A couple months ago I visited Iceland for the first time. I loved it. I loved it so much in fact, that I promised myself that I would return to spend dedicated time photographing it. The island is tiny compared to the size and population of many U.S. states, but there is so much to do and see.
Right now I’m in Iceland, carrying out that promise. I’m here for 10 days photographing as much as the winter landscape as I can fit in. It’s cold, and much more snowy than I anticipated, but there’s something about this country that’s otherwordly. Being here it’s not hard to imagine why over half of Iceland’s population still believes in hidden elves (seriously).
The first part of my trek has brought me to Snaefellsnes, an iconically beautiful part of the country (which says a lot since it’s Iceland). One of the highlights of Snaefelsnes is Kirkjufell (not pronounced how it looks), a pointy mountain located half-way down the peninsula on its northern edge. Part of the reason I’m here now is to photograph the Northern Lights, and Snaefelsnes makes a great location for this.
The problem is, the weather has been sort of horrible the past two days, with gail force winds and snow pummeling the roads. I spent the day watching the cloud cover, convinced that there’s no way that the skies would be clear enough to see the aurora. After dinner, I went back to my room ready for sleep. I looked out the window and didn’t see anything. Then, on a hunch I picked up my camera and did a long exposure — There it was, bands of light green across the sky. I hauled ass in my Chevy Spark (very tiny car) back to Kirkjufell and captured this image:
Seeing the aurora was pretty awesome, and I have about 7 more days here to photograph the landscape and people. Which is a good thing, because shortly after capturing this image, what I can only describe as a frightening blizzard descended upon the area (wind is between 30 an 40 mph as I write this). Here’s some video of that.
Here are a couple other images, one of me posing with Kirkjufell, the next of my trusty Chevy Spark and the aurora, and finally Kirkjufell during day light (which there isn’t much of):
Here are some other images from my drive from Reykjavik to Stykkishólmur in Snæfellsnes:
