Iceland in September. Bring the black coat. He was right.

He said Iceland in September. I said it was predictable, everyone goes to Iceland, it’s on every photographer’s list, it would look like everything else.

He said the people who call Iceland predictable are the ones who photograph the tourist spots in summer with good weather and flat light. September has different light. Longer golden hour. Better cloud. Almost nobody at the black sand beaches after the summer crowd leaves.

I said fine and looked at flights.

The light problem

Nothing prepares you for the light in Iceland in September. It doesn’t behave like light anywhere else. Golden hour lasts three hours. Blue hour lasts two. The sun comes in sideways and stays there. At the waterfalls it does something with the mist that turns everything into the kind of photograph you don’t believe you took.

You’re welcome.

He said that at 4pm when I was standing at Skógafoss with the sun coming through the spray in a way I’ve never seen before and will never adequately explain. I didn’t argue.

The coat

He told me to bring the black coat. I brought a lighter jacket because I thought he was being dramatic. It was six degrees and raining sideways on the south coast. I bought a waterproof in Vík. It cost eighty euro and was ugly. He has not let this go.

Reynisfjara

The black sand beach. He picked 7am, off season, weekday. We were the only people there for an hour. The basalt columns, the black sand, the Atlantic coming in hard. I shot until my hands went numb.

The photograph I am most proud of from the whole trip was taken here at 7:43am. I know the time because I checked the file.

The score

He gave it a ten. I gave it a nine because one point is the tax I pay for the coat situation.