SPIRIT OF ICELAND
- almost 7 years ago
- 179 VŪZ
4 - 4
- Report
6 days, +1200 kilometers, 0-4 hours of sleep each night, and countless memories from this otherworldly land. There were so many reasons this trip almost didnt happen. Im glad I stubbornly went forward with it. Booked it 2 weeks out and planned like hell for it. The day I booked it The Grammys were on and during The Weeknd performance with Daft Punk they had a video screen in the background with images of the Northern Lights in a snowy landscape and I knew it was a good sign for the trip. Sometimes the world has a mysterious way of showing you that the path revealing itself before you is meaningful despite not knowing all the answers. The kp geomagnetic index for the week was at a monthly high. With a lot of planning and a little luck the stars aligned and we got great weather with a full week of sunshine, a rare event for the notoriously dynamic Icelandic weather.
Iceland was unlike any place Id visited before. Mother Nature was on full display. You can witness one of our earth's most precious natural resources being constantly transferred from one form to another. You also see a society struggling to put boundaries around nature when nature keeps expanding and contracting. A country coping with exponential growth of tourism. A population of 300,000 trying to support over 1M tourists a year: a number that has more than tripled since the year 2000. Is this sustainable? What effect will this have long-term? Will the next generation be able to experience this incredible place in the same way? Since 1935 Jökulsárlón, the glacier lagoon, has been creating icebergs of varying size while the lake has grown fourfold due to the melting of Europe's largest and one of the world's largest glaciers, Vatnajökull. Climate change is evident in this region in particular. How will this area look 10 years from now? How did it look 10 years ago?
I couldnt help but wonder how the first explorers must have felt coming to a place like this. My own first visit was unbelievable and unforgettable. On this trip I pushed myself to try new things photographically and take risks. Most times I was rewarded with a spectacular shot. It felt like all of the previous trips I had taken helped prepare me for this journey. As a result the imagery and music just flowed for me in this video.
Soundtrack: Xavier Rudd - Spirit Bird. This song was played quite a bit during the trip in my trusty little car and it always seemed to evoke some awesome images while driving through the landscape. Props to Anj for bringing such great tunes to our practice. Namaste.