Vik StacksVik, Iceland. 30 second exposure.

Every photography trip and workshop is an adventure. I've just returned from Iceland where Christian Fletcher, Tony Hewitt, Antony Spencer and I were entrusted with the lives of 20 stalwart photographers.

Yes, I'm giving these photographers a lot of credit because for nearly two weeks, they put up with Christian's poor jokes and Tony's equally poor apologies. Fortunately, Antony had so many amazing photos on his iPhone, of locations we were going to visit in the next day or two, that he was able to keep the peace - and interest!
We all put a lot of trust in Antony who has visited Iceland over 30 times, but half way up the side of a hill, I was having second thoughts.

One of the things you know about Iceland is that it has amazing weather. Of course, that amazing weather is sometimes horizontal rain, hail and snow, which in turn can affect the roadworthiness of access tracks to great photographs.

Antony mentioned an amazing view over the sea stacks at Vik on the Icelandic south coast. We could see the stacks from the hotel, as well as the road leading up to them. It didn't look too hard and our vans were 4WD or AWD.

I was last in a procession of four. Tony was in front of me, an expert 4WD driver (his dad was a 4WD instructor), but when he struggled to make it over some deep rutts on the last section of a particularly steep hill, I was a little worried. So, it appeared, was Tony, because he got out of the vehicle to check things out and it took him three goes to get through.

Now, I'm a city slicker, but in the back of my car I had a couple of travellers with lots of 4WD experience. "Just gun it, Pete. Keep moving and you'll be fine."

At the top of the hill, my legs were shaking, but my advisers were correct and we had arrived at the top without incident. And we had this amazing view of the Vik sea stacks below us!

One of the reasons I turned this into a black and white was because, after recent rains, the water below had a range of different colourations from mud and run-off, and so the easiest solution was not to deal with colour at all!

If you're interested in coming on an amazing photographic workshop where I promise not to drive a 4WD van, click here for some 2016 tours - Atacama and Patagonia, Bhutan (nearly sold out), Arnhemland, Karijini and New Zealand.

Vik, Iceland. 30 second exposure.

Every photography trip and workshop is an adventure. I've just returned from Iceland where Christian Fletcher, Tony Hewitt, Antony Spencer and I were entrusted with the lives of 20 stalwart photographers.

Yes, I'm giving these photographers a lot of credit because for nearly two weeks, they put up with Christian's poor jokes and Tony's equally poor apologies. Fortunately, Antony had so many amazing photos on his iPhone, of locations we were going to visit in the next day or two, that he was able to keep the peace - and interest!

We all put a lot of trust in Antony who has visited Iceland over 30 times, but half way up the side of a hill, I was having second thoughts.

One of the things you know about Iceland is that it has amazing weather. Of course, that amazing weather is sometimes horizontal rain, hail and snow, which in turn can affect the roadworthiness of access tracks to great photographs.

Antony mentioned an amazing view over the sea stacks at Vik on the Icelandic south coast. We could see the stacks from the hotel, as well as the road leading up to them. It didn't look too hard and our vans were 4WD or AWD.

I was last in a procession of four. Tony was in front of me, an expert 4WD driver (his dad was a 4WD instructor), but when he struggled to make it over some deep rutts on the last section of a particularly steep hill, I was a little worried. So, it appeared, was Tony, because he got out of the vehicle to check things out and it took him three goes to get through.

Now, I'm a city slicker, but in the back of my car I had a couple of travellers with lots of 4WD experience. "Just gun it, Pete. Keep moving and you'll be fine."

At the top of the hill, my legs were shaking, but my advisers were correct and we had arrived at the top without incident. And we had this amazing view of the Vik sea stacks below us!

One of the reasons I turned this into a black and white was because, after recent rains, the water below had a range of different colourations from mud and run-off, and so the easiest solution was not to deal with colour at all!

If you're interested in coming on an amazing photographic workshop where I promise not to drive a 4WD van, clickhere for some 2016 tours - Atacama and Patagonia, Bhutan (nearly sold out), Arnhemland, Karijini and New Zealand.