Iceland Photography Tour
9 Days along the Icelandic South Coast
Your Dream Photo Destination
Discover the natural beauty of the Icelandic South coast. This well-organized dream photo tour offers a trek by comfortable car along all those great photography hotspots dotted along the coast. Unique about this tour is that we offer time to explore the more obscure parts of this volcanic landscape. Your teachers are with you to really develop your own vision in the most spectacular of places.
Accessible - Most hotspots are easily accessible by car and a mere 10 minutes walk.
Small group of like-minded people.
Includes thorough post-processing sessions, with all the latest trends explained.
Includes breakfast, accommodation and transfer to and from the airport.
9 days and 8 nights stay in hotels, cottages and guesthouses.
Includes *ALL* processing videos of Daniel.
Why Choose this Tour?
Many iconic locations
We'll drive as far east as Eystrahorn, visiting sights not limited to Skógafoss, Vík, Vestrahorn & Glacier Lagoon Jökulsárlón.
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High Chance of the Aurora Borealis
There is a lot of night photography on this tour. We're putting you in the best spots for capturing the northern lights!
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You Matter to Us
Any personal guidance you need, whether it's camera settings or finding better compositions: We are here for you.
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This Tour in a Nutshell
Bookings: Scroll down and fill out the form.
Dates: September 18th - 26th 2023
Available Seats: 8/8
Tour Leaders: Daniel Laan & Kai Hornung
Language: English
Price: 4049 EURO
Single Room Supplement: 900 EURO
Registration Deposit: 800 EURO
Arrival: Keflavik Airport, September 18th, no later than 11 AM
Departure: Keflavik Airport, September 26th, departure time free of choice
Included: All tuition. Local guide plus two professional landscape photographers. Transportation between Keflavík international airport (KEF) and southern Iceland. All transportation between workshop locations. Entry fees where applicable. All lodging. Breakfast. Multiple post-processing sessions. All Laanscapes processing videos.
Not Included: Flights to Keflavík Airport and associated costs. Private insurances, taxes, duty and visa fees. Lunch or dinner and any personal items including (alcoholic) beverages, snacks, souvenirs and travel insurance.
Itinerary: Highlights of the Iceland Tour
We will be visiting many different waterfalls, glacier lagoons and even venture into lands that aren’t well mapped. Not all these locations are listed here though. However, I would like to introduce you to some of the highlights that are included on this tour.
Dyrhólaey and Vík
Near the fishing village of Vík in Southern Iceland, a couple of craggy rock formations dominate the shoreline. Poking out from behind the black sand at Reynisfjara beach, these pillars are one of the coolest backdrops you could find in Iceland if you’re into photographing seascapes. But on the other side of Vík, there’s also a great place to capture them which isn’t that busy.
During blue hour, preferably when it’s raining, there’s an unrivaled atmosphere here. As gulls and gannets soar from the cliffs and out to sea to catch their breakfast, you would do well to dial in a faster exposure time to catch the waves crashing into the rocks that look like a shipwreck. The story goes that a couple of trolls tried pulling the ship out from the Atlantic, but their efforts were foiled by the rising sun, turning these poor guys and their prized ship into stone.
Jökulsárlón
Let’s start with one of the reasons photographers book a flight to Iceland. This iconic glacier lagoon is the setting of icebergs breaking off from the Breiðamerkur glacier and drifting out to sea, only to wash up again on “diamond beach.” I love to visit this place at night too. because a change of the aurora makes the ice appear green in your photos!
Diamond beach, as the black beach near the famous glacier lagoon is called, is the ever-changing location that's dotted with icebergs big and small. Ice calving off from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier crashes into the lagoon nearby and takes a few days to weeks until the ice is small enough to pass through a narrow outlet and into the Atlantic Ocean. There they will be carried away or washed back up on shore, depending on the ocean currents and the rending winds that often plague Iceland.
Diamond beach truly comes alive at night, though. Because while the ice shimmers brilliantly during the day, the mysterious green colors of the aurora will be reflected inside the most transparent icebergs. And what's more is that the shapes found on this volcanic beach are never the same.
Imagine the photographic opportunities here. Now imagine you standing here with your camera.
Vestrahorn at Stokksnes
Since we’re very close to a graphic mountain now, we might as well stop in the black sand dunes of Stokksnes. The military base here is home to tall yellow grass growing in fertile volcanic sand. It’s also the foreground of the much photographed Vestrahorn mountain. And there’s definitely some cloning to do if you come here thinking to shoot the sunset in late summer. When I was here shooting the sunset last year, this place was packed with people carrying tripods. While early in the morning, there’s not a photographer to be found. The first sign of life I spotted the next morning, was a local man walking his dog.
Skógafoss
This photogenic waterfall is on our list too. There’s a lot of material here to create original art, even though this location (and many others along the coast) are some of the most photographed subjects in the world. But I’m sure that alone will appeal to some of you who read this. It doesn’t matter in which camp you are, since there’s enough to go around. This is Iceland after all. ;)
Hoffell
A bit northeast from the famous glacier lagoon you’ll find the small community of Hoffell. It’s about 10 homes, a farm and a church. A very typical town in the land of ice and fire. A bumpy track leads you to an outlet glacier that’s part of the Vatnajökull, the largest (in volume) glacier in Europe. Here, I have found the effects of climate change leaving a profound impression on me, but that sparse trees here and there make for great intimate landscape too. I love this place.
Payment & Reservation
Either pay all at once or make a deposit to reserve a seat in the car. For tours, we highly recommend making the payment through Wise, as the fees are much lower than with using a credit card. If you want to do so, please contact us using this form and we’ll provide you with our details.
Alternatively, you can make a deposit by using your Credit Card, Apple Pay or PayPal using the form below from our Acuity Scheduling account.
Cancellation and refunds
Unfortunate things can happen to anyone. Therefore we handle a refund policy when you have made reservations for this tour but can’t make it in the end due to whatever the circumstance. Based on the full fee of the tour, we strictly handle this schedule to cover the costs made on our end.
Cancel 60 days before the start of the tour or more: Full refund minus € 200 service charge.
45 days or more: 75% refund
31 days or more: 50% refund
Less than 31 days: No refund
Physical requirements
Most of our destinations are easily accessible by car and on foot, but snow and ice can make any terrain treacherous and physically intense to traverse. You don’t have to be a marathon runner, but we do ask that you are in reasonable physical condition to be able to keep up with the group and deal with the cold and demanding climate of the arctic.
Please do not come on this trip when you have a heart condition, suffer from epilepsy or severe asthma or when you have a bad leg. This will hinder our ability to show you everything we have in store, but more importantly, it will jeopardize the positive experience of your fellow participants.
Indemnity Waiver
All participants are required to sign this standard document before the start of the tour. Find it here.
Daniel Laan ~ The Netherlands
Moody, ominous landscape photography is as much my passion as it is my career. For more than a decade now, I've had the mindset of developing a specific dark and moody style of photography that shows a part of myself through my images. I have a deep appreciation for the landscape, the weather and find something of beauty in trivial subjects. You could say that I have an instinct for inbound northern lights, having captured the Aurora Borealis successfully as far south as the Netherlands.
With a degree in design and visual communication and over 15 years of experience in Photoshop, it's my goal to train you to look at the landscape differently. While explaining everything from pre-visualizing to exporting for the web or for print, we uncover a truth. That the stunning landscape of Iceland, isn't there to take home with you. The most important aspect is not to bag the best locations, but to appreciate your surroundings; to become aware of things that others walk straight by.
It is with this mindset that I will make you a better artist; and that is something you can take home with you.
Kai Hornung ~ Germany
I am a landscape and fine-art photographer from Germany. My images show a diversity of intimate and abstract scenes of nature, up to wide and dramatic vistas. Best described as landscape photography art, my work has won several international awards (with the International landscape photograph of the year 2020 being the most prominent one) and been published worldwide in various magazines and online media outlets. I share my knowledge by speaking at conferences and on prominent podcasts about the art of photography, writing articles for different magazines and teaching my students in workshops. I have judged in photo contests and work on assignment for different companies.
I have been to Iceland many times and love the endless possibilities of photographing by adapting to the ever changing surroundings. My background in teaching adults and my desire in helping you improve your photography will not only make for having an unforgettable week full of creativity but will also have you return home with images you will be proud of.
A Selection of Kai’s Work:
