Nature and Travel | Iceland Monitor | Sun 20 Sep 2015 | 9.07 GMT

A photographer's Iceland adventure

Raymond Gehman in Iceland. Mbl.is / Styrmir Kári

"I first visited Iceland thirty years to work on an assignment with writer Peter Stark, to write an article about Iceland for ISLANDS Magazine," says US photographer Raymond Gehman who came back to Icelcand recently to teach a photography course. "I was shooting the photos and it was really exciting for me because it was my first real editorial. We were lucky to have a great guide, a young man called Ólafur Baldursson who is now a doctor. We found each other on the internet again a few years ago. I have great memories of this adventure that the three of us had in Iceland."

"I had no idea about Iceland when I came here in 1985. I only knew that we were supposed to go to Vatnajökull to take pictures. I was told that we'd have to spend a few days on the glacier and that I'd have to get physically fit before the assignment. But I wasn't prepared for the walk up the glacier, it was really difficult. But Óli had no problems, he was young and fit."

"We had to cross the glaciers on skis for a part of the journey and I fell into a crevasse. The ski saved me. Once on top of the glacier we spent the night in a tiny mountain hut. Peter had whisky and we had some good times in that hut, what an adventure," he says and laughs.

"We travelled over a stunning area on the glacier, including the incredible Bensíntunnutindur in Kverkfjöll mountains and to an ice cave in Hveradalur at an altitude of 1700 metres," explains Gehman who adds that the drive from the glacier to Akureyri was equally impressive, driving in a desert for an entire day."

A few years later, Gehman started working for the National Geographic and he's been working there for 25 years. Three of his covers have been award winning photographs. "Working fot the National Geographic has been one big adventure. Since I started taking photographs I knew that my calling was to photograph the wonders of nature. I've travelled all over the world to photograph for this incredible magazine, I've been to the cold north of Canada, the rainforests, South America, China, the Arctic and numerous other places. I've travelled for days on end on horseback and I've spent a week in a cave underneath the ground to name a few. "

Gehman hosts a course annually in different locations around the world called „How to see and shoot like a National Geographic Photographer.“

"I travel with the people on the course for a few days at a time, either on horseback in Banff, Canada, India, Toscana in Italy, the Bolivian highlands or in Iceland, which I'm now dong for the first time. My courses are for anyone from beginners to more advanced photographers." He adds that Iceland was obviously a perfect location for the cours due to its endless variety of landscapes. "We travelled to Reykjanes, Nesjavellir, Þingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir, to Vík, to Skaftafell to experience the black sands and Vatnajökull glacier, we visited the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and ended up at Höfn in East Iceland. I really want to come back next year, preferably during the winter."

See Raymond Gehman's website HERE.

Guide Óli Baldursson surveys part of Vatnajökull Glacier, an 80 mile wide glacier covering a wild, untracked region. Iceland. ca. September 1984. Photo: Raymond Gehman