Back in late September, I traveled to Iceland for our annual photo workshop. A country that I have visited each of the last five years. I cannot think of any other location that offers so much to the landscape photographer. The terrain ranges from mossy to barren, from black sand beach to glacier covered mountains. There are continuously alternating weather patterns, full sun to dramatic clouds, rain to snow and brilliant rainbows too numerous to count. Then, there are the waterfalls. If there is one feature that makes Iceland a must-see travel destination, it is the multitude of beautiful waterfalls. One of the more famous is Seljalandsfoss, pictured above. We were lucky as the setting sun broke through the cloud cover to light up the falls in a wonderful orange glow at sunset.

Another of the great waterfall areas is Kirkjufellsfoss, below. This was my first visit to this place and it did not disappoint.

About those rainbows, finding a rainbow is not a difficult task in Iceland. The constant cycle of rain and then sun during the day provides plenty of opportunities to photograph a rainbow, which in the image below, happened to be arching over the famous black church at Budir.

Our workshops to Iceland are scheduled in the fall when the landscape colors burst out. Below, the lava field waterfalls known as Hraunfossar, are surrounded by the spectacular fall color.

Another reason we schedule fall workshops here is to increase the opportunity to see the Northern Lights as the nights grow longer in the fall. We additionally schedule during the new moon to maximize the visual effect. During this trip, we contended with a number of cloud covered nights, but finally on the last night there, the skies were clear enough to see the fantastic natural light display. The lights seemed to burst out directly overhead to form lines and waving sheets of color. My advice to landscape photographers….get thee to Iceland!