Iceland Diamond Beach Adventure Engagement Photography
Austin + Candice met at a group hangout. Candice's two friends wanted to hang out with two guys, and they begged her to go with them. "We'll tell them to bring another guy for you" her friends promised. She wasn't thrilled but came anyway. It turns out that the exact same thing happened to Austin! His friends convinced him to come as well with the promise of a girl to hang out with. Basically forced to hang out with each other, they discovered that they actually clicked. Even after their friends all stopped dating, Candice and Austin still stayed strong. They never even made it official, "it just kind of happened", they said. Together, they have fueled their mutual addiction for travel, and have adventured to many countries already!
Candice and Austin were already on a road trip around Iceland when we met up. They were staying in a camper van and driving around the whole island, which is probably the best way to see iceland. We picked the Diamond Beach, near Jökulsárlón lagoon for their session. Diamond beach is a weird phenomenon. It is covered by chunks of ice, polished by the sea after they break off of icebergs. These "diamonds" wash ashore, and create a drastic juxtaposition on the black sands of the beach. The ice chunks are so many different shapes and colors, ranging from transparent to pure white, to the strangest color of blue. Some of the ice is even black! The beach was covered with smaller diamonds when we visited, but sometimes the diamonds are huge, covering the beach like many smaller icebergs. The ice all comes from the glacier Breidamerkurjokul, across the road, and they float under the bridge and wash ashore on our beach. (A couple even got engaged the day we were there, so she got a real diamond at diamond beach!) It was so cool to see smaller "diamonds" washing ashore while we were there, and I wish I could have taken one home as a souvenir, (even though that obvs wouldn't have worked!)
Candice and Austin's favorite place was this strange beach, and they ran around and played with the cool ice pieces. After our photoshoot, they actually ended up going to Godafoss, a huge waterfall, and jumping in the frigid water! I totally couldn't have done this, but apparently they are true adventurers, unafraid of hypothermia or freezing water! I loved hanging out with these guys, and I'll never forget our time we spent hanging out on the weird black beach with the diamonds!
