Those who are patient will be rewarded at some point and so was I after my umpteenth visit to an iconic photo location in Iceland. The other week I was guiding my final photography workshop this winter with my friend Andy Mumford. During this photo workshop, we were blessed with great weather conditions (sometimes perhaps too great) which resulted in the group heading for home with several truly spectacular photographs.
We also got a decent shot at ‘that’ bucket list photograph: the aurora borealis dancing above Vestrahorn, one of the most iconic photography locations in Iceland. Vestrahorn in itself is a bucket list location for many landscape photographers but to then also get it with perfect conditions at night is sometimes that not many people get to experience. Even I, after having visited Vestrahorn many times, never got to see it with proper northern lights above it. Until now. This group was certainly lucky to say the least. But let me tell you a little bit more about how it transpired in this brand new blog!
This group of participants has had a lot of luck during this photo workshop with many beautiful moments such as when this lovely white arctic fox showed itself…
… but also a gorgeous sunrise at the Reynisdrangar sea stacks near Vík in Iceland.
Practice Makes Perfect
That day we had super bright weather. Blue skies and harsh sunlight dominated, which wasn’t ideal for photography. But, you get what you get, so we headed out to some of the locations we had decided to visit that day such as Eystrahorn and Vestrahorn. Throughout the day, I had been keeping an eye on the potential of northern lights that evening. We hadn’t had much luck yet on during the photo workshop but it looked as if that evening would have some pretty nice potential.
Because we would be staying overnight near Vestrahorn, we decided to try out the location before arriving there in the dark at night. While it may seem obvious, it is super important to familiarise yourself with a potential aurora location before your actual shoot. It is almost impossible to scout for good compositions when it’s dark, not to mention you are probably losing your mind because of the magical northern lights above your head.
Before we headed back to the hotel for dinner, I spent some time at the beach in front of Vestrahorn to show some potential aurora ideas to part of the group. I explained how the, to me, perfect potential northern lights shot would be the mountains with the aurora reflecting off the wet sand at the beach. Even though it’s a pretty straightforward photograph to take, it’s good to get some practice in and familiarise yourself with it before it “matters”. Of course, there was absolutely no guarantee that would even happen. While the conditions during sunset weren’t top notch, I did get a nice shot out of that session.
I really enjoy taking these wave shots on the beach in front of Vestrahorn. It takes a lot of tries to get a good one out of it but when you do, it’s really rewarding.
Finally, Getting That Bucket List Shot!
After a very speedy dinner, we headed back out to Vestrahorn, which was a short drive from our hotel. Whilst we were away, the area had been engulfed in clouds but the weather forecast had suggested they would dissipate shortly after we had arrived on location. I generally put a lot of trust in the weather model that I use for these areas and have been rarely disappointed by it. Even though it was cloudy, we geared up and headed down to the beach. As we were readying our gear on the beach, the clouds began opening up (as expected). Soon after, the aurora began showing.
What followed was pure bliss! The aurora became bigger and bigger. While initially it was largely above the mountain range, it quickly began dancing overhead. This forced us to change perspective and get creative with the reflections on the beach. Later that evening, the northern lights moved back towards the mountains which gave us the perfect opportunity to take those dream shots without any clouds to be seen. Dream conditions in a dream location!
My primary focus was on getting a good vertical shot as that was the easiest way to get the entire reflection into the frame. With a horizontal shot, I struggled in getting the reflection in during the best display.
When the aurora was away from the mountains and directly overhead, we changed our position and focused on doing reflection shots on the wet sands.
One of my favourite horizontal frames was taken during the last part of the evening. The aurora was well positioned for a good reflection to complement the image.
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Previous Participants Shared This About Their Experience…
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