not able to get very close to the birds through the lens and cropping shows the lack of clarity. Still, there are some nice shots and it was wonderful to see so many at the end of their nesting season. (The spend over 9 months out of the year just out in the open North Atlantic by themselves. Each bird often has a full square kilometer to themselves.
When we went to the parks and the waterfalls I tried to do longer exposures to get the “silky water” effect but I did not have any ND filters. I used my new Manbily 68 Inches Carbon Fiber Camera Tripod Monopod with 360 Degree Ball Head that I purchased for this trip. It is very nice, comes with its own bag, removable spikes for the feet, and can convert into a monopod, but it is very much a fullsize tripod. I had to pack it in my large suitcase for the trip and attached it to the back of my camera bag for the hike. It was very stable and even has a hook below the center pole to attach a weight to it, if needed. I used both the AF-S Nikkor 18-35mm ƒ3.5-4.5G ED and the AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 28-70mm ƒ2.8D IF-ED lenses. I lowered the ISO as much as I could, opened up the lens, and shot at 1″ or slower. I also shot in RAW format so that I could edit with the benefits that brings with it. I will let you judge the results.
