So Many Photo Opportunities, Yet So Little Time!

WARNING: This blog post contains subject matter of a geeky, or nerd-like nature, specifically relating to photography. If you are not a nerd or do not have nerdy tendencies (such as a desire to put things into spreadsheets) and/or if the technical aspects of photography (such as hyperfocal distance, ISO settings and white balance) are not fascinating to you, then you may find this post tedious and boring! (Seriously, it's not too bad, but I did want to let everyone know that the post is somewhat more detailed - and longer - than normal.)

In just a little over 3 months from now I will be on my photographic journey in Iceland.  Planning for the trip is progressing, and my list of potential photographic subjects is virtually locked down.  But, how did I decide where to go and what to photograph?  Without a doubt, planning what to photograph has been the most challenging aspect of the trip so far.  But for me, planning is half of the fun of a photo expedition like this.

There is no shortage of photographic subjects in Iceland – without question it is a photographer's paradise.  Take waterfalls as an example.  There is an estimated 10,000 waterfalls in Iceland.  "Estimated" because there are still as yet undiscovered waterfalls, and a significant number of the known waterfalls have not even been named!  Of course, a vast majority of these waterfalls are small and unspectacular (at least by Icelandic standards), but this does put things into perspective.  

In addition to waterfalls, there are many other incredible things to photograph in Iceland, including:

• Mountains
• Volcanoes (fortunately – or unfortunately – none are currently active)
• Geothermal areas, including geysers
• Glaciers
• Spectacular rock formations and other geological structures
• Ice caves 
• Black lava sand beaches
• Dynamic seascapes
• Turf buildings (buildings where the roof is sod and used as an insulator)
• Many abandoned farms and buildings
• Arctic Puffin and Icelandic horses

Certainly you could spend months, if not years photographing in Iceland, so I definitely needed a plan for my 9 day trip.  (The other option of course would be to randomly wander around and spontaneously take photographs, but I likely would miss many great photo opportunities with this approach.)

I started by surfing the internet.  I looked at travel blogs, images on Google, Flickr, other photographer’s web sites, etc., and I created a mental list of potential things and places that I might want to photograph.  Once I knew how long I would be in Iceland, I started to refine this mental list and enter locations into a spreadsheet.  The design of the spreadsheet quickly evolved, and I added columns for things like type of photographic subject, description, GPS coordinates, special access instructions, optimal lighting and weather conditions, and any special photo tips for the location - see below.

Spreadsheet of Iceland Photographic Subjects

For any of you who might might be interested, four references were particularly helpful in building the list of photographic locations, especially with regards to access details and photo tips:

• Series of 21 YouTube videos by Mads Peter Iverson, a Danish landscape photographer
• Photo Guide to Iceland
• The Road Trip Guide: Iceland 
• International Photographer Iceland eRoadbook 

The net result was that I had a list of potential photo locations to visit in Iceland!  But, I had a small problem.  I had over 70 locations in the spreadsheet, which meant that I would have to visit approximately eight locations per day on average!  Theoretically possible, but this was not even close to being practical, even with the extended daylight hours, for two reasons: (1) the driving time between locations, which in some cases could be significant, and (2) at some locations I could potentially spend a couple hours or more taking photos.  And, this was not even considering subjects along the way not on the list that I might see and want to photograph.  So, I had to prioritize.

I ranked items on the list from "Must Visit" (5 stars) to "Probably Not Worth It" (1 star), resulting in twelve 5-star locations, eleven 4-start locations, and so on.  This was a much more practical plan of attack. However, I certainly didn't want to waste time zigging and zagging all over the island, and if I happened to pass reasonably close to a 4-star location on my way to a 5-star location, for example, it would be desirable to stop there, time permtting. Therefore, I needed to understand where all of these locations were physically in relation to one another. 

The Iceland eRoadbook mentioned above had a accompanying map that pinpointed nearly all of the photo locations I was interested in, plus lots of other useful information.  So, I put color-coded Post-It markers on the map that correspond to the locations in my spreadsheet, as shown below (see, I told you this was geeky!).  This will allow me to be somewhat efficient in my travels and maximize the number of photographic locations I can visit in 9 days.

Map of Photographic Locations

Close-up of map with color-coded Post-It markers

So there you have it - a summary of how am I planning what to photograph while in Iceland. My apologies for this being rather long and detailed (however, I warned you).

In my next post, I will continue with the nerd theme and talk a little about how I have determined when the optimal time is to photograph at some of the more important locations and perhaps give some examples of the places I plan to visit.

Peace!