Internationally renowned, Diamond Beach is one of the most iconic wonders of Iceland. Located next to Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, when conditions are right this black sand beach can be littered with hundreds of pieces of ice in many different shapes and sizes. It’s truly a photographer’s dream.

Diamond beach was at the top of my target list when visiting Iceland in Winter of 2018. It is such a unique location and I wanted to capture it at it's finest. This was going to require putting myself and camera gear into a fairly dangerous part of the beach to capture the receding white water, right in front of the breaking waves. I was going to get very wet but thankfully I had planned ahead and invested in warm, neoprene waders before arriving in Iceland.

What I didn’t know was just how changeable this beach is. When you visit, there is actually no guarantee that there will be any ice on the beach at all! The ice floats down a short stream from the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon then meets the sea. Where it ends up from there is highly dependant on wind, tides and swell. Sometimes it floats out to sea and disintegrates, other times it washes up on the beach.

My first visit to Diamond Beach was more of a reconnaissance trip than anything. Thankfully there was plenty of ice around and wow, what an experience, it was literally like being surrounded by massive diamonds all glistening in the light of the midday sun.

I made the rookie mistake of searching for the most photogenic pieces of ice, expecting that they would be there when we returned the following day.

The next morning we turned up at sunrise only to find an empty beach! All the ice from the day before had been taken out to sea during the high tide overnight. Wow!

The next day we decided to have another look a few hours before sunset and low and behold the beach was full of ice again! I geared up with my waders and got to work, spending a couple of hours exploring the beach for my favourite pieces of ice.

I lost count of the International tourists that stopped and stared, making comments about the crazy Aussie photographer in waders playing chicken with the waves on the beach!

As the sun began to set, the sky lit up with beautiful soft orange and pink tones. I captured this stunning moment just as a large wave receded through these beautiful pieces of ice - using a slow shutter speed to blur the white water. What an amazing experience!