The Many Photogenic Faces of Iceland

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Shot by Spanish photographer Bernat Eguíluz during a trip to Iceland, this video is full of stunning landscapes from around the island. He describes the process of making it in an interview below. 

The Atlantic: Where are you from? What brought you to Iceland?

Bernat EguíluzI'm from Barcelona, Spain. Last year, when I was 19, I came to Iceland for the first time, to a workcamp in the West Fjords. There I met a photographer from Madrid who has been living in Iceland for three years, and has a business there, Raw.is. One year later he asked me if I wanted to join him for his time-lapse workshop in June, so I said "why not?" So I went to the south for one week to shoot time-lapses. After that week I joined another workcamp and I also took some more time-lapses in the east but nothing special, and finally I decided to stay in the north, in Mývatn, for three days, where I took the shots of hot pots.

How long does it take to shoot one of these time-lapse shots?

It depends on what you want. If I want to shoot the clouds moving in some landscape, I use an interval of six to seven seconds between each photo; for the hot pots I used an interval of one second, and for the sunset shots, eight to ten seconds. So it takes more or less half an hour for each time-lapse (250 photos = 10 seconds of video).

While I'm shooting a time-lapse, I just lie in the grass and start thinking about why it's all so different and special. It's like being on another world. 

It takes a long time to take pictures, and it sometimes happens that the best light and clouds are just on the opposite side from what you're shooting. So it's best to have two cameras, just in case.

What were some of your favorite places in Iceland?

One of my favorite places in Iceland is the Southlands, where the glaciers and the waterfalls are located. The Mývatn Lake area is also truly amazing. But these places are not the only beautiful ones; all of Iceland is unique.

What’s next for you?

I'm planning to do another time-lapse short movie about the night sky. I am developing a film project with a sketch to follow and professional staff, but I cannot tell you more about it yet. I am travelling to Ireland too, so maybe I will do some work there. 

To see more videos by Bernat Eguíluz, visit http://www.eguiluzphotography.tk/.

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Kasia Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg is a senior associate editor at The Atlantic. She curates the Video channel. More

Cieplak-Mayr von Baldegg's work in media spans documentary television, advertising, and print. As a producer in the Viewer Created Content division of Al Gore's Current TV, she acquired and produced short documentaries by independent filmmakers around the world. Post-Current, she worked as a producer and strategist at Urgent Content, developing consumer-created and branded nonfiction campaigns for clients including Cisco, Ford, and GOOD Magazine. She studied filmmaking and digital media at Harvard University, where she was co-creator and editor in chief of H BOMB Magazine.

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