Iceland the easy way

[JLH]

The dumbest thing I did was leave Iceland without his book, Faces of the North.

Me too!
I also couldn't find it here in Europe, but I now will get it from the publisher. Many thanks for the link.

Josef
www.josefhoflehner.com

[Penelope]

We spent 10 days in Iceland in July, and found that a tiny VW polo instead of a huge expensive 4WD took us to enough beautiful places to keep us busy.  Our travel agency booked us into guesthouses and many of them offered self-catering accomodation and your own front door key.  That solves the problems a lot of photographers have with keeping suitable hours for hotels.  The 'trek' approach is great of course, but I thought I'd pass this on for anyone whose circumstances don't permit it (we had a 3 year old with us, for instance). Iceland is fantastic, I give it a 100% recommendation, do whatever you need to get there! We put a very small selection of our photos here, if you'd like to see.

On a different note does anyone else know the work of Ragnar Axelsson?  The dumbest thing I did was leave Iceland without his book, Faces of the North.  It kind of grew on me slowly but doesn't seem to be available in the US/Europe.  If anyone knows enough about the vagaries of publishing to tell me wether I should wait it out, or take extreme measures to get the book from Iceland, I would be grateful. He does have a site here. I think it's worth a look, though I can imagine people either loving or hating them.

Penny

[David Mantripp]

Nice photos Penelope - certainly backs up what you say about not needing to spend a large fortune (just a small one).

And add me to the "duh!" list for Ragnar's book  

[Ben Rubinstein]

Just watch out for the bloody sheep, I ran over two while I was there, cost me a fortune in damage to the car as animal damage isn't covered by the rental insurance (Why the heck didn't I say that I hit a wall?).
They stay in road while you slow down, and wander off just as you are almost stopped. Then just as you build up speed again they rund under the wheels. It doesn't help that we were living on less than 4 hours a day, sleeping in the car and driving the rest!

[jani]

I could have told you about how to handle the sheep ...  ::

They act in almost the same way in Norway, too.

On my last shooting safari (haha), we had to wait while the sheep crossed the road. And that's the safest way to handle them, is to do just that, wait.

We also treat the dangerous mirror-eating cows the same way!

[Christopher Sanderson]

Re book

the RagAx site says: To purchase the book please contact Edda publishing house.

[francois]

...Why the heck didn't I say that I hit a wall?...

Probably because your car had icelandic wool stuck in the radiator fins! By the way, the rental insurance in Iceland seems to cover a lot less than in Europe or USA.

francois

[Ben Rubinstein]

It cracked the outer plastic of the bumper and totalled the licence plate and bracket. The first was a lamb and didn't do any damage, the second was a sheep and just high enough to get me charged 600 pounds damage. If it had been a sedan and not a 4X4 then the sheep would probably have totalled the car and landed both of us (my wife was just pregnant though we didn't know it yet!) in hospital.

I have to say that although I didn't enjoy the 'feel' of it, the Toyoya Rav4 went through a #### of a lot. We drove about 2000 miles in a week, a good half of that at high speed off road (I don't know KMH, scared myself to death when I got back home and realised how fast I'd been driving off road!).

One night heading out from Landmannalaguer we got lost (went north by mistake) in the central highlands, driving on tracks. We were lost for 5 hours and I'm not exaggarating, forded over 40 streams. The water came very high at times, above the grill, but that little car battled through. We found out where we where about 5am when I'd already been driving and shooting for 23 hours straight and made it back to civilisation with the petrol gauge flickering. If we would have continued along the road another half an hour we would have hit a dead end and not have had enough gas to get back to the road. Never been so scared in my life, I've been shot at while in the army but I didn't have my wife next to me!

And that was just one day in Iceland of a week on the road sleeping 3 hours a day in the car! I got 4 images out of it though. (www.bphotography.co.uk/fineart/finart.htm)

[Daniel Bergmann]

The problem with Icelandic publishers is that they are reluctant to sell their books internationally. The shipping cost from Iceland is very high, and as these books are usually produced and printed locally, they are also expensive to make. Faces of the North probably costs around $75 with shipping, which is a fairly steep price compared to similar books purchased from Amazon. But it is a work of art, the photography is unique and worth the money.

Guesthouses are a more affordable option to hotels, but are not cheap by any measure. With our currency being near a historical strongpoint, Iceland is an expensive place to visit. For example, the gallon of gas is close to $8 right now. But it is a very safe place, where few people live and mass tourism has not reached our shores.


Pom, I have driven about 200,000 km on Icelandic roads the past 5 years alone and have hit one sheep. It came out of nowhere in the dark (in August). I was driving a large 4x4, so the poor thing never had a chance. Did you know that you are supposed to pay the farmer a compensation for his killed sheep? If you come over again, be sure to bring a GPS.

[Mark D Segal]

The problem with Icelandic publishers is that they are reluctant to sell their books internationally. The shipping cost from Iceland is very high, and as these books are usually produced and printed locally, they are also expensive to make. Faces of the North probably costs around $75 with shipping,

Daniel, I just ordered the book. The price is 75 USD PLUS shipping - in my case to Canada. The total bill came to 109 USD. Not cheap, but really, very well printed, high quality photographic art books do cost that kind of money. After seeing the samples of Mr. Axelsson's work on the website, I felt this book would be a unique and valuable addition to my library, so I made the plunge.

I should add, the publisher had absolutely no reluctance whatsoever about selling internationally. They were able to inform me about the shipping arrangements and cost by return email very quickly! They aren't set-up with cybernetic fulfilment mechanisms like Amazon.com, but they are very willing to sell anyhow, and they take credit cards by email. For security I sent them my card number truncated in a couple of emails and they accepted that just fine.

[francois]

...And that was just one day in Iceland of a week on the road sleeping 3 hours a day in the car! I got 4 images out of it though. (www.bphotography.co.uk/fineart/finart.htm)

Beautiful photos... Well worth the driving and the wool strands on your RAV4.

francois

[Ben Rubinstein]

Daniel, how about paying me compensation for the damage to the car caused by letting the sheep run loose over the roads (both were on the main highway #1).  
 
I can't in all honesty say that I feel any remorse for the farmer. Here in the UK sheep have to be fenced off the road for drivers and their safety. Just had 2 friends killed in Scotland by a deer wandering on the road. It was like hitting a brick wall. The third guy is still in hospital with almost every important bone broken. They were driving at 35MPH.

Both times I saw the sheep, slowed down, waited till they wandered off and as I started up again they ran back out over the road and under the wheels. Neither hit was over 25 KMH.

The worst thing is the sound. Forget sheep, that sound would be the same if one where to hit a child G-d forbid and that is a very sobering realisation.

[Mark D Segal]

Those sheep sound as brainy as a good number of our automobile drivers here in Toronto   .

[Penelope]

Daniel, I just ordered the book. The price is 75 USD PLUS shipping - in my case to Canada. The total bill came to 109 USD. Not cheap, but really, very well printed, high quality photographic art books do cost that kind of money.

Mark - that 's better than the 168 USD offer I initially found through some Icelandic third party.  I'm holding out in the hope that someone I know will be transiting through Reykyavik airport soon.

I'm glad I didn't hit any sheep in Iceland - I don't think the car would have survived it.  But we are fairly used to animals on the road around here as well (French Alps).

Penny

[framah]

You ought to come up here in Maine!! The moose  do the same thing!! You stop the car and allow them to wander across the road. They get to the other side and you figure... good, now I can go ahead. And just as you start up... the #### things turn around and run back into the road!! Does ALOT more damage to your car than sheep would. Most flip up and come thru the windshield. Picture about 800 - 1000 lbs of meat flying thru your windshield!!
   On the plus side... if you survive, you get to keep the roadkill.

[framah]

By the way... Really nice photos!!  I can't wait to head over there and cruise around!!

[Penelope]

Here in the UK sheep have to be fenced off the road for drivers and their safety.

But not in Iceland, apparently... different countries, different laws.  Who owns the land the road is on, and can it be appropriated by their state? Who has a pre-existing right to use the road? You would also have to balance the number of drivers on said road versus the cost of hundreds of miles of not very photogenic barbed wire.

I hope Iceland's growing popularity and population don't cause too much change in its wildness and relative lack of restrictions and fencing.  For me, that's worth slowing to a stop for.  Indeed, it is worth getting out of the car and saying 'shoo' for.

Actually there are plenty of UK roads open to the public where sheep run wild, but I don't know what their status is.  They tend to be gated, so maybe they are private but public access is tolerated?

Penny

[Ben Rubinstein]

Fences arn't so bad, I HATE electricity pylons!

[rincewind9]

In Ireland, we also have sheep roaming freely, unfenced. You just have to be patient and realize that they have a death-wish.

I was recently in Donegal, and every mile or so on the back roads I was travelling you'd see a rust-coloured splotch on the side of the road. Took me a while to realize that each one of those marked recent roadkill. Funnily enough, I've never seen such numbers of sheep roadkill anywhere else in the country. Must be something about the tourists in that area, I guess.

Daniel, how do you know how to get to the farmer in the event you do kill a sheep? Here the sheep roam so far from the farms that it would be quite a task to figure out who to compensate unless you were a local.

Peter

[Mark D Segal]

For those still tuned-in to this thread and interested in Ragnar Axelsson's "Faces of the North", I have just received my copy from Edda Publishing. The invoice says the total bill is 106 Canadian, which is a bit less than I was expecting. It came by DHL from Iceland very well packed in perfect condition. It took a while for them to ship, but the whole transaction was done within a couple of weeks.

The book itself is STUNNING. The print job is excellent - tritone B&W on high quality paper stock, very attractive layout, and most important, the photographic and human qualities of the images (about 98 in all) are simply outstanding. Axelsson ingeniously blends the humanity of the people with the starkness of the environment in ways that make a truly impressive statement about both the ways of life and the landscapes of the Far North.