Chasing the Aurora Borealis on a visit to Iceland is always a risk. Iceland’s weather leans towards the overcast and rainy side. Every day. Every. Single. Day.
Nevertheless, it was my hope that there would be a chance to see the phenomenon while visiting in 2019. I would be there for 10 days. With fingers crossed that a. The lights would make an appearance and b. That the sky would not be clouded over when they did.
Eight days had gone by. I’d been on a tour of the southern coast and had spent most days in driving rain, with a good raincoat and boots for both myself and my camera gear. I’d fallen in love with the country - the people, the landscape, the FOOD! And Iceland’s geological history is incredibly fascinating as well. So the trip had gone well and I was very happy I’d visited, but I checked the Aurora forecast every day, hoping that I’d get lucky.
I woke up in the middle of the night in Reykjavik on the penultimate evening of my trip and, as I was obsessed with the forecast, checked it once again. I nearly screamed and woke the entire hotel up - the Aurora was not only going to appear the next night, my FINAL night in Iceland, but it was going to be a strong show! I could hardly contain my excitement enough to go back to sleep!
A really cool thing that they do in Reykjavik is, if there is an Aurora forecast, you can sign up at the front desk for a bus to take you to see it away from the city lights. SIGN ME UP! The weather was clearing and all signs pointed to a great evening of Northern Lights viewing.
I met the bus at the appointed time, at the appointed bus stop. I was amazed as we drove through the city how many hundreds of people were waiting for busses! It was wild!
We picked everyone up and headed out of town. The excitement of the bus was palpable. Everyone was talking excitedly about what we were about to witness. The air was electric!
At long last we pulled over and another bus driver hopped onto our bus announcing, “Guys! The lights are here! The lights are here!” The energy was bumped up another notch as everyone headed out to see the lights.
Outside the wind was howling! It was at least 35-40 mph! I thought all hope was lost if I wanted to take photos and nearly didn’t even try. I wasn’t even paying attention to the light show because I was so worried about the wind.
I dug deep and decided to at least give it a try. I set up my tripod at the lowest possible height. I had a lens warmer keeping the lens from freezing (did I mention that it was February?). I lay down on the ground, clenching my camera strap tightly, pulling firmly down to help stabilize it. And I started shooting.
Oh my. The show in the sky was visible to the naked eye, but no where near what a long exposure was capturing. The wind was howling. I kept shooting. Others were seeing the back of my camera and were amazed at what I was capturing! I handed out my card to a few so they’d be able to have a memory of the time they saw the lights. I forgot all about the cold and wind and enjoyed the show while constantly adjusting settings and taking more pictures - they had to drag me back onto the bus!
I was so hyped up on the ride back that it made for a late night talking about the experience we’d all had! I’d come to Iceland, hoping for the Aurora Borealis, knowing that it was going to be hit or miss, and got lucky. Very lucky.
