I'm just home from Iceland and the trip was amazing.
I've got around 50 rolls of film to get processed, one Mamiya 7II camera body + 150mm lens which I have to replace, as both fell off my new tripod-head and into the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river in the north east of the country. There is so much silt in the river that the camera is beyond repair.
Selfoss waterfall, on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum canyon
That's just one of the biggest issues with using new equipment. The ball-head is excellent, but I find the clamp on the top plate has a very short travel in its adjustment, so when I put the camera onto the plate, I was sure it wasn't on properly, yet everything about the clamp was saying 'yes, it's on'. So I let go and all of a sudden the camera just fell right off the top of the ball-head and into the river.
On another note, myself and my friend almost got wiped out by a killer Granny. We were just on the outskirts of Husavik, when we saw a small car up ahead leave its lane and enter ours. I wasn't sure where to go and just hoped that the car wasn't going to do a head-on collision with us. At the very last moment it swerved back into its own lane and we both watched a granny pass us by with her eyes closed. Well, I wasn't sure if she was asleep, or if she had been busy trying to correct her knitting. It did occur to me later that perhaps she has been dead for a long time, and the car has (and still is) looping the ring-road of Iceland.
I don't know if I could have stood the embarrassment of being killed by a granny. Still, it would have put a smile on the face of everyone at the funeral if it had happened.
Back on the subject of photography, I have to say that each time I spend a bit more time in Iceland, the more I realise I've just scratched the surface. We spent about a week in the interior around the Fjallabak region. It's an amazing place with large craters, red waterfalls, and I'm already hatching plans to go back in September (if the roads are accessible) to make some more images there.
On a personal note, I managed to tick off a few things I have wanted to do in a long time. I trekked the Ásbyrgi to Dettifoss trek, which is approximately 30km over two days.
Landmannalaugar, 2004
And this week I just completed the Landmannalaugar to þórsmörk trek - a very comfortable four day 55km hike over the highlands. The views at the top of Landmannalaugar were spectacular and my favourite spot was probably between Hrafntinnusker - Álftavatn. There is a small red waterfall in there that I hope to go back to photograph sometime either this year or next.