This church in Hof was a happy find. I’d wanted to photograph turf roofed buildings the whole time I was there. We were on our way back to the Jockulsarlon Glacier lagoon, on the same day that we had to make it all the way to Reykjavik. We were pressed for time. But, before we left Hof, the tiny little town we’d spent the night in, we had to stop to photograph this church. I’ve posted other shots of the exterior and interior before.
I’ve uploaded a photo of this little church before. It’s constructed with a traditional turf roof. After poking my head inside I decided it could be cool to get a shot of the altar looking up from the ground. I sat down right next to the door and started trying to take a picture from the ground. I had to go lower than my tripod would allow so I was hand holding my camera and trying to line up the pews and the floorboards symmetrically. It was pretty tricky and I was in a pretty awkward position. At one point the door opened and someone came in. I was pretty embarrassed to be caught by a stranger in this odd position on a church floor. I was relieved when the person who came in to join me was my travel buddy who was used to me being in odd positions by then.
I’d seen photos of old run down turf roofed houses while looking into visiting Iceland and was really keen to photograph some. There were a couple listed in guide books but we always seemed to be too short on time to detour when we’d get near them. Then, we pulled down a small road to our accommodation in a little village near Skaftafell National Park and we found this! It’s not a turf covered house, but it’s a turf covered church. I feel like it helped satisfy my desire to find some of the old houses. When I go back I’ll definitely make more of an effort to find these photogenic buildings off the beaten track.
