Stephanie Zakas is one of the best Iceland Photographers I’ve seen/know. She follows safety precautions (unlike most of this industry) and takes such great care of her clients. She respects the land and her surroundings while still providing kick ass imagery. I love that this elopement was shot in harsh light and it’s different from the typical Iceland Weddings you see.
You can also find her on instagram and facebook.
Vendor Credits
Officiant: Helga | Flowers: Thordis Zophia | HMU: Sabrina of Pink Colours | Planner/Photog: Stephanie Zakas
From The Couple
What was the most important thing to you while planning?
How did you find your vendors?
What creative touches did you use throughout your wedding?
Did you forego any of the traditional aspects of weddings?
What was your favorite part of the day?
From The Photographer
How did you prepare your clients for your style of shooting and the harsh light?
This will probably sound bad but I don’t prepare my clients for lighting much more than just explain to them the extremes we might have! Iceland and most other areas I tend to shoot in (Scotland, Norway, Ireland, etc) have lots of weather during the same day. So, I prepare my couples more for what to experience, prepare them to just have fun, that there might be rain / snow / ice / etc, and how to stay warm. I hardly ever prepare couples for the light since it’s not their job but mine to know how to deal no matter what type of light is being given to us.
What techniques did you use that were out of the norm?
I like move my f-stop around a lot depending on the light. Since this one had a lot of the harsh lighting I liked to move my f-stop higher to really play with the shadows as much as I can. I’m really big on keeping the details, especially in the backgrounds, and from what I see in a lot of photo groups, most people seem to prefer to keep their f-stop pretty low. I am all about bringing it up high for some fun results.
Do you have any advice for other photographers or vendors when it comes to weddings?
Just to have fun and not to forget that though we are artists at the core, we are also service providers. So make sure you attract the type of people that would appreciate the more ‘artsy’ type shots or the non-traditional shots. And to shoot in as many difficult situations as possible with and without external lighting. It’ll only make you a better wedding photographer since we usually have half a second to scan the environment and know how to change our camera settings appropriately.
