There are not any direct flights to Reykjavik for us in winter, as a result of all of the “normal” individuals go there in summer time. We depart on January 29th, the solar will rise at round 10:00 and set at 17:00 and will not get larger than 10 levels above the horizon. The dangerous factor is we will not pronounce any of the names of the locations we’re going to see, and we’ll barely have 9 hrs of sunshine per day. The nice factor is you are able to do dawn pictures and sleep late. The flybus will get us to city in about 45 min and is quite low-cost too for Iceland, at round 20E per individual. Reykjavik, particularly the previous half is a a cute little city, and our lodge is correct in the midst of issues. We will simply stroll to all of the sights. Our favourites are the Harpa Live performance Corridor with the blue and inexperienced waves of its ever altering mild present at night time, seems nearly like a small native northern mild, and the Solar Craft sculpture which is sort of a viking ship. The meals right here is sweet and there are various cool locations to select from. DAY 1 Our photograph tour begins with a procuring journey. We’re all going to purchase Viking Ice Fighter boots and a set of spikes to match it. They’re enormous rubber boots with a furry inside, assured to maintain our ft heat and dry, and shortly all of us develop to like our boots, they’re the perfect purchase on this journey. We stroll via city like good vacationers do, and {photograph} all of the sights. Within the night we now have a pleasant dinner with the entire group to finish off the day. Tomorrow the photograph half actually begins. We’ll drive 190 km to the tiny city known as Vik which is legendary for its black sand seashores. DAY 2 We depart Reykjavik at 8:00 to get to the Skogafoss falls at dawn which is at round 10:00. Now we all know why we’d like the waterproof boots…. Hougaard makes us stand within the river which is flowing from the falls, to get a pleasant piece of ice within the foreground. The boots are wonderful, you do not even really feel the chilly, I may stand within the river eternally. Solely an hours drive extra and we get to our beautiful Icelandair Vik Resort. As stunning as it’s, we favor to go outdoors and take a look at the seaside. We {photograph} the troll rocks they’ve right here, known as Reynisdrangar (see what I imply with the names, we’ll name them troll rocks any further) and the waves crashing in on the black seaside. Within the afternoon we go to Dyrholaey, the icelandic ” Hole in the Rock”, and {photograph} it from the jap aspect with a milky solar setting in a really cloudy sky. Not finshed but, we transfer again to our black seaside and do the trolls once more, this time standing within the water and with very sluggish shutter speeds to make it look good and “flowy”. DAY 3 The plan was to go to the waterfall once more however this time an hour earlier to beat the crowds. The intense wind will not enable journey to the west, a mountain highway is closed. Plan B will get us again at our troll seaside, standing within the waves once more. So we do rocks and frozen puddles and snow. Seems nice too and we get some nice composition suggestions from Hougaard. Hafi our driver seems to be fairly good enjoyable as nicely, and might be probably the most talkative Icelander for miles round. The sunshine is getting higher so we placed on the Graduate Filter and get into the waves once more. Wait until the water flows again for the actually good pictures with good strains in it. Because the water is retreating we transfer ahead a bit extra, and a bit extra…..after which the large wave got here and now the water is sloshing in my footwear with each step I take. The boots are advantageous however my waterproof pants usually are not fairly pretty much as good, so I spend most of our lunchbreak within the rest room with my boots and a hairdryer. The afternoon we transfer on to the DYRHOLAEY the place we have been yesterday. Solely this time we hike to the highest of the cliff to the little lighthouse, which isn’t so little while you stand beside it. We climb over the fence pretty much as good photographers are presupposed to do to get THE shot of the Gap within the Rock, it’s actually massive from up right here ! The sky shouldn’t be the perfect of colors however with assist from Hougaard and Isak it turns our quite good in spite of everything. After dinner I spend one other hour with my hairdryer, the boots needs to be okay for tomorrows outing. DAY 4
Up at 07:00 to beat the crowds, and this time we are able to go see the waterfall, the wind is gone. An excessive amount of spray there now that it isn’t being blown away, so we shoot from additional away which is actual fairly too. As we depart at 10:00 there may be nonetheless no person in sight, good for us ! We now get within the bus for the 210 km journey to Hali close to the Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon. After we test in to the guesthouse we drive to the ice seaside. That is one in all my favourites, it’s so scenic ! Think about an extended black seaside with blocks of ice strewn throughout it and large white waves crashing in on the seaside creating strains and patterns within the black sand. Some blocks are like tennis balls, the large ones are simply 1x2m. We do our pictures which aren’t the perfect, however we can be again right here just a few instances and we’re studying. DAY5 One other morning on the seaside. We may sleep late and solely depart for the seaside at 08:30 to get there in time for dawn. It’s even higher now than within the night, the sky glows purple and pink and this displays on the moist components of the seaside creating a beautiful pink glow. By 10:00 we transfer to the opposite aspect of the highway the place the lagoon is. First a espresso, then we go to {photograph} the ice. It’s fairly arduous to discover a good composition, the sunshine is terrible and there are not any scenic ice blocks near the shore. However we do handle to seek out just a few cool spots. The afternoon shoot is once more on the seaside which seems totally different as soon as once more. A advantageous cowl of snow has made the seaside and the ice blocks white, the half the place the waves wash ashore continues to be black, the sky is a drabby gray. The entire thing seems like a black and white photograph, with out having to set B&W ! After dinner simply as we’re about to go to mattress there’s a knock on the door. Northern lights ! We stroll a bit away from the lights of the guesthouses and arrange. To start with it’s only a faint mild, fortunately the digicam sees it way more clearly than the human eye does. The lights are available in waves which circulate over us, at instances they’re a vibrant inexperienced, largely a gentle glow, however as soon as you realize the place to look they’re throughout and above us. I’ve been telling Jurg I’d get him an aurora for his birthday, boy is that this nice timing…. At midnight he turnes 50 below a sky stuffed with inexperienced lights ! Blissful birthday my love ! DAY 6 A storm is blowing and getting worse and worse, snow is piling up towards the buildings and the snowflakes rush by from proper to left at incredulous pace. We aren’t going anyplace right this moment ! Properly, aside from a brief stroll to the museum restaurant which seems to be a quite adventurous outing. The snow has shaped massive heaps on the highway which we now have to cross, the wind is blowing so arduous we maintain on to one another to not get blown away, the snowflakes come at us at such a pace that it actually hurts once they hit your face. We won’t keep too lengthy, says Hafi our driver, or we won’t be able to get again ! In late afternoon we get a presentation by Hougaard and Isak and evaluations of our pictures which we proceed after dinner. All of us go to mattress at 21:00 as the facility is off as soon as once more and there may be nothing higher to do at midnight with a storm at 9-10 bft howling across the constructing, it appears like an limitless freight prepare driving previous. DAY7 The ice cave day! As we get up it’s lifeless silent, the storm has died down ! We depart at 08:15 in a giant purple monster truck on further excessive wheels. Our information Einar says he has by no means had a lot snow to drive via, and he is been within the enterprise a very long time. After 45 very bumpy minutes and nearly getting stuk twice, we lastly get there. The cave is far smaller than we had anticipated, a really slender path leads method to the again. There’s a gap within the roof however to see it you’ll have to overcome any claustrofobic fears, the tunnel you wiggle your self in, is as slender as in case you are in an MRI, tons of ice overhead….simply do not give it some thought. As the subsequent group approaches we depart the cave and head again to Hali for lunch, the sky seems promising. Sadly the climate adjustments for the more serious, we now have to go away the automobile on the highway and stroll to seaside. There are a great deal of new ice blocks, to inform the reality, too many and too shut collectively to get a superb shot. It snows closely. We stroll additional alongside the seaside to the place the ice is rather less dense and get in just a few good pictures earlier than the snowstorm will get so dangerous that we quit. So one other afternoon spent within the room, adopted by a session of lightroom enhancing and photograph evaluations. Will give the ice seaside one other go tomorrow and hope for a sensational dawn. If we succeed can be partly 2 of the ICY ICELAND story. Textual content and Images By: Astrid and Jurg Bluemel
