Diamond Beach, Southeastern Iceland

The Diamond Beach is a strip of black sand belonging to the greater Breiðamerkursandur glacial plain, located by Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon on the South Coast of Iceland.

We arrived here on the early morning of 12.09.2018, our third day in Iceland during the Iceland Photography Adventure 2018.  This location is directly after shooting the faint aurora borealis at Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. The experience of shooting at Diamond Beach is like no other in this world. This is the only place one could shoot the blocks of ice being washed ashore by the strong waves of the North Atlantic Ocean.

The following slideshow depicts the several shots at the same location to show the awesomeness of the beach.

I used two setups here. For still images, I used my SONY α7RIII and SONY FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM lens, mounted on my Gitzo Mountaineer GT-1542 and FLM 32FP ballhead. I used NiSi CPL, NiSi GND .9 Soft and Nisi ND8 filters to capture these shots.  My other setup was mainly for timelapse, where I used SONY α​7SII and Laowa 12mm f/2.8 Zero-D with NiSi CPL, mounted on the Leofoto LS-284C and Leofoto LH-30 ballhead.  To achieve the wave effect, the shutter speed is kept between 1/3 sec to 1/6 sec.

When photographing these ice chunks on the beach, you must be aware of every sense!  From where you’re physically standing, to where the strong tidal waters are approaching, you need to anticipate a rapid change at any moment by being fearless but not going beyond your safety comfort level.  On top of all this, as you’re using your creative toolbox to see patterns in this ever-changing and erratic shoreline environment, one must keep one eye on their gear and one eye on nature at all times!  Because of the strong waves here, it is a must that you be close to your camera, so that you can quickly grab the tripod if the waves pushing large ice blocks in your direction.  To achieve this, you either need to have the knee-high gum boots (as seen in the comedy TV series "Phua Chu Kang"), or even better the chest-high waders.  It was rather unfortunate for two of the participants who had the worse experience of having their main cameras hit by the raging waves and damages by the sea water.  They were without the waterproof boots.

My main still image setup on the right and my timelapse setup on the left. Thanks to the gum boots, I can get very close to the ice blocks.

Photo credit: Shaari Mat Saod

Photo credit: Arman Haron

Photo credit: Arman Haron

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