Ring Roadie

Charlie Keating explores Iceland's Route 1.

By Peak Design

this kid can shoot

When Charlie Keating first DM’d us on Instagram, we were immediately swept into his brilliant gallery. His style of capture reminded us of Chris Burkard and Christian McLeod. He has a knack for getting way, way out there, and once he’s there, he seems to see things in a slightly (inexplicably) different way. His unique perspective translates to beautiful, emotionally provoking work. So we told him to email us.

When he did, we noticed that the picture in his Google profile appeared to be of him dressed up for prom. He may or may not be of legal age for alcohol (and if all goes well in November, marijuana) consumption in our country. The mean age on the PD team is probably 31, and even we were surprised by how young this dude was. No judging here, we were just surprised.

But you know what? Burkard and McLeod are pretty young guys too. And you know what? That’s fucking awesome. It’s an important reminder that creativity and adventure are age agnostic, and we’re proud to be in an industry where fresh-outta-high-school folks like Charlie are paving the way.

And you really know what? Prom was great. Let’s do more proms.

Keating setting up to catch sunset at the beaches of Hofn.

the ring road

Iceland’s Route 1 (called the Ring Road) runs around the entire island, connecting most of the inhabited parts of the country. Charlie drove the entirety of the loop and then some, accumulating over 2800km of travel. In his own words:

We decided we would rent a car and see where our trip took us. With no plan in mind we set off on the Ring Road, staying in hostels wherever we ended up. We stopped whenever we thought we saw something worthwhile. Every day we’d wake up around 10am, book our next hostel for the night, and then drive to 2 or 3 spots that we wanted to see that day. After, we would check into our hostel, make dinner, and go back out for sunset around 11pm.