3 Days, 3 Nights

Iceland Photo Workshop

Join Tom (@tomkahler) and Elliot (@elliotjsimpson) in Iceland for a three day, three night Car Photography Workshop. Adventuring in rigs through Thórsmörk and the Iceland Highlands you’ll learn all of their techniques for composing, shooting, and editing unbelievable car photos. With rustic Iceland as your backdrop, you’ll leave with new skills, incredible photos, and a new group of friends.

  • Places

    • Thorsmörk
    • Highlands
    • Maelifell
    • Dyrholaey

  • Guides

    • Activity Level

      • Level 2: Active

    • Skill Level

      • Level 2: Good
    Moment Travel
    Iceland Photo Workshop
    $0 USD
           

    What we'll do

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    Iceland Workshop Low Res 36
    Iceland Oct2019 By Tom Kahler Highres 128 of 150
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    The Highlands are some of the most rugged country in Iceland. Only accessible for a few months each year, and best traveled with a 4x4; you, Tom Kahler (@tomkahler), Elliot Simpson (@elliotjsimpson), and a small group of new friends will spend three days exploring and learning all techniques to capturing (and editing) stunning car photos with rigs like the Landrover Defender.

    This workshop is part adventure, part structured learning. You’ll start your mornings learning fundamental techninques for scouting locations, selecting gear, framing shots, and editing details. You’ll spend your afternoons exploring, driving, and photographing your way through the Iceland Highlands. Here you’ll learn practical techniques for composing, framing, and using that yummy Iceland light.

    What makes this workshop totally unique is the place. Thórsmörk is one of our first stops: endless layers of glacial riverbeds to play with light, reflection, water, and movement. You’ll move through the stunning nature of the Highlands: the isolated and evergreen Maelifell volcano; surrounded by winding rivers and endless black volcanic sediment. You’ll play with wide angle, telephoto, and drone imagery in the Highlands, adding portraits and motion blur to the mix. You’ll finish your workshop at the breathtaking cliffs of Dyrhólaey and the roads leading to it, where scale and composition will come into play. Throughout it all, you’ll spend your nights chasing sunsets and auroras, capturing your rigs in all the best light with two brilliant minds to teach you all they know.

    Tour Preview

    Itinerary

    Itinerary

    Day 0: Arrival Day

    • Summary:

      Arrive to Iceland (and Reykjavik) at your leisure before meeting at the Stofan Cafe, right in the city center. We’ll have lunch together before hopping in the vehicles and heading south, towards Midgard Base Camp, our home base for the next few days. Once we arrive, you’ll be able to settle in before dinner and introductions. After going over the schedule for the next few days, you can head to bed. If we see any potential for the Aurora Borealis, we’ll sound the alarm so you don’t miss out.

    • Food:

      Lunch in Reykjavik, Dinner at Midgard Base Camp

    • Lodging:

      Standard: shared occupancy at Midgard Base Camp

    Day 1: Driving Through Rivers in Thórsmörk

    • Summary:

      We’ll dive right in after an early breakfast. Before we really get into shooting we’ll walk you through some fundamental techniques so you’re prepared for the workshop. We’ll talk about gear, lens selection, and how we’re going to capture motion blur. Shooting cars has a lot of moving pieces so these building blocks will serve you well as we start shooting cards. You'll put theory into practice and shoot around Midgard Base Camp with our 4x4 rigs, which will help you focus on composition and scale. These are the small details you’ll need when we’re out on the road. Once we eat, we’ll hop in the vehicles and head to Thórsmörk, where we’ll find the best rivers, mountains, and canyons to showcase our vehicles. You’ll stay out for sunset before returning to Midgard for dinner and some axe throwing. There might be some potential for the Aurora again tonight, so we’ll keep an eye on the sky.

    • Photo Spots:

      Thórsmörk

    • Food:

      Breakfast and lunch at base, dinner at Valhalla

    • Lodging:

      Standard: shared occupancy at Midgard Base Camp

    Day 2: Shooting Rigs in the Highlands

    • Summary:

      After breakfast, we’ll hop right into editing some of our photos from yesterday. We’ll start with workflow for selecting and importing images, and then you’ll learn the best tips and tricks for editing in Lightroom and retouching in Photoshop. We’ll go over any questions from the morning session and then switch gears to cover planning sunset, blue hour, and the Aurora into your shots before grabbing our gear and heading to an early lunch. We’ll pick up some snacks and supplies for our picnic dinner before hopping in the defenders and embarking on our Highlands adventure. Our plan is to drive the big Highlands loop, stopping at rivers, lakes, mountain scenes, and anything else we think is a visually stunning background for our photos. We’ll practice wide angle, telephoto, and drone shots (if you’ve got one); and incorporate motion blur to our shots. You’ll learn the best techniques for car portraits, and we’ll spend some time shooting sunset and blue hour. We’ll eat our picnic dinner and drive back to Midgard for the night, keeping our eyes open for signs of the Aurora.

    • Photo Spots:

      Maelifell, Highlands, Bláhylur

    • Food:

      Breakfast and lunch at base, picnic dinner

    • Lodging:

      Standard: shared occupancy at Midgard Base Camp

    Day 3: Early Morning Road Shots

    • Summary:

      Our last day in Iceland, we’ll be out of Midgard for an early morning shoot on the road leading to Dyrhólaey. The road is a great place to practice all of the techniques you learned in spotting the shot, composing, and shooting. This road provides a variety of backdrops so you can practice shooting wide to show the entire landscape or shooting long to compress the image. You’ll return to Midgard to freshen up, pack, and have a cup of tea or coffee before sitting down for a final editing session. After lunch, we’ll head back to Reykjavik to say goodbye, and you can either fly home, or continue your Icelandic Adventure.

    • Photo Spots:

      Vik, Dyrhólaey

    • Food:

      Breakfast and lunch at the base

    Where we're going

    Thórsmörk: Also known as the Valley of Thor, Thórsmörk is a nature preserve in Southern Iceland nestled between three glaciers, Eyjafjallajökull, Mýrdalsjökull, and Tindfjallajökull. Well known for its spectacular hikes and ruggedness fairly close to Reykjavik. We’ll use the ever changing paths of the rivers to play with both motion and reflection in the water.

    Highlands: A rugged area of Iceland accessible only throughout the summer months because of the amount of snow that falls here. Because of Iceland’s extensive volcanic activity throughout history, the highlands will offer a multitude of different backdrops for capturing banger 4x4 shots, including the Maelifell volcano. An evergreen conical volcano seemingly rising out of the middle of nowhere, the Maelifell volcano will be the perfect backdrop to introduce scale in your photos, as well as practicing your framing and composition. And, since we’ll be out in the highlands for both sunset and blue hour (depending on the weather), we’ll talk about planning shots with little natural light; and what it may look like to shoot your rig under the Aurora Borealis.

    Dyrhólaey: Best known both for its sea arch and the sweeping view of it you’ll have from the lighthouse grounds, you’ll feel at the edge of the world. We’ll stop along the way on both straight and winding stretches of the road to practice using wide lenses to include more of the landscape, and using zoom lenses for compressing landscape.

    Iceland

    What You Will Learn

    Tom & Elliot are avid travelers and freelance photographers based in the UK. Their passion for photography and cool cars has led them to shooting campaigns for various brands around the world, including Mercedes-Benz, Ford, and BMW. Now, they're here to teach you all their tricks, including:

    Camera Settings: It always starts with the basics. Whether shooting on your phone or a DSLR, you’ll learn how to use manual settings and various lenses to bring your photographic vision to life.

    Pre-Planning your Shot: Scouting for locations online for the best accessible photo spots for your car. Lots of practical techniques for reading weather, mountains, and changing light. The weather can change quickly which impacts the types of shots you can capture. We’ll also cover finding the best spot once you actually get there, including how to make the same location look fresh, just by using a different angle.

    Framing and Composition: Excellent framing and composition, along with light, are magic ingredients to getting those “wow” shots. Framing a car in your shot is one of the most important things you’ll learn, as you can’t change that later. You’ll learn tricks for nailing composition every time, which results in less work in post-process.

    Telling a Story and Adding Drama: Is your image telling a story? Learn techniques for capturing motion to draw someone into the story. Once you’ve got them hooked, you’ll add drama to keep them there. You’ll learn how to select and edit a set of photos that will help you tell an engaging story with a cohesive vibe.

    Natural Light: Learn how to use Iceland’s yummy light to your advantage. Whether it’s raining, sunny, or somewhere in between; you’ll learn about using natural light in all its variations and work on image composition, showcasing your rig in its best light.

    Process, Workflow, and Backup/Storage: You’ll learn all the fundamental techniques Tom and Elliot use when they get back to their hotel/Airbnb/home after a long day of shooting. Naming Structure, content priorities, and different tools for backup and storage, especially while on the go.

    Selecting, Editing, and Retouching: Elliot and Tom will teach you their edit flow and how to create a natural style with your edits. With both mobile and Lightroom editing you’ll learn how to balance colors, lights, and contrast to take your photos to the next level. The final piece you’ll learn will be retouching in Photoshop to make your images stand out even more.

    What's Included

    • HotelCreated with Sketch.

      3 nights at Midgard Basecamp (price per person, based on double occupancy)

    • Photography teacherCreated with Sketch.

      Photography and editing lessons

    • MealsCreated with Sketch.

      3 great meals per day (breakfast/lunch on day 0, dinner on day 3)

    • TransportationCreated with Sketch.

      Transportation from Reykjavik to workshop location

    • TransportationCreated with Sketch.

      Transportation around Iceland

    • Ticket-Entrancefee-ActivityCreated with Sketch.

      Entrance to all activities

    • CampingCreated with Sketch.

      20% off gear from the Moment Shop

    What's Not Included

    • Airfare to Iceland
    • Transportation to/from Reykjavik
    • Alcoholic beverages
    • Insurance of any kind, including travel insurance
    • Visas or visa processing fees
    • Breakfast/lunch on day 0, dinner on day 3