But Iceland is beautiful. Towering waterfalls. Icebergs floating in deep glacial lakes. Turquoise water at the bottom of waterfalls. Compact, sturdy, and also tough, Icelandic horses. And sheep. Lots and lots of sheep. I guess if I lived in Iceland, I would wear a lot of wool clothing. And it appears the Icelandic people eat a lot of mutton and lamb. Hence the large number of sheep.
Iceland is a very environmentally green country, getting the majority of its energy from hydroelectric and geothermal power. It's also a very clean country. I saw almost no trash and very little graffiti, unlike most American countries.
The Icelandic language is a one-of-a-kind language. I could understand or read nothing. I did, however, recognize four words on buildings. Those words were the same as the words in Russian, but written in the Latin, not Cyrillic, alphabet.
I spent about a week visiting this far northern island earlier this year. It's a country I have wanted to visit for quite some time. But I could not wait for this trip to be over.
I’m always looking forward to returning home and to my dogs and to my own bed at the end of a trip, I felt the call of home even more strongly this trip. I was exhausted, from getting up before sunrise to photograph sunrises, being on the go and walking over some very challenging terrain, at least for me, and then going out to shoot the sunset. I went out one night with great anticipation to seeing and learning how to photograph the northern lights. It was cold, but mercifully, not too windy. Sadly, the northern lights did not appear that night. The group went out again a few nights later. I was tired and didn’t go. And guess what? The northern lights appeared rather early, about 10:45 PM, and stayed around for about an hour. The group was back in their beds in the hotel by midnight.
On the next to last day of the trip, I got to photograph some Icelandic horses, those rather small, compact, sturdy and very hearty northern horses, the only horse breed allowed in the country of Iceland.
Despite my fatigue and disappointment, I did learn something from this trip. I learned something about photography, of course, but just as importantly, I learned that I much prefer photographing animals to photographing landscapes.
Yes, landscapes can be beautiful. And it seems that most people would rather look at a lovely landscape than, say, a portrait of a beautiful leopard. And that's OK. I enjoy both types of photography, but my heart is really with wildlife photography.
One afternoon as we were photographing some of these horses, I stood outside, freezing in a cold wind, wearing a somewhat heavy winter coat, with a raincoat over it, and a winter hat on my head. It's difficult to operate my camera while wearing a glove on my right hand, so usually I just put a glove on my left hand and let the right hand get really cold. I was so excited to photographs these horses up close that I didn't put gloves on at all. I was cold, yes, but I will endure the cold in order to photograph a beautiful animal. I do the same thing when I go to Yellowstone National Park in the depth of winter. .
I don’t make a connection with a waterfall or a beautiful scene or a canyon. I do connect on some level with the animals I photograph. Sometimes I look at these gorgeous animals, animals that many people may not consider to be gorgeous, and they just take my breath away. Sometimes I feel that way about landscapes, but the feeling is a lot more likely when I’m dealing with wildlife.
So basically what I learned is that while I am a serious photographer, sometimes even a passionate photographer, I am not a hard-core photographer as were the majority of people in my group visiting Iceland.
Part of the issue is that I am older and sometimes struggle with balance issues, which came to the fore when I was walking on steep and rocky paths to get to a waterfall. Fortunately, one of the other photographers was a true gentleman and helped me many times navigate my way down slippery slopes while carrying a heavy backpack so I didn’t fall. One of the trip leaders also did the same for me. And while I appreciated their assistance, and always thanked them profusely, I felt bad that I needed this assistance and I felt that I was keeping them from doing what they came to Iceland to do – – take photographs.
So I have vowed to focus more on photographing animals -- mostly wildlife but also interesting domesticated animals -- and to choose my trips more carefully.
Learning to listen to, and follow, my heart is the greatest lesson from this trip.
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