Iceland Barn

Hoping to catch a fiery sunrise, we packed up our campsite and hopped in the van to make the 5 hour journey from Akureyri to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in the west of Iceland. Our goal was to shoot the famous Kirkjufell, a mountain that rises abruptly from the coast, and one of Iceland’s most iconic scenes. When driving through Iceland, it's impossible not to stop every 10 minutes to savor the views and so it was nearly midnight when we arrived at our desired campsite - which we quickly realized was fully booked.

It was July and sunrise was only a couple of hours away so we decided to skip the campsite and just go set up at the mountain and wait for our fiery sunrise. There was just one problem - it was raining, the clouds were low, and the mountain was only visible for seconds at a time. We shot the few frames that we could and decided to move on in search of something different.

It’s easy as a photographer to fall into the trap of “expectation”. We had travelled thousands of miles, crossed oceans, driven around the entirety of Iceland - and there we were, standing in one of the most beautiful locations in the world - yet I was feeling disappointed! I had arrived with a specific shot in mind, “expecting” to have the perfect sunset, and it wasn’t going to happen.

This was an important lesson for me to learn as a photographer. Leave all expectations at home - you never know what you might find. A few hours later, after driving around the peninsula and seeing other famous locations, we pulled over on the side of the road to admire this quiet scene - a barn, reflected in the still pond, with the low clouds hanging in the mountains and the sound of loons in the distance. What I came away with was one of my favorite photos from the trip.