In a Northern Lights hunting expedition, my wife Liza and I went to Iceland in March of 2017. We caught the Northern Lights on two evenings out of eight.
But mostly it was cloudy, windy, and rainy. We went out every day anyway. Sometimes there were small breaks in the clouds. This was one of those times.
ISO 125 was hardly ideal. I should have been at ISO 400 or 800 to get a faster shutter speed to counteract the wind. It was windy as heck and I only got two sharp frames.
But this is one of those situations where you grab your camera, put on the right lens then start firing away. I pulled off the highway on the nearest road I could find to get that shot.
That is the widest (red to violet) rainbow I have ever seen. The rainbow lasted about 30 seconds or so, if that. We were on our way to the Svinafellsjökull Glacier in Vatnajökull National Park, image below.
This was our second trip to Iceland. We returned specifically to see the Northern lights. We caught a very good display on the last evening (the above links).
First Trip
Here are some links of favorite images on our first trip.
The answers to the three questions you are most likely to ask are as follows: Yes, Yes, Yes.
Yes, the ice really is that blue. Glacial ice is compressed and has a different crystal structure that makes it look blue.
Yes, the water is cold.
Yes, I got wet, which is why I can properly testify to the previous question.
Feature Image Details: Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens. I shot at ISO 500 at 24mm for 0.8 seconds at F16. If I had to pick one lens and one lens only, this lens would be at the top of the list. I see things from a wide angle perspective.
The color of that sky lasted only a few frames. Here are a couple more images right before the sky turned.
The third image looks like it’s black and white.
Five Keys
Getting very close to the subject
Willingness to get wet
A tripod
Taking exposures of about 1 second or so
Waiting for the right moment. Experience shows the right moment is just as the waves are receding.
When the waves are coming in, the ice is moving and it will be blurry. Grab the shot as the water recedes and hope the weight of the ice keeps it in place.
Warning
The ice is dangerous. If a big wave comes in, get out of the way. This ice is dangerous. It can break your tripod, or leg, whatever it hits first.
Aurora Borealis Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon
We were in Iceland for 8 days in March of 2017. We only say the Northern Lights on two evenings. The above image represents the weaker of the two by far.
This was our second trip to Iceland. We returned specifically to see the Northern lights. We caught a very good display on the last evening (the above links).
Here are some links of Jökulsárlón Ice Beach and Glacial Lagoon from our first trip to Iceland during the Summer Solstice.
In March of 2017 my wife Liz and I went Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) hunting in Iceland. It’s a popular destination for chasing the Northern Lights hunting, but the results are often mixed. I posted several Northern lights images (links below), but we only had one great nighttime excursion.
The rest of the trip was by no means a bust. Please take a chance.
This location is the Svartifoss Waterfall featuring basalt columns of volcanic rock.
The hike is 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles), each way, from the visitor center, uphill. On the way to Svartifoss, you come across other waterfalls in the gorge. Svartifoss cannot be seen from the road and the hike up to it takes some 90 minutes back and forth with photo stops.
We got lucky. It was cloudy and rainy when we started the hike. The clouds broke for about 15 minutes as we reached the top.
Anyone with a tripod and reasonable technique could get this shot. The two keys are a tripod and reasonable technique. You need a tripod because you cannot hand hold for anywhere close to a second. Yet, if you do not force the shutter open that long, you cannot get smooth, silky water.
Closeup Detail
For the above shot, I was well off the trail, where I was not supposed to be.
My wife Liz, of saner mind, was not with me. The feature image was taken from the trail or at least reasonably close.
Equipment List
Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.
Iceland is a fabulous destination. I have an entire series called Iceland in 16 days.
Scroll through my Mish Moments Home Page until you find them. I discuss where to go, where to stay, and what to see. I also have photo tips on many of the best locations.,
Interested in visiting Iceland?
Please see my Iceland Guide. It lists our complete itinerary for a 16-day summer solstice trip.
In March of 2017 my wife Liz and I went Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) hunting in Iceland. It’s a popular destination for chasing the Northern Lights hunting, but the results are often mixed. We were in Iceland for 8 days but only saw the lights twice, and only one of those was particularly memorable. Iceland can be cloudy for a week, and unless it’s a clear night, you just will not see them.
We caught a fabulous display on our second to last day in Iceland. We stayed at the Budir Hótel which I highly recommend. The Hotel is just two hours drive from Reykjavik. It’s situated on a lava field next to the ocean and there are plenty of sightseeing activities in the area.
The Malarrif Lighthouse is in Snæfellsjökull National Park, located just a short walk from the National Park’s visitor center.
Feature Image Details
For these images, I used a Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens: If I had to pick one lens and one lens only, this lens would be at the top of the list.
These shots were all taken at 16mm for 13 seconds at ISO 2500.
Exposure
It might not look like it but I underexposed the Northern Lights images. It is very easy to do at night. The display viewfinder looks good, but it isn’t. Trust the histogram, now what your eyes see.
I could have used at least one more stop of light on these shots. Instead of 13 seconds, I should have done 20 seconds.
Underexposed images looked really blotchy but I used Topaz Labs Denoise to smooth out the colors. The tradeoff was a loss of sharpness.
For these kinds of images, one needs to adjust the shadows and highlights negative. Otherwise, you will lose stars.
Night Rule
The longest exposure you can take without stars trailing (looking like streaks instead of pinpoints is governed by this equation.
ET = 400/FL
ET = seconds
400 is a constant by observation
FL is the focal length used in mm
In this case, I was at 16 mm so I could have gone about 25 seconds. That would have really brought out the shadow details much better. Also, I could have bumped the ISO a bit, to say 3200. A combination of 20-25 seconds at ISO 3200 would have been about right.
Obviously, you need a tripod for this.
Long exposures at night are typically not extremely sharp (think wind, moving lights, very dark shadows, etc). Northern Lights are also moving. If they are moving fast, and the exposure is too long you will get a blurry mess. Thus, there was merit in attempting to keep the exposure time down.
A faster lens can help, but that is at the cost of depth of field. Everything is a tradeoff.
Equipment List
Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.
Iceland is a fabulous destination. I have an entire series called Iceland in 16 days.
Scroll through my Mish Moments Home Page until you find them. I discuss where to go, where to stay, and what to see. I also have photo tips on many of the best locations.,
Interested in visiting Iceland?
Please see my Iceland Guide. It lists our complete itinerary for a 16-day summer solstice trip.
In March of 2017 my wife Liz and I went Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) hunting in Iceland. It’s a popular destination for chasing the Northern Lights hunting, but the results are often mixed. We were in Iceland for 8 days but only saw the lights twice, and only one of those was particularly memorable. Iceland can be cloudy for a week, and unless it’s a clear night, you just will not see them.
We caught a fabulous display on our second to last day in Iceland. We stayed at the Hótel Búðir which I highly recommend. The Hotel is just two hours drive from Reykjavik. It’s situated on a lava field next to the ocean and there are plenty of sightseeing activities in the area.
The Búðakirkja Church, sometimes called the Búdir Church is just as short, even walkable, distance from the hotel.
Feature Image Details
For these images, I used a Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens: If I had to pick one lens and one lens only, this lens would be at the top of the list. I see things from a wide angle perspective. There is an entrance gate that detracts from the image that I edited out in Photoshop. It is between the highest rock walls on the very far right. You can see it in the images below. If I stood a bit further to the left, that would not have been necessary.
The exposure on most of these shots was 13 seconds at F4.5 at 24mm, ISO 2500.
A Peek Inside
The church is locked. I took that image through a church window, similar to the one you see on the opposite side, after clearing off all the smudges with lens cleaning tissues. It is an HDR blend of multiple exposures blended together in Lightroom and Photoshop. To take this image, the lens of my camera was right on the window, and I do mean that literally. If you break the window attempting this, don’t blame me. That shot was at 28mm.
Front Lock
Church Details
The sign says the first church was built there in 1703 by Bendt Laurdisen. It was later demolished and rebuilt. In 1816 the parish was abolished and the church was dismantled. One of the ladies of the parish fought strongly for a new church and eventually received a royal permission to build a new one, which stood ready in 1848. In 1987, it was reconstructed and consecrated the same year. Among the valuable possessions of the church are a bell from 1672, an altarpiece from 1750, an old silver chalice, two messing candlesticks from 1767, and a door ring from 1703.
A closeup look at the door ring image in my shot above says “1951”. Perhaps that is a replica of the 1703 door ring.
Exposure
It might not look like it but I underexposed the Northern Lights images. It is very easy to do at night. The display viewfinder looks good, but it isn’t. Trust the histogram, now what your eyes see.
I could have used at least one more stop of light on these shots. Instead of 13 seconds, I should have done 25 seconds.
Underexposed images looked really blotchy but I used Topaz Labs Denoise to smooth out the colors. The tradeoff was a loss of sharpness.
For these kinds of images, one needs to adjust the shadows and highlights negative. Otherwise, you will lose stars.
Night Rule
The longest exposure you can take without stars trailing (looking like streaks instead of pinpoints is governed by this equation.
ET = 400/FL
ET = seconds
400 is a constant by observation
FL is the focal length used in mm
In this case, I was at 16 mm so I could have gone about 25 seconds. That would have really brought out the shadow details much better. Also, I could have bumped the ISO a bit, to say 3200. A combination of 20-25 seconds at ISO 3200 would have been about right.
Obviously, you need a tripod for this.
Long exposures at night are typically not extremely sharp (think wind, moving lights, very dark shadows, etc). Northern Lights are also moving. If they are moving fast, and the exposure is too long you will get a blurry mess. Thus, there was merit in attempting to keep the exposure time down.
A faster lens can help, but that is at the cost of depth of field. Everything is a tradeoff.
Equipment List
Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.
Iceland is a fabulous destination. I have an entire series called Iceland in 16 days.
Scroll through my Mish Moments Home Page until you find them. I discuss where to go, where to stay, and what to see. I also have photo tips on many of the best locations.,
Interested in visiting Iceland?
Please see my Iceland Guide. It lists our complete itinerary for a 16-day summer solstice trip.
In March of 2017 my wife Liz and I went Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) hunting in Iceland. It’s a popular destination for chasing the Northern Lights hunting, but the results are often mixed. We were in Iceland for 8 days but only saw the lights twice, and only one of those was particularly memorable. Iceland can be cloudy for a week, and unless it’s a clear night, you just will not see them.
We caught a fabulous display on our second to last day in Iceland. We stayed at the Hótel Búðir which I highly recommend. The Hotel is just two hours drive from Reykjavik. It’s situated on a lava field next to the ocean and there are plenty of sightseeing activities in the area.
All of these shots were taken right on the hotel property.
Feature Image Details
For these images, I used a Canon 16-35MM F4 L Lens: If I had to pick one lens and one lens only, this lens would be at the top of the list. I see things from a wide angle perspective.
The exposure on most of these shots was 13 seconds at F4.5 at 16mm, ISO 2500.
In the image immediately above, you should be able to spot the constellation Orion on the lower left (it is setting). Also, see if you can find the Big Dipper in the upper right. In the feature image the bright light above the volcanic cone is the setting crescent moon.
It might not look like it but I brutally underexposed all of these images. It is very easy to do at night. The display viewfinder looks good, but it isn’t. Trust the histogram, now what your eyes see.
I could have used at least one more stop of light on these shots. Instead of 13 seconds, I should have done 20 seconds.
Night Rule
The longest exposure you can take without stars trailing (looking like streaks instead of pinpoints is governed by this equation.
ET = 400/FL
ET = seconds
400 is a constant by observation
FL is the focal length used in mm
In this case, I was at 16 mm so I could have gone about 25 seconds. That would have really brought out the shadow details much better. Also, I could have bumped the ISO a bit, to say 3200. A combination of 20-25 seconds at ISO 3200 would have been about right.
Obviously, you need a tripod for this.
Underexposed images looked really blotchy but I used Topaz Labs Denoise to smooth out the colors. The tradeoff is a loss of sharpness.
Long exposures at night are typically not extremely sharp (think wind, moving lights, very dark shadows, etc). Northern Lights are also moving. If they are moving fast, and the exposure is too long you will get a blurry mess. Thus, there was merit in attempting to keep the exposure time down.
A faster lens can help, but that is at the cost of depth of field. Everything is a tradeoff.
Equipment List
Those interested in my equipment and recommendations can find it here: Mish’s Equipment List.
Iceland
Iceland is a fabulous destination. I have an entire series called Iceland in 16 days.
Scroll through my Mish Moments Home Page until you find them. I discuss where to go, where to stay, and what to see. I also have photo tips on many of the best locations.,
Interested in visiting Iceland?
Please see my Iceland Guide. It lists our complete itinerary for a 16-day summer solstice trip.
This was our final day in Iceland. We were out past midnight at the Brúarfoss Waterfall on the Golden Circle, the day before our 10:30AM flight back to the US.
On the way back to the hotel, we passed the Sun Voyager statue. When we passed the statue, the sky was gray, but there were interesting clouds. There was also a hole on the horizon. This was a perfect setup.
No better conditions exist than a break in the clouds on the horizon, with lots of clouds above. There was no guarantee the sun would hit a hole on the horizon. The clouds may have dissipated, moved, or completely blocked up.
As tired as I was, and despite a morning flight, I had to pull over and wait. The wait was worth it.
Notice the break in the clouds on the horizon. The sky was gray but I noticed the break and pulled over hoping the break would last and it did. After finishing these shots, it was 3:30 AM, and we had a 10:30 AM flight.
Off to bed? Perish the thought. There’s still time left.
Please Share!
If you like this article, please share by email or use one of the share buttons beneath the article.
After a good night’s sleep in Reykavik, one of about three good sleeps for the entire trip, we set off for a tour of the “Golden Circle”.
It was cloudy when we set out, and stayed cloudy most of the time. We went to see the geysers at Geysir, and had lunch there. Geysir was overloaded with tourists. Masses of buses constantly came an went. Mid-day is not a great time for photography, and crowds made it worse.
Still, Geysir is worth seeing, especially in good light at off-peak hours. Good conditions were not to be on this trip so we headed off to nearby Gullfoss.
When we arrived it was still overcast, but a scan of the horizon suggested the clouds might break if we simply waited it out. That took a couple of hours and these are the results.
Once again, spray was a huge problem. Carry lens wipes.
Shooting Tips
I like to take vertical and horizontal images of the same scene. If you have hopes of magazine covers, it’s best to consider vertical images. Here are some of my Magazine and Book Cover Credits.
Also consider people. Do you want them in or out. Here is the same image, two ways, with and without people.
The only difference in the above images is people. The first image has them, the second doesn’t. The people did not move. Rather, I edited them out in Photoshop, via a bridge from Lightroom.
Photoshop tools are much better at editing out distractions than Lightroom. Most often I use Photoshop’s clone align feature. Lightroom has nothing similar. At times, especially for small spot corrections, Lightroom is easier.
Both programs compliment each other nicely, but it’s irritating having to learn two products and two sets of commands.
Forced to make a choice between Lightroom and Photoshop, I would choose the former. Lightroom’s catalog and library functions are essential.
Pretty soon it may be impossible to make a choice. Adobe wants subscribers to “Creative Cloud” and bundles all of its programs in that package.
Human Interest
Travel magazines generally like human interest. People also add a sense of scale. But calendar companies most likely do not want people in the images.
If shooting and editing for yourself, simply shoot and edit what you like.
Please Share!
If you like this article, please share by email or use one of the share buttons beneath the article.
We stayed in Reykjavik for three nights, and actually managed to get some sleep on one of the nights. Tonight was the night.
On our first day in Reykjavik, we did some touristy stuff downtown and went to a karaoke bar in the evening.
Reykjavik was cloudy all day, and that was good light for photographing the interior of the Harpa Concert Hall. It’s an amazing building with lots of interesting angles.
Here is another set of images from inside the building.
The first image above was taken with a Canon 24MM Tilt-Shift lens. It was perfect for this location. The second image was taken with a Canon 16-35MM F4 L lens at 26MM.
If considering Tilt-Shift lenses, I highly recommend a philosophy of the wider the better. Canon makes 17MM, 24MM, 45MM, and 90MM. For architectural purposes, go with the 17MM Tilt-Shift Lens. I have another Tilt-Shift example coming up, from the last day of our trip.
Reykjavik is a beautiful city. How many days you spend there is simply a matter of taste. For suggestions, please see my free Iceland Guide regarding what to bring, where to go, what to do, where to stay, what to expect in each location, and what literature to read before your trip.
Please Share!
If you like this article, please share by email or use one of the share buttons beneath the article.
Shortly after leaving Breiðavík where the wind had been surprisingly calm at night and the next morning, the wind kicked up. It was very windy when we caught the ferry in Brjánslækur. And it was still windy and cloudy when we arrived in Stykkishólmur. Howling is more like it, at about 40 miles per hour.
The weather was not that conducive for photography, so we decided to tour the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Towards sunset, the wind stopped blowing as hard, and there were some breaks in the clouds. We waited at Kirkjufell Mountain hoping for some decent light at sunset and were rewarded.
Puffins are the star attraction at Látrabjarg, but the razorbills also put on a very fine display.
Wikipedia notes “The razorbill (Alca torda) is a colonial seabird that only comes to land in order to breed. This agile bird chooses one partner for life; females lay one egg per year. Razorbills nest along coastal cliffs in enclosed or slightly exposed crevices. The parents spend equal amounts of time incubating. Once the chick has hatched, the parents take turns foraging for their young and sometimes fly long distances before finding prey.”
I used high ISOs and fast shutter speeds to freeze the movements in the wings. Choice of shutter speed is a tradeoff between depth of field and wing blur.
We only allotted a single day at Breiðavík. Odds of getting warm weather, beautiful light, with no wind was not that good. Breiðavík is frequently rainy and windy, but we were blessed with a perfect day.
In my Iceland Guide I recommend spending another day at this location. Realistically one could easily spend several days. There are other things in the area to see and do, but the bird cliffs are the main attraction.
I highly recommend taking the Taking the ferry between Stykkishólmur and Brjánslækur to get to or from the cliffs on a circle tour. The ferry will save several hours of travel time. Reservations advised. Allow a couple of hours travel time from Brjánslækur to Breiðavík.
I did not want to leave Látrabjarg in the morning, but we had no choice. Our ferry left Brjánslækur at noon.
Please Share!
If you like this article, please share by email or use one of the share buttons beneath the article.
