What is Iceland Photo Map?

A library of photographer-curated GPS map files for Iceland. Every location is hand-picked as a photography viewpoint and shipped as KML, GPX, and GeoJSON files you can load into your phone, GPS device, or laptop and use offline.

Which map should I buy first?

If you're doing a single-subject trip (only waterfalls, only lighthouses, etc.) buy the matching category. If your trip covers two or more subjects — most Ring Road and 7+ day itineraries do — the All Maps bundle is cheaper than buying two individual maps.

Will the files work offline in Iceland?

Yes — that's the point. Once imported into Google My Maps, Gaia GPS, Google Earth, Garmin, or Maps.me, the waypoints live on your device and don't need cell service. Iceland's coverage is patchy outside the Ring Road, so offline is non-negotiable for the highlands, F-roads, and Westfjords.

Can I import the files into my GPS app?

Yes. We have step-by-step guides for Google Maps, Google Earth, and Gaia GPS. The files are standard formats — they also work in Garmin BaseCamp, Maps.me, OsmAnd, Locus Map, AllTrails, and any other app that accepts KML or GPX.

Is this a one-time purchase?

Yes. Pay once and download immediately. No subscription. Personal-use license covers your phone, a backup phone, a tablet, a GPS handheld, and a laptop.

How is this different from a printed photographer's map?

Printed maps don't load into your phone, can't be searched, can't run on a GPS device, and can't update when locations change. Our files are designed to live in the apps you're already using — and to work where the road ends and the signal drops.

Buyer's guide

Iceland Photography Guides and Maps, Compared

Four ways to know where to stand in Iceland — a printed guidebook, a shared Google map, free blogs, and GPS files. We sell one of them.

Buy the fotoVUE book if you want to understand a location before you get there. Buy the Shutter Safari map if you want a lot of pins cheaply. Buy ours if you want waypoints that work in your GPS app when there is no signal. These are different products, and for a lot of trips the honest answer is a book and a set of files, not one or the other.

Prices checked 28 July 2026 each against the seller's own page

Side by side

Iceland photography guides compared by format, price, coverage and offline behaviour
Product	Format	Price	Coverage	Works offline	GPS files
fotoVUE — Photographing Iceland	Printed guidebook (496pp) + folded paper map	£49.95 Volume 1, bundled with the £16.95 adventure map. A second volume covers the rest of the country and is sold separately.	120+ locations, 800+ viewpoints	Yes — it is paper	No. Coordinates are printed; you type them in.
Shutter Safari — Iceland Photography Digital Map	Private Google My Maps	£11.99 A £19.99 bundle adds a 360+ page PDF guide.	500+ pins, of which 200+ are photography spots (A-list / B-list)	Not reliably — My Maps layers need the Google Maps app and a connection	No. It is a My Maps layer, not a file you own.
Free location blogs and YouTube	Web pages, occasionally a shared My Maps link	Free	The same 20–30 famous stops, over and over	No	Rarely, and rarely maintained
Iceland Photo Mapthat's us	KML, GPX and GeoJSON files	$19 per category · $49 for all of them Priced in USD.	121 locations, every one with coordinates	Yes — the file lives on your device	That is the entire product

Two of these sellers price in pounds and we price in dollars. We have not converted anything — the exchange rate moves and a converted figure would be out of date before you read it.

What each one is actually good at

fotoVUE — Photographing Iceland

James Rushforth

Buy it for

Anyone who wants to understand a location before standing in it. A working photographer's judgement on every one of 800 viewpoints, across 496 pages, with photographs showing you what the place actually gives you — depth we do not offer and are not trying to.

Where it falls down

It weighs what a book that size weighs, it cannot tell you where you are, and getting a coordinate from the page into your phone is a manual job you will do in a car park in the rain.

Seller's page for fotoVUE — Photographing Iceland (opens in a new tab)

Shutter Safari — Iceland Photography Digital Map

Shutter Safari

Buy it for

A lot of pins for very little money. It marks more photography spots than we sell, and the parking and trailhead pins are the kind of detail that saves you a wrong turn on a gravel road.

Where it falls down

You are borrowing a layer inside somebody else's Google account rather than owning a file. If you lose signal in the Eastfjords — and you will — that is the moment the layer is least likely to be there.

Seller's page for Shutter Safari — Iceland Photography Digital Map (opens in a new tab)

Free location blogs and YouTube

Various

Buy it for

Deciding whether you want to go to Iceland at all, and covering the headline stops. If your list is Skógafoss, Jökulsárlón and Kirkjufell, you do not need to pay anybody.

Where it falls down

Coverage collapses the moment you leave the Ring Road, coordinates go stale without anyone noticing, and nothing is in a format your GPS can read.

Iceland Photo Map

This site

Buy it for

Getting waypoints into the app you already navigate with — Gaia, OsmAnd, Garmin, Organic Maps — so they work in a valley with no signal. Each location carries its season, access notes and distance from Reykjavík.

Where it falls down

We catalog fewer locations than either paid alternative above, and only a handful carry written field notes today. If what you want is a photographer talking you through a composition, buy the fotoVUE book instead — we are not competing with it and we will not pretend to.

Which should you buy?

You have never been to Iceland and you are going once.: The fotoVUE book. One trip rewards understanding the places more than it rewards having lots of them, and you will read it on the plane.
You are on a budget and you want a lot of pins.: Shutter Safari's map, at £11.99, marks more photography spots than we sell. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
You navigate with Gaia, OsmAnd, Garmin or Organic Maps.: Ours. A My Maps layer and a paper book both stop working in a valley with no signal; a GPX or KML file on your device does not. Try the free sample in your own app first — it is five locations, and it will tell you in two minutes whether the format works for you.
You are driving the Ring Road and stopping at the famous places.: Free blogs. Skógafoss, Jökulsárlón and Kirkjufell are exhaustively documented for nothing, and you do not need us for them.

If the files are what you want

121 locations with coordinates, season, access notes and distance from Reykjavík, in KML, GPX and GeoJSON — one download, no account, works offline.

Get all 121 locations · $49 or download the free sample first