I have now returned from Iceland. Yes, a lot of what I said on my trip article was as expected. The city is very busy. On the one evening, we were there a cruise ship arrived and dumped 6000 people into the town. Our workshop tours avoid the Golden Circle area completely. On this trip, we headed straight to the Highlands. The hotel we use there was completely sold out. The campgrounds filled to the brim. We ventured out to see a number of locations and for the most part, we were more or less on our own. People (tourists) would arrive stay 5 minutes and leave. They were happy with their iPhone shots. We also had some very windy and wet weather which kept down the number of people I am sure. On one road we were driving in the Highlands it looked like rush hour in the late afternoon as all the day tourists were heading out. We then crossed the Highlands in our large 4WD Sprinter and saw a few tourists trying to navigate a road their rental car companies would have a fit if they saw them on it. As well as a number of buses dragging trailers.
We spent a few days in the north where we would venture out before and after the tourist visiting times. We had some of the larger waterfalls in the north practically all to ourselves. We continued around the Island and visited places that many people don't know about. Once we hit the south all bets were off. The Iceberg Lagoon was jammed with buses and people. So, we went and had dinner and came back late and very early in the morning (sunrise time if there would have been a sunrise) 4AM.
Seljalandsfoss was a joke, however. even late in the day. When I first visited this falls there were no barriers and no people. Daniel Bergmann and I had the place to ourselves (June time frame, many years ago). The parking lot could only hold a few cars. Now there were hundreds of cars and large tour buses there and throngs of people. There is a coffee/refreshment stand and the parking lot has been extended along the road.
In the end, I came home with some nice images. You can see many on my
BLOG - Kevinraber.com. I am taking a year off from Iceland workshops. The next workshops we do there will be very customized and we have some ideas how to offer a different experience there. It will be 2019 before I return to Iceland. I know a number of other photographers running workshops who have decided to do this too.
I love Iceland. I feel privileged I have had the opportunity to visit it so many times and photographed it under a variety of conditions along with some fantastic people who have been on my workshops there. It's a special country and unbelievably photographic.
As photographers, we need to be able to work around the tourists wherever we go. This means visiting off seasons (although those times can be crowded too). Also, visiting off hours, which as photographers we like to do anyway.
I am off to Greenland with Art Wolfe in less than two weeks to run a workshop there. That trip will be shipped based and should be a great visit. If you haven't seen the Greenland Video I made
you can see it here - Greenland Imensity