The song from The Rolling Stones is world famous and I think this frame captures the essence of the imagery that the lyrics may evoke. There was an extreme storm that morning in Southern Iceland and I knew the beach to work from – the black one near the village of Vik. I think the foreground and the background complement each other perfectly. The narrative is consistent throughout the layers of the image – which was the goal.

Devon, United Kingdom – 2020

“This photograph, taken up river at low tide on the Bantham Estuary in Devon, was hatched in my mind when I scouted the location alone the previous week.

I needed a day when sunset would be coupled with low tide and mathematically that only happens once every two weeks. When shooting west, a low tide was necessary to be able to work the estuary on foot and a low sun would allow for shade.

Finding the day required just 60 seconds research on the internet, but of course there could be no assurance that the weather on the optimum day would be good – especially in the UK. Without sunlight, there wouldn’t be a picture – I would not have enough light to freeze the action and secondly there would not be enough contrast between the subject and the background. I needed a beautiful evening and a sky free of cloud.

But that day our luck was in and I was able to shoot the running stallion at 1/3000th of a second. This was enough for every drop of water to be pin sharp. The configuration of the spray and the shape of the water was always going to be random, I just had to try and focus on the horse’s head. It was a low percentage shot, but this one frame was almost exactly what I had in mind.

I would like to thank my friend Nicholas Johnston for allowing me to work on his stunning estate and also providing the help we needed on the day.”

I needed a beautiful evening and a sky free of cloud. But that day our luck was in and I was able to shoot the running stallion at 1/3000th of a second. This was enough for every drop of water to be pin sharp. The configuration of the spray and the shape of the water was always going to be random, I just had to try and focus on the horse’s head. It was a low percentage shot, but this one frame was almost exactly what I had in mind. I would like to thank my friend Nicholas Johnston for allowing me to work on his stunning estate and also providing the help we needed on the day.

The stallions I worked with on this shoot in Devon are magnificent. Front on and in full flight, they are full of muscle and yet at the same time exude elegance. I can’t think of another animal that manages this balance so well. Little wonder their aesthetics have been the focus of artists for centuries. James Watt – the Scot who invented steam engines in the late 18 century – figured out a mathematical way to equate horses to engine power. Thus the term horsepower was invented. Looking at this image, I understand why he chose a horse.

This is a big picture, but quite clearly an extremely lucky one. It is said that luck is the residue of design, but on this occasion, I think it would be disingenuous to suggest that we can attribute the capture of a flying horse to a preconceived plan.

There is a spit of sand that only appears on Bantham beach near low tide and, with a long lens, the waves can be quite pronounced behind the sand. When I scouted the site, I noted the potential of the canvas in front of me, but realised timing would be critical.

Given sunrise and low tide were just after 6 am, this meant for an extremely early start and a cold one too. The only angle that would work for me, was to be lying in the shallow sea water in front of the spit. The higher my body, the poorer the angle, so getting wet was unavoidable. The temperature, with the northerly wind, was only about three degrees above freezing.

Occasionally there’s a split second of time when everything falls into place and the end result cannot be better and the frame cannot be repeated. This was one such moment and what was most satisfying, was that we were wrapped before 90% of the nation was even awake. Our lunch was everyone else’s breakfast.

Diamond Beach, on the east coast of Iceland, is well known. We are not doing anything ground breaking in shooting there. Like all James Bond locations, the reward for fame tends to be human traffic. The ice lagoon immediately to the north of the beach is one of the most visually intoxicating vistas in the world, but the secret is out – this is the Grand Canyon of the North.

We have looked at the work of others here and also been quite critically examining of our own. We have long had an admiration for Tim Flach’s horse images from this location, but after that there is a bit of a gap. My work has also been fairly mediocre here over the years.

This photograph – from July of this year – is certainly stronger than anything we have done before. There is a sense of place, theatrical light and the Icelandic horse is in exactly the right position. I needed that huge lump of ice to be sharp in order to show its textural beauty and that demanded both horse and ice be on the same focal plane. The bigger iceberg in the sea frames and completes the story. I have never before achieved compositional balance on this beach.

This can be a busy stretch of coast at 3 pm in mid-summer, but not at 5.15 am when this picture was taken. We went back to our beds afterwards satisfied that we had finally solved the puzzle as to how to do this place some sort of justice. It is another world, especially without a tourist in sight.

The Icelandic Government rebates 25 cents in the dollar for all film work conducted in the country. That, coupled with the elemental and geologically angry landscape, make for a compelling proposition for film producers. Directors as senior as Clint Eastwood and Ridley Scott have reaped the benefits whilst leading film franchises such as Bond, Marvel and Fast and Furious have memorably played on the visuals here.

But in terms of viewer figures, it has been the HBO smash series Game of Thrones that has exposed Iceland’s unique visuals to the world. After all, over 1 billion people are believed to have watched the last series. We have worked recently with one of the leads in the series – the talented Nathalie Emmanuel – and that has heightened our appreciation of the record-breaking show.

This location, on the south coast near the village of Vik, emphatically offers a Game of Thrones’ backdrop, but I needed more than just a landscape. We needed an Icelandic horse to grab the eye in the foreground and endorse the sense of timeless fantasy and myth. These horses often have extravagant hair styles than can obstruct their eyes and it dawned on me that the image I was trying to create could be well served by embracing anonymity. The concept was to take the viewer to a different world. The overcast weather and cloud cover help the narrative – it does have a Game of Thrones feel to it. I think a sunny morning would have killed the image.

We have an intense familiarity with Skogafoss in Iceland – a u shaped auditorium that may suck away the light, but it draws in the storyteller. We consider this ice age geological creation to be the best waterfall in the world with which to play with layered narratives. Every time we go back, we have more experience of what does and doesn’t work. It is still a true test for us and failing is very possible. We have often underachieved here and that hurts as this is a spectacular place.

There are two big issues to deal with: firstly, a shoot can only be done before the tourists arrive and that means an early start and a pre-breakfast finish. But for a third of the year, the light before 9 am is suboptimal – so timing and planning is everything. This is not a winter shot unless the roads are tricky and the tourists can’t make it until 10 am.

The far bigger issue is that the closer we are to the waterfall, the more intense the spray. Such is the volume of water that positioning even 200 yards from the bottom of the waterfall is akin to being in a very impressive multi jet shower room. Move in 50 yards and it equates to being in a torrential downpour setting and move 50 yards further in and the camera will not last long. It is, of course, against all my principles to compress distance and that dictates getting close.

I have come to like a position about 125 yards out, but the spray only gives me one second each time to take a shot before the front of the lens is soaked. That makes the whole process very challenging, especially as I am lying in the water. Everything gets very wet and that kind of caps the time to get an image to about 10 minutes a time. Then there are the horses to consider too.

This is the strongest image I have taken at Skogafoss over the last 10 years. I think we were all done by 7 am. It is always rewarding when the end result is far better than the preconception.

The most relevant tips for working here are have loads of lens cloths and take a hot shower within 30 minutes. It is an intense experience that close to the waterfall’s base.

Iceland – 2020

The production company we work with in Iceland is the lead operator in the country – True North. Their client roster is a tour de force of movie studios in Hollywood and we fully acknowledge that photographs such as Punk would not be possible without them. It is not as if we can turn up at the Glacial lagoon in Jokulsarlon two hours before sunset and hope that one of the most aesthetically blessed horses in the country will be charging towards us through the water and ice. The odds of that are long. But even when some things are assured, there is work to be done.

To create the mood I was looking for, I needed to match the horse’s dynamism with an ethereal serenity, which is not easy as action images tend to work against a state of calm. I knew I was going to get wet, as my position had to be at ground level. Any elevated position would be immediately obvious and the sense of immersion would be gone. I also wanted as much depth of field as possible to amplify the sense of place, but we had a good amount of light to work with, albeit with the setting sun at 11am. Nevertheless, the “execution of idea” risk was material, even with the best Nikon gear. The horse’s head makes the image – adding fire and energy to the arctic backdrop. Horses are easy to photograph and are over photographed, but I have not seen many images like this.