I’ve just come back from a dream bucket-list trip to Iceland. Of course, the problem with any “bucket list” item is that you’re supposed to check it off. It’s done. It’s over. But I would love to go back to the dreamy skies and dramatic landscapes, which my husband and I experienced in all of their winter beauty, from snow-frosted black lava rocks to sparkling ice crystals to frozen waterfalls.
My No. 1 sub-item for this bucket-list trip was seeing the Northern Lights. I’ve seen them before from the U.S., during the May 10 and May 11, 2024, solar storm displays when Alethea and I took a detour from storm chasing to find them. While the pictures then showed a lot more colors than what I captured in Iceland, to the naked eye, they weren’t as vivid in terms of actual light. Up near the Arctic Circle — while the color was still somewhat faint — the features of the aurora were very much visible to the naked eye. The lights were almost like eerie self-illuminated clouds.
I saw aurora on multiple nights. We happened to be in Reykjavik when the big geomagnetic storm occurred, just before our tour began. Good news and bad news: We were in Iceland for the big event, but the aurora were competing with the city lights. However, they were spectacular anyway, and I’ll do a separate post about those two nights.
What’s amazing to me is that even if the parameters aren’t particularly promising, this far north, a big show can happen anyway. And that’s what we got on November 15 (into the wee hours of November 16) at Wildnerness Center, a remote hotel set on an old farm in east-central Iceland. Framed by a river valley, the display was vivid and came in (at least) three waves. I only gave up because I was freezing and I wanted to go home with all my fingers. (Not really a joke – I think I was a bit frost-nipped.)
Here are some photos from the night, and check out the video as well. It moves from GoPro time-lapses of the early show and then time-lapses from stills shot with my Nikon Z8. I used the intervalometer setting for some of these and just manually shot the last sequence because I was in a hurry and didn’t want to waste time setting it up and miss part of the display. So occasionally there’s a wee bump, but the display was so amazing, I have no complaints.
You can click on any image to see a larger version and view the photos as slides. Stay tuned for more posts from this wonderful trip through a photographer’s paradise!
