Iva Kjaer

is an international lifestyle photographer, specializing in wedding photography. Although she hadn’t planned to become a professional photographer until the age of 26, she managed to make her dream of capturing the most beautiful moments in peoples’ lives come true. Today she travels the world shooting couples all around the globe. We talked to Iva about what life as an international photographer looks like.

You go to different destinations to shoot couples and weddings – which destinations have been your favorites so far and why?

Croatia and Italy, Tuscany to be more exact are always the top two. 🙂 Both counties have amazing wedding locations. But i think Norway could win me over this year, because of its stunning fjords. Stay tuned, I will let you know. 😉

What goes into your luggage when going to a destination wedding?

My luggage consist of my personal items (clothes, make up, hygiene supplies etc.) and my professional gear (two cameras, five lenses, flash, laptop…).

When traveling for your job – do you get to spend time at your destination? What does your stay usually look like?

That depends on the wedding itself and the location. If it’s only an elopement, I usually stay max. 2 days, if it’s a bigger and far away wedding, then I stay around one week or so. I also try to plan and have a little vacation after since im already so far away from home. 🙂

How do you travel as a private person and how is it different from traveling as a photographer?

As a private person I almost always have company, more time and I’m in full vacation mode. When I travel for my work it’s usally quite stressful because everything needs to fit together. My transportation to the airport, flights, arriving at the destination, renting a car… I don’t have the luxury to be able to be late, or change a flight if there is a problem and by any chance miss the wedding day.

Which place in the world would you love to travel to and why?

I would love to visit Greenland, because of its unique nature and people who live there

What’s your craziest travel story?

My craziest travel story…any trip that includes my bestie Ana. 🙂 We ALWAYS end up in some kind of trouble when traveling together – no joke! One of the craziest stories was when we had planned to go for a weekend trip to Croatia to catch a break from our studies and we ended up stuck for more than 2h at the Slovenian border because my student visa had expired, and then a few meters later we were stopped again at the Croatian border because Ana forgot her driver license at home. So we had to pay penalties in both countries and they took our car away, so we were stranded in minus degrees at the border in the middle of the night in January. 🙂

Well, that must have been quite the adventure! We’re happy you lived to tell the tale, Iva! Thank you so much for talking to us today and we wish you pleasant travels in the future!