I went to Iceland in a group of 10 women photographers in November of 2008. All the images were on exhibit at a group show from September 17 to September 30 at the Calumet Photo Gallery, 22 West 22 Street, 2nd floor, New York City.
The trip was planned for winter in the hope of seeing the Aurura Borealis lighting up the night sky, which we did. Other favorites: the Icelandic horses, their coats so thick they can stay outside all winter with their backs to the (frigid) wind. The horse ranchers are very protective of their breed: no other breeds are allowed to enter the country, and if an Icelandic horse is shipped outside the country it can never come back. More amazing things: in the north, the icebergs were stationary in frozen rivers; the basalt and lava form compelling shapes and structures; the beaches are black with ground up lava, the thermal features and lagoons are quite beautiful. Iceland is heated geothermally.
I have travelled with most of this group many times. All of us started out as film photographers but at this point in time, only 3 out of the 10 were still shooting film, all 3 of us black and white. I was dismayed to find that the digitalists (as I like to call them) were so fast that I, with my totally mechanical Hasselblad, would just barely have my tripod set up at whatever site we were visiting (never mind about meter readings, changing film, lenses or filters!) and they would already be done photographing.
Although Iceland is relatively small, the winter climate changes significantly from the frozen north to the rainy south. We circled the entire island in 11 days, starting and ending in Reykjavik. The sun was up for about 6 hours each day, and the sunlight was deceptively weak. Although one would have many more hours to photograph in the summer, this winter scenery was very dramatic.
see Cali’s new images at http://caligorevic.com/