mihaylovaJPG
patreon
"The Game of Thrones Cave" Part 1
🕑 Added 2025-11-29 17:00:33 +0000 UTCWe’re down to the last two sets of this Iceland project, and honestly I’m relieved it’s finally wrapping up 🙈 Looking back at how much I shot in just ten days feels a little insane: videos, short films, photos, behind-the-scenes… day after day, in the cold, in pain, pushing through. Then a full month of 24/7 work 12 hours a day editing, grading, assembling. Is anyone even capable of doing something like this in my condition? 🙈😅 I know I’m incredibly resilient, but while putting together this post, I finally realized the full scale of what I’d done and how sad it is that I still don’t value myself and my work as much as I should.
This project made me completely rethink the value of my work. Not everyone sees what goes into it, but I learned something essential: I won’t take on massive projects for free anymore or pour myself out without fair exchange.
You know I hate repeating myself. I rarely ever shoot in the same location twice; it’s just not my style. I want every series to happen once unique to that place and that moment. I saved these last two sets for the end because they’re both in locations I had never photographed in Iceland before. One of my long-time dreams was to shoot in a cave. (You might remember my earlier cave attempt in Kraków with a model, last year’s series is also here on Patreon)
For this trip I did absolutely everything myself, every route, every spot, all the logistics. When I found this cave, I didn’t think we’d actually make it, let alone shoot inside. But we did and if you recognized it, yes: it’s the Game of Thrones cave. ⚔️
The water is over 45°C, so you can’t swim, it’s the most unreal, saturated deep blue I’ve ever seen 💙 The cave is tiny, almost wild. There were people inside, so we gently blocked the passage for a moment and worked fast and somehow I still shot 150 frames 😅 It wasn’t freezing like Kraków thanks to the hot springs, it was actually warm. Pure magic!
For me, the truly iconic Iceland series will always be the one with Irina Lozova and that won’t change. I don’t want to chase or outdo it with another model or another trip. If I return to Iceland, I hope it will be to rest, not to shoot, because each time I didn’t really "see" Iceland, I worked through it, hard worked 🙈
One dream remains: a self-portrait near an erupting volcano. We’d hoped to make it happen with Ira Lazova for years and the eruption began right after we left. So I’m trusting that my volcano is still waiting for its moment, just like this cave did 🔥
The series is very large, as I already mentioned, so for your convenience, I divided it into two parts. I understand that not everyone has enough internet, patience, or time to go through 150 photos in a single post))
Comments
Anastasia Mihaylova
Thank you 🙏🏻✨
Anastasia Mihaylova
Many thanks 🥹💙✨
Pieter
This is amazing, the way her skin tone combines with the blue water is just gorgeous. And the light is just epic!
Wolfgang
Very nice, I especially liked the excellent photo quality and of course the fantastic model. 😘😘😘👍
