Temple

Photographer

Mark Gray

Category

Nature Photography - Ice and Glacier

Company

Mark Gray Gallery

Submission Group

Professional

Year

2026

Country / Region:

Australia

During early 2026, I took 3 flights from Australia to Iceland, the other side of the world. I was hopeful that I would be able to capture some unique photos of ice caves. In particular, I wanted to access a secret lagoon on the south coast of Iceland. During Winter when it's below freezing for long enough, the lagoon freezes over. This gives you the unique opportunity to walk out among the icebergs that have been subsequently locked into the lagoon. Unfortunately it had been the warmest Winter in 17 years when I arrived so for 6 weeks prior to visiting, the lagoon wasn't frozen. It was still a regular lake at the base of a glacier, with icebergs floating around. A week after I arrived in Iceland temperatures finally dropped into the negatives and over a few days the lagoon began to freeze over, eventually to the point that it was finally safe to walk on. I hiked out across the frozen glacier lagoon before sunrise and spent most of the day exploring inside these amazing iceberg caves. This was my favourite one. I captured this stunning photograph just on sunset then hiked back to our super jeep.

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