(gentle bright music) - [Announcer] Sigma is proud to support photographers and filmmakers around the world.

And we believe creativity and sustainability go hand in hand.

(gentle bright music) (waterfalls roaring) (waterfalls roaring) (birds chirping) (gentle music) - [Announcer] Mpix is a proud supporter of "View Finders."

From our materials to our American photo labs, we believe your adventures are worth celebrating.

Mpix, print what matters most.

- [Announcer] Support is provided by Visit Oconee, home of "View Finders," with historic landmarks, parks, and year-round events.

Learn more at visitoconee.com.

- [Announcer] Troncalli Subaru is a proud sponsor of "View Finders."

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - [Chris] At the edge of the North Atlantic, where fire meets ice, lies a land like no other.

(gentle music continues) Iceland, shaped by glaciers, carved by volcanoes, and surrounded by boundless seas.

(gentle music) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) - [Paul] Here, ancient forces still shape the earth.

Geysers erupt, waterfalls thunder, and mountains stretch into the clouds.

- [Chris] It is a place of contrasts where midnight sun gives way to endless night and silence is broken by the roar of nature.

(gentle music) (waves crashing) (gentle music continues) - [Paul] With weather that changed by the minute and a landscape that was often unforgiving, we captured our experience frame by frame.

(gentle music) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) (singer singing in foreign language) - [Paul] Join us as we journey across this remarkable island.

- [Chris] To discover its wild heart.

- [Paul] Its hidden wonders.

- [Chris] And the spirit that makes Iceland unforgettable.

- Known as the Land of Fire and Ice.

- Home to 269 glaciers.

- Home to over 10,000 waterfalls.

- This is Iceland.

I'm Chris.

- I'm Paul.

- [Both] And we're the View Finders.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music ending) (Chris grunts) - A lot of weight in there.

(laughs) What's up, man?

- Nothing much, man.

No, something is up, man.

- Something is up.

- Something is up.

I've been waiting for this day for, like, months.

I couldn't even sleep last night.

I'm not even gonna lie.

I woke up at like two, three in the morning and just couldn't go back.

- Paul, I can't think of a better way to kick off our new season than by going to someplace that is so phenomenal, that is so out-of-this-world beautiful and dramatic, and all of those things, go there with our cameras.

- [Paul] I heard this is like waterfall heaven out there.

- It is.

It is.

- It's like nothing I've seen before.

I've seen all the descriptions online, and I'm believing the hype.

- And this is really fun, 'cause we're on the front side of it right now.

We're gonna get on that plane, we're gonna take off, we're gonna get a little bit of sleep, and then we're gonna land, and we're gonna be really, really jet-lagged, but maybe we won't care.

- I think the excitement will just overwhelm, and hopefully keep me awake, 'cause, like, right now I'm running on, like, a few hours of sleep.

- Mm-hmm.

Well, we might be speaking in gibberish by the end of tomorrow, but we should have some pretty good frames in our camera.

- Man, let's do this.

- No doubt.

- Let's do this.

- Let's make it happen.

- All right.

(gentle music) - [Chris] You almost barely scratch the surface when you spend time at a place like this unless you really spend time, and you have a lot of time, and we don't.

And so we've hired a guide, and his name is Ragnar, and he comes very highly recommended.

He is a well-thought-of photographer, perhaps one of the most famous photographers in the country of Iceland.

- My name is Ragnar Th.

Sigurdsson.

I'm a professional photographer, have been for 50 years.

Yeah, I live in Iceland, born in Iceland, educated in Sweden.

I learned photography in Sweden.

- And he's taking us places.

And that's really exciting, because he knows those hidden gems, he knows the good and the not so good, and that's gonna be, I think, really, really beneficial for Paul and I. Ragnar, I think, is gonna be a key piece to our Iceland experience.

(waves crashing) You know, we talked about coming here to shoot together for quite a while, and it's really nice to be making that happen.

To be getting to, like, the first location of the day.

It's such a different landscape than we're used to shooting in the States.

- [Paul] Yeah, there's nothing like this.

- What I love about Iceland is probably the landscape itself.

It's barren, for sure, but it's also kind of planetary.

By that, I mean we have many analogs in the solar system, for example, on Mars and Venus.

So, on Earth, it's one of the best laboratories to study how the Earth was made.

It's also quite beautiful in its own way, different way, for sure, because there's hardly any vegetation around.

That gives you this almost endless view everywhere towards the horizon.

- [Chris] There's some options here.

What are you thinking as far as photography?

- Oh, photography wise, I'm definitely thinking black and white.

- Okay.

- And I'm not saying black and white because we don't have the sun, I'm saying black and white because I just think that this just fits it.

For me, when I shoot black and white, I have to have, like, a really good subject that's powerful enough to carry the whole image.

- In my years, I've been so lucky to travel around Iceland, both with a lot of foreigners, photographers, and I always like to see Iceland through their eyes, because they explain to me a lot of things that I take for granted.

And, obviously, the cleanliness is something that you experience and you notice pretty quickly.

(waves crashing) - There's just so much, and it's just very, very different than the United States.

It's exciting me in different ways when it comes to the compositions and the challenges, and just the drama of this landscape.

It's so rugged, it's so uncompromising in a lot of ways.

- So what I've been doing is a few long exposures with these rocks that are down there, and getting real close up to them and trying to get sort of like a abstract kind of art piece going on, doing something with black and white, and just trying to experiment.

Trying to do something different, instead of going for the grand shot here.

- There's just a whole lot to look at.

I'm trying not to get real close, 'cause I'm afraid of heights, and also it just wouldn't be safe.

But kind of shooting down on all of these subjects and looking in both directions, 'cause it's, like, this big, panoramic wide view.

I'm gonna do a mix of kind of longer shutter speeds and shorter shutter speeds.

Sometimes I'd want to freeze the water and everything that's going on, but not all the time.

And so for this particular shot, I'm gonna do kind of a longer exposure and I gotta put on an indie, I gotta put on those sunglasses for my lens.

(camera clicks) (soft music) (waves crashing) (camera clicks) (soft music continues) (waves crashing softly) - I live here, so I'm a bit biased, for sure.

But I love this place.

It's so beautiful.

You can witness the North Lights with a volcanic eruption happening at the same time if you're incredibly lucky, that is.

Surrounded by volcanoes, all those beautiful lava fields, glaciers, waterfalls.

- In Iceland, we have, on the average, eruption every third year, sometimes big, sometimes small.

As an Icelander, of course, I have seen volcanoes several times.

Most of them are pretty dangerous to visit, so we have to be very careful when we guide people around how they are supposed to approach them, et cetera, et cetera.

But even just to come and take a helicopter tour, land somewhere close to it, and experience the noise, the pressure it makes, and the waves it sends from you, et cetera, it's an experience that you will never forget.

(soft music) (soft music continues) - [Paul] Well, this is something new for "View Finders."

I mean, lava.

- [Chris] Brand new two-month-old lava.

- Fresh.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is not like anything I've ever shot before, anything I've seen before, anything I've touched before.

- [Chris] Yeah, we're walking out, I was like, "I feel like we're stepping into another planet."

- Yeah.

- It is wild.

And when are we gonna be able to shoot fresh lava?

And the juxtaposition of the lava and this, like, old-growth moss that the lava never touched.

But imagine this coming at you at, like, walking speed.

- [Paul] Yeah, I don't want to.

- [Chris] It's so wild.

And it just overwhelms the entire landscape.

It's so hot, everything just catches on fire that it touches.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (camera clicks) (soft music continues) (camera clicks) (soft music continues) - The fissure broke through the barrier, and the glow, it opened up through it.

And came through down here and towards the town, and some of the lava went into the town and burned down three houses.

And then, it stopped.

When this was coming glowing down here, this was an apocalypse.

I thought, "Ah, this is it," yes.

Now this town is gone.

But the government bought up most of the town.

So this is kind of a ghost town.

There are no people living here.

Life goes on as usual saw, just people don't live in these houses.

You can see if you look through the windows, they're empty, there's nothing inside.

(soft music) (soft music fades) (waves crashing) - [Paul] In photography, there's a certain excitement that comes with arriving at a new location, seeing what the light is doing, and capturing an image that you're proud of.

(waterfalls roaring) - [Chris] We had already seen so much, yet our adventure was just beginning.

(gentle music) Waterfalls, mountains, beaches, and rivers all awaited us.

The experience is hard to even convey.

This is a really cool spot.

- Yeah.

- [Chris] And it's also very crowded.

- Very.

And cold.

- And very cold.

But I understand why it gets crowded here, because it's very rare to come to a place where there's just thousands of icebergs washing ashore every single day.

- What's the name of this place?

- Diamond Beach.

- Any real things out here or just the ice?

- I don't know if there's real diamonds.

- Rocks of ice?

(both laughing) - I don't know.

I'm sure people put a ring on it out here sometimes.

(both laughing) Well, Paul, it took two visits, but I think we got-- - To get this one right.

- I think we got what we wanted here.

- Yeah, we sure did.

I know I did.

Tried to do something a little different.

I kind of went into like headshot, portrait photographer mode.

And I isolated small pieces of ice that are on the sand, because they're right on some black sand, and the crystal ice you can see right through it.

And what I did was I opened the lens wide open at about 2.8, and I kind of, obviously, blurred out the background of the blue ocean, the turquoise in the water, the gray in the sky, and the black on the ground, and I think it really brought a good contrast to the ice pieces that I was focusing on.

(gentle music) (camera clicks) (gentle music continues) (camera clicks) (gentle music continues) (camera clicks) (gentle music continues) - Morning, Paul.

- How you doing, man?

- Oh, well, I slept.

- Yeah, and you got a great breakfast to wake up to.

- I dunno if I slept enough.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

So what do you think so far?

- My first impressions, it lived up to the hype.

I know it was a little cloudy yesterday, but I kind of built that in because of the pictures that I saw.

And what I've read about this place, I know that the climate can just change in a heartbeat.

- Yeah, absolutely.

- So, I kind of figured, you know, there may be some scenes where there won't be, you know, some sunlight coming through.

- Yeah.

- I tell you what, I'm expecting to see some waterfalls today, from what's on the agenda, and I'm kind of hoping for the clouds today.

We need the clouds to be there.

So that would help if we can get some cloud cover.

- Yeah, that'd be nice.

Well, the clouds are here right now.

I don't know if they're going anywhere, but the waterfalls are gonna be awesome.

(upbeat music) ♪ I'm gonna take you to my house on the Styx ♪ ♪ On a long, black train going clackety-click ♪ - We're going up, this is called Fljotshlio.

This part of the country, we're going through Fljotshlio, we are taking a route, a Highland route.

- Okay.

- Around the glacier Myrdalsjokull, you need big tires.

- Big tires.

- And you need some experience to drive it.

If we break down, you walk back.

- We walk back?

- Or die.

(upbeat music) ♪ I'm gonna take you to my garden of screams ♪ ♪ Down in the belly of the voodoo machine ♪ - [Chris] Well, Paul, I know we've got a lot of miles or, I guess I should say, kilometers ahead today of travel.

- [Paul] Well, that's what happens here.

I mean, it looks like these shots just come up no matter where you are.

- Yes.

Yeah, so I rarely shoot handheld.

I really love to just ensure sharpness with my tripod.

But there's enough light out here today to do it.

We're having to be kind of quick, because we have so much travel ahead today and we don't wanna get stuck out here after dark.

But I think it'll still work.

And what I usually do when I handhold shoot, especially if it's an image that I really like, is I'll check it later.

I'll pull it up, which I'm doing on my screen right now, at full resolution just to check for focus and sharpness, make sure there wasn't a little bit of shake from my hands when I took the shot.

- I noticed Chris got a really good angle here with the leading line going right up the road to that mountain.

But what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna play with these rocks in the foreground here and see if I can get these in the foreground along with the leading line going straight up to that mountain back there.

And one thing I try to do is I don't want the foreground element to become the shot, so it's gotta be relatively smaller to the line and to the mountain.

(camera clicks) (upbeat music) (camera clicks) (upbeat music continues) - Now we air down the tires.

We deflate them to make the ride not as bumpy.

(gentle upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ I'm gonna take you to the ♪ ♪ I'm gonna take you to the ♪ ♪ I'm gonna take you to the end of the line ♪ ♪ I'm gonna take you to the ♪ ♪ I'm gonna take you to the ♪ - So we do a lot of drone work every time we film an episode, but we don't really share that too much with the audience.

I think Iceland is an exception in a lot of ways, because the landscape is so immense, and it's so dramatic, and it has such texture from the air, that you can't really always capture it from the ground with your regular camera.

You have to get up above everything.

This isn't maybe exciting for you all to watch us just looking at screens, but the results, as you see, I think are well worth it.

(gentle mellow music) ♪ Ooh ♪ (gentle mellow music) ♪ Ooh ♪ (camera clicks) (gentle mellow music continues) (camera clicks) (gentle mellow music continues) (camera clicks) (gentle mellow music continues) ♪ Oh ♪ (camera clicks) (gentle mellow music continues) (gentle mellow music) ♪ Ooh ♪ (gentle mellow music continues) (gentle mellow music continues) - This one is nice, Chris.

Nice stop.

I mean, this is a shot that, yeah, you've got some layers here, but you got the textures, the different shades of green, the black, the white of the sky right now.

- If you start coming to Iceland, then you feel that it's relaxed.

The country is nice.

There is a lot of things to see.

And even if you go a little bit out of the main road, you can go more or less on your own and see things that you admire without anybody else looking at you or discussing what you're doing.

- I just can't wrap my brain around what I'm looking at.

First of all, I think what makes it even more special is we have not seen another human being since we left the main road over an hour ago.

And we're, like, standing, at what feels like almost on another planet.

We have this black volcanic rock.

These super green mountains.

It's also rugged, as you said, the textures.

So I'm just trying to figure out different ways to photograph it.

I'm using a slightly longer lens, and I'm having to focus stack.

So I'm, like, focusing on the foreground and the distant mountain.

I'm gonna blend those together to keep it sharp from front to back, 'cause I'm at kind of a longer focal length.

- I focused, like, just on one or two rocks in the foreground, because I think there's just too many right here that could be a little distracting.

So I just focused on one or two rocks in my foreground.

And used the greenery right there, the moss out there, as my texture in the middle.

And then, my subject, believe it or not, is that mountain, so I kept that, obviously, kept it in the back.

It stayed there.

Like I was gonna be to move that thing.

- Gotta keep that mountain.

- Yeah.

- [Chris] That mountain is full of textures.

Oh my gosh.

- But I think also what's important about when you come to a spot like this, what I like to do is, okay, we see the big, main shot, which is that big mountain back there, but look up, down, left, right, because there might be something else.

Like, we got some other mountains over there with ice on top.

I mean, then you got this little river down here or stream.

- And you know what I think is worth doing here in a second?

- What?

- Look at that one.

It's in fog.

I think we should walk up to this little-- - Yeah.

See.

- This little-- - Yeah, we can.

- Hill here and see what that gives us.

But you're so right.

Sometimes just simply turning around when you're surrounded by beauty, it's important to do, 'cause you don't know what you might be missing behind you.

We've got a mountain here that's covered in fog that could be really, really beautiful-- - Yeah, I didn't see that.

- To photograph.

Let's go check it out.

- I need to take my own advice and look around, right?

- Yeah.

Right?

Ah!

(gentle music) What a scene.

(gentle music continues) (Chris exhales) - Oh yeah.

(camera clicks) (gentle music) (camera clicks) (gentle music continues) - [Chris] The Highlands of Iceland were unlike anywhere else we have filmed before, vast, untamed, and breathtaking.

A photographer's paradise with an element of risk.

- [Paul] We were hours from the nearest town, and there were so many photos to be taken that time got away from us.

Little did we know, but they had closed the road we were on due to high water.

(tense thrilling music) - [Chris] We longed for more daylight, but we were taking advantage of every stop and every opportunity we encountered.

(tense thrilling music) - [Paul] This isn't a day we would soon forget with portfolio images popping up left and right.

- [Chris] Ragnar had more in store for us though, and so our travels through the Highlands continued.

- [Paul] There were plenty more rivers to cross and mountains to climb.

(tense thrilling music) - [Chris] We okay here?

- [Ragnar] We have no choice.

(water sloshing) - [Paul] We have no choice.

- [Chris] This is crazy!

Oh!

- Oh boy.

Don't look down, everybody.

Don't look down.

- [Chris] Oh, that didn't sound good.

Wait.

Are we stuck?

(tense thrilling music thumps) (no audio) (gentle bright music) (gentle bright music continues) (gentle bright music continues) (upbeat bright music) (upbeat music) ♪ Oh, we wander chasing light ♪ (upbeat music continues) ♪ So we wander chasing light ♪ (upbeat bright music) (upbeat bright music slowly ending) (no audio) (gentle bright music) - [Announcer] Sigma is proud to support photographers and filmmakers around the world.

And we believe creativity and sustainability go hand in hand.

(gentle bright music) (waterfalls roaring) (waterfalls roaring) (birds chirping) (gentle music) - [Announcer] Mpix is a proud supporter of "View Finders."

From our materials to our American photo labs, we believe your adventures are worth celebrating.

Mpix, print what matters most.

- [Announcer] Support is provided by Visit Oconee, home of "View Finders," with historic landmarks, parks, and year-round events.

Learn more at visitoconee.com.

- [Announcer] Troncalli Subaru is a proud sponsor of "View Finders."

(gentle music)