Summer in Iceland on 35mm Film
Last year we took a trip to Iceland and spent a chunk of our summer exploring the country for the first time. Now, I am not a film photographer. 99% of my work is shot on a digital camera - but I brought along two 35mm film cameras with me, and made it a goal to use all 5 rolls of film I brought. The first camera, my personal favorite (and recommendation for anyone who wants to dip their toes in the world of film) is my point-and-shoot Olympus MJU II. And I also brought along my Canon AT-1 - still a super easy film camera, but the settings are manual!
This was such a fun little way to get creative with my photography. Weddings are amazing, but the pressure to get it perfect is always there - and it was really exciting to take these pictures and not be able to look at them until weeks later when I got the film developed. Just click, and then move on!
We loved Iceland SO much - and I wanted to share a bit of our trip and what we learned, mistakes we made, and our favorite sights and moments. Mark spent a lot of his time at a wedding video workshop, learning and shooting, while Kinslie, Keelie, and I explored the country. The landscapes we saw were incredible and so so wild - I hadn’t seen anything like it.
Iceland is covered in these beautiful purple flowers - Lupine’s. And I mean covered! There were fields of it everywhere, and these pictures were taken in the field behind our Airbnb in Reykjavic. The top picture of the four of us was taken on the Olympic point-and-shoot, while the next three photos of the flowers and Kinslie were taken with my Canon AT-1.
Reykjavic
We stayed at an Airbnb in Reykjavic, which is the capital of Iceland. It’s a really cute town, with a ton of food and shopping in the heart of it. We spent a day exploring around, and learned that Iceland is known for their hot dogs, and so we had to stop and try some at a hotdog stand. As well as stop for photos by the Rainbow Road which is a famous photo spot! We did a ton of shopping, and tried a bunch of food (the cuisine in Iceland is very different from the US and took while to get used to). The landscapes were definitely our favorite part of Iceland, but I still really enjoyed spending a day exploring town!
Most of these were taken with the Olympus MJU II point-and-shoot, except for the black and white photo of Kinslie down at the bottom, which was taken with the Canon AT-1.
Snaefellsnes Peninsula
Kinslie did a ton of research on Iceland before our trip, and did a really great job of finding all the cool spots. This mountain in particular, in the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, is called Kirkjufell and it’s a really famous landmark in Iceland. We just hiked to the base of it, but I’m pretty sure you can hike all the way up it. It was all green in July, but I’ve seen photos of it in the winter and it becomes completely covered in snow. Side note, I was watching an episode of Game of Thrones the other week and saw this mountain in the background of one of the scenes set in the north, which was so cool! GOT actually did a lot of filming in Iceland, so it was really fun to know that we visited some of the spots that were in the show.
All of these were taken with the Canon AT-1!
Sólheimasandur Plane Crash
Also on our first day in Iceland, we visited the site of a famous plane crash. You can go see the plane, and there are a ton of pictures of it online, so we were pretty excited to see it. We got some really cool pictures by it, as you can see, but I think of everything we visited on the trip, this one we thought was a little overhyped. The plane is pretty far away from the parking lot, and you can get to it by one of two ways - you can either walk, or take a shuttle. The shuttle costs money per person, and only runs certain hours of the day. You also have to leave when it leaves, or risk walking back. Luckily, we caught the very last trip of the shuttle and made our way over to the plane. It was so so cool to look at, but there was enough fellow tourists around that it was hard to get a photograph with the plane without anyone else in the background. But we still had a great time walking around and seeing everything! We didn’t regret going, but if we were to take another trip to Iceland, this would probably be something we would pass on seeing again.
All of these photos are digital, except for the very first one of Kinslie by the plane! It was taken with the Canon AT-1.
Mark’s Favorite Memory
“Flying my drone at these insane landscapes. We pulled off on the side of the road on Day 1 just for me to fly around and I had so much fun just seeing the country from a different perspective.”
The landscapes in Iceland were all SO different and truly wild. So much variety - we went from this volcanic rock to crazy green fields with giant waterfalls to black sand beaches. We fit so much in on our very first day. We pulled up to Skogafoss (huge waterfall) hiked to the top of it (see the photo of Mark, Kinslie, and Keelie waving from the top), then made our way to our first black sand beach, and on our way home is when we pulled over to let Mark fly his drone, when the light was crazy golden over all the volcanic rock.
The three photos at the top were taken on the point-and-shoot Olympus MJU II. The photo of Kinslie and Keelie is digital, and then the rest were taken with the Canon AT-1!
Skógafoss
Keelie’s Favorite Memory
“I didn’t think looking from the bottom up to the top of the waterfall it was going to be “that waterfall.” Once we got to the top I was wrong! It was raining already and then feeling the water hit us from the waterfall was so crazy to experience, we also got soaked afterwards but totally worth it! It was breathtaking being up there and seeing it from the top.”
On our first day exploring Iceland, we made a stop at Skogafoss. This huge waterfall, where you can walk right up to and behind the falling water, as well as hike to the top of it! This was our first big landscape we got to stop and see, and it was so exciting. We hiked up the stairway to the very top, and it was just so much fun. There’s a lot of waterfalls in Iceland that you can stop and see. Mark went to multiple waterfalls at his workshop, but this was the only one we all stopped at together and it was definitely worth seeing!
‘Diamond Beach’
Kinslie’s Favorite Memory
"I loved when we drove to diamond beach at like 4 PM and it was such a long and fun day. Stopping at the gas station for ANY type of food”
Our original plan one day was to spend it exploring Reykjavic - the main city in Iceland, and where our Airbnb was. The time difference hit us hard, it was around 2 pm when we found ourselves in a little coffee shop, but it felt like morning. Kinslie mentioned that she had really wanted to visit Diamond Beach - she had seen it online. A black sand beach with tiny little icebergs washed up on the shore. But - it was a five hour drive. And it was already 2 - so if we went, the earliest we would get there would be 7, and we’d have to drive back in the same day. We talked ourselves out of it, it seemed like too long of a drive. But then Mark’s mom Suzie said - why not? We can take turns driving! And a plus - it doesn’t get dark in the summer in Iceland - so even if we were driving back at night, we’d still be able to see. After a bit of talking we decided, ‘what the heck?’ And we were off!
We made so many stops along the way and discovered the most beautiful glacier lagoon! And by 10 pm - we were delusional with hunger, still hadn’t made it to Diamond Beach, and searching for any restaurant nearby. Every single one was closed. We were desperate for food - and stumbled upon a gas station with a grill. Our literal savior - it was actually the most delicious food! After eating, we finally made it to Diamond Beach…around midnight. The wind was so strong it nearly knocked us over, but we had the best time, picking up icebergs, running away from the waves, and getting blown away by the wind. We didn’t make it home until 4 am, but it was one of the best days we spent in Iceland, and absolutely an adventure.
All of these were taken on my point-and-shoot Olympus MJU II - it was too dark to use my Canon AT-1, and the Olympus has a flash!
Black Sand Beach
Hands down one of my favorite parts of Iceland was all the black sand beaches. On our first day, we visited the Reynisfjara black sand beach, which is a really famous one, which meant it was definitely crowded (although side note - crowded in Iceland is nothing like crowded in the US, it’s way less people in Iceland!). So later in our trip, Kinslie found another black sand beach and we gave it a visit and it was amazing! Hardly anyone out there, but still just as beautiful as the first beach we saw. We climbed around on all these rocks and got to watch the waves crash to the shore, and run after them on the sand. It was so much fun, and a memory I’ll never forget. On our way back, we found this old church that we had seen a lot of photos of online and took some pictures. It was so beautiful, kind of just out in the middle of this crazy landscape!
All the black and white photos were taken with my Canon AT-1. The two color photos on the bottom were taken with the Olympus MJU II, and then the rest of the photos are digital!
