Iceland: a 4x5" Portfolio

[Vieri]

In mid-November 2024 my wife and I went to Iceland, for our 9-day Workshop there and an extra 8 days dedicated to my personal work.

Out of all our late 2024 destinations, Iceland was the one that worried me the most. Snowy and icy grounds, high speed winds, sand, moving water when photographing in rivers, waterfall spray, ocean spray, snow and rain, made Iceland possibly the destination least friendly to 4×5” photography of all those we visited since I started working with 4×5” film in September 2024.

To prevent this, in Iceland I was even more careful than usual about my tripod technique. I used all the tricks I knew, and that paid off. We found seriously difficult conditions, and while I did end up losing some long exposure photographs to micro-movement, I lost way less than I feared I would.

I just posted a blog article about this trip, including a 16-photographs Portfolio and my recommended Workflow for maximising results when shooting in adverse conditions. You can find it following the link below:

ICELAND: A 4x5" PORTFOLIO

Below you'll find a few photographs out the Portfolio for you to enjoy:

All photographs have been taken with Ilford FP4+, rated at 100 ISO, and developed in Pyrocat-HD for 12 minutes and 30 seconds, 30 seconds of agitation at start followed by 2 agitations per minute. The film has been pre-washed in water for 5 minutes prior to developing.

Best regards,

Vieri

 

[AlanLichty]

Outstanding results Vieri. Your skills really show through with your large format work in this location. These are some of the best Iceland images I have seen. I love the first image with the incredible depth of focus and the skies adding a nice touch highlighting the mountain. That image and the third image are the ones that keep me scrolling back up to see them again.

 

[Vieri]

Outstanding results Vieri. Your skills really show through with your large format work in this location. These are some of the best Iceland images I have seen. I love the first image with the incredible depth of focus and the skies adding a nice touch highlighting the mountain. That image and the third image are the ones that keep me scrolling back up to see them again.

Hello Alan, thank you very much indeed, that means a lot to me, happy you enjoyed these! The first one in particular was pretty special for me, while I know it's not such a unique phenomenon in general, I have never seen before a pond frozen this way in Iceland...

Best regards,

Vieri

 

[JimFox]

These are amazing! That ice in #1 reminds me of the lakes around Banff. Love your work, and I will read the blog later tonight.

 

[Michael13]

I love really long exposures and these are awesome!

 

[Vieri]

These are amazing! That ice in #1 reminds me of the lakes around Banff. Love your work, and I will read the blog later tonight.

Hello Jim, thank you very much indeed, so happy you enjoyed them! Yes, I saw those conditions many times in photographs taken of lakes around Banff, but this was the first time I saw anything like that in Iceland, which was very cool for me having never been in the Banff area!

I love really long exposures and these are awesome!

Thank you very much indeed Michael, so glad you enjoyed them!

Best regards,

Vieri

 

[Jameel Hyder]

Excellent imaging Vieri. I like them all but the first one really stands out.

 

[Vieri]

Excellent imaging Vieri. I like them all but the first one really stands out.

Hello Jameel, thank you very much for your comment and kind words, so glad you enjoyed these and #1 in particular - as mentioned in previous replies, I have never seen anything like this in Iceland and have never been to places like Banff where such phenomena are more common, so it was particularly exciting for me to have the opportunity to witness and photograph this!

Best regards,

Vieri