spotted: iceland.

as the icelandic folk say: halló! this is leslie from spotted sf introducing the next location in the spotted series: iceland. i just returned a few weeks ago and after seeing all its glorious volcanoes and glaciers, i now know why it’s called “the land of fire and ice”. rather than featuring those and the country’s many water splendors, i wanted to share my most favorite parts of the trip: the gorgeous green pastures, shooting with food extraordinaire aran goyoaga of cannelle et vanille, and the lovely ladies I met through this experience with ace camps.

i was already planning on venturing out to iceland, but when i stumbled on ace camp’s website and saw a food styling/photography workshop listed there with aran, i immediately knew what a unique experience that would be. plus it would be a fun way to extend my trip! after all iceland is a whole new world and i knew i’d be experiencing unimaginable landscapes, new cuisines and a chance to meet others from all over who shared a similar kindred spirit. and so i booked it.

my travel mates included a cool mix of professional photographers, those in the food industry and others who just signed up for fun. most of our days were spent in the colorful and quirky city of reykjavik. we practiced much of our styling and shooting indoors, but we also ran around town visiting markets and artisans and snapping photos of city life as we experienced it. iceland was new to each and every one of us, so we had a blast discovering and photographing all of our fun finds—especially black lava and berry salts, blue speckled eggs and some gorgeous ash-glazed ceramics from bjarni sigurdsson. at the last minute, we even had a surprise visit from a well-known icelandic food photographer/stylist named áslaug snorradóttir who helped stage and prep our picnic in the field on vidbey island. this was my favorite part of the trip and the photos above are from our amazing picnic that day. the ones below are of the fields, animals and architecture i encountered just driving around the country. there are beautiful horses everywhere.

as far away as it may seem, iceland is only a 5-hour flight from nyc and a quick hop from most european countries. the city of reykjavik is easy to navigate by foot and there’s only one main driving road around the entire country. i’ll be sharing some fun spots i found on my site this week and if you’ve ever been, please share some of your recommendations below. i would so love to return. if you’re interested in similar workshops with some of the best artists in the world, ace has many more lined up for the rest of this year and in 2015.

happy rest of summer everyone! i’ll have another gem to share with you soon.

• all photography by leslie santarina.