Diamond Beach, Iceland

This is not an original angle. It's not an original location. It's not even the first time I've photographed the famous 'Diamond Beach' on the outside of Jökulsárlón Lagoon in Iceland. A glacier calves into the lagoon and the icebergs float down to the ocean, passing under a single-lane bridge and out to sea. Then, if you're lucky enough, ocean waves grab the icebergs and smash them back onto the black sand beach, creating what looks like huge diamonds (I'm guessing)!

The first time I saw a photo of this location I scored it a Gold Award. It was beautifully captured, framed and exposed - and for me, it was something completely new. In following years, I started to see many more similar photos and then, visiting Iceland myself back in 2015, I realised just how popular a photo it was.

And yet, I still love shooting there.

Usually I use a wide-angle lens and try to fill the foreground with an interesting piece of ice, but on this trip, a large swell was having fun with larger blocks of ice, and so a telephoto was more appropriate. This piece of ice was particularly interesting for me due to its triangular shape.

As the iceberg was grounded on the sand, it didn't seem to move very much, so I used a longish exposure (from1 to 4 seconds) with the idea the ice would remain sharp while the surf washed and blurred around it. However, the surf was stronger than I thought and as I flipped through my exposures later on my laptop, I realised the ice had moved as well. It was only when I came to the last frame (see above) that the ice hadn't moved and was tack sharp. It's the contrast between the solidity of the ice and the movement of the water that works for me.

I'm looking forward to making a print so I can show the wonderful ice detail (rather than the unsatisfactory social media file you're viewing now).

The ice did have a strong blue colour, enhanced a little more in post-production and, so while not original, it was still a lot of fun to shoot and process.