Wildfire :: Iceland

Wildfire :: Iceland

I know what you’re wondering.  You’re asking yourself, “Is that a Game of Thrones reference??”

Yes.  Yes it is.

This was taken from the Dyrhólaey Peninsula overlooking the black sand beaches near Vik, Iceland.  We had flown overnight from Boston to Iceland, landing about 6:30am and spent the day exploring.  We eventually got to Vik, checked into our guest house, got some…well…slightly questionable dinner…and by the time we finished we were spent.  We wanted showers and sleep.

I’ll give you one guess as to what Mother Nature thought of our plans. lol

Melissa was wrapping up her shower, and I thought, “I should at least check the skies.  It’s clear, and there is no guarantees with weather here.”  I dragged myself out of my (very comfortable, warm) bed and grabbed my camera.  I went around to the slightly darker backyard, and took just one test shot.

“Damn.”  There were a clear, very blurry due to it being handheld band of green across the bottom of the frame. My “damn” turned into a much more enthusiastic “daaaaaaaammmmmnnnnn!!!”.

Sleep is for chumps anyway.

I went back inside and demanded Mel, who had just put on her PJs, get into real-people clothes because this was one adventure I wasn’t going to let her miss.  Our first stop was the famous white church in Vik, but turns out that’s a beast to shoot.  The lights on the church blew out the frame, even with selective dodging, if we exposed for the sky.  If we exposed for the church, the green of the aurora was barely visible.

Little did we know this was just the weak start to what would turn out to be an incredible light show. 

So did I get my church shot?  No.  But I’m not a quitter.  We had explored the Dyrhólaey peninsula earlier in the day and so we knew it was at least darker than in town.  Was it going to be an epic Vestrahorn/Northern Lights shot?  No.  But I’d figure it out, right?  I’m a professional (who occasionally gets lucky), dangit. So we hopped in the car (because at that point, we had completely given up on the idea of sleeping) and headed back to the peninsula.

This is the point in the story where the night became a magical symphony of dancing lights, and a lot of me sighing happily.  Or pointing excitedly.  Or yelling for Melissa to look in whatever direction I was looking in, so she could also sigh happily. lol

This particular shot was taken towards the end of the light show, at one of our last stops before headed back to Vik.  It was cold, and windy up there and we were tired….but dang it was beautiful.

So what’s the moral of this story?  Gosh, there are so many to choose from.

Never put on PJs before it’s time?  Caffeine is photography fuel?  Iceland is purty?

How about, if you don’t show up, you’ll never get the shot.  Yeah, let’s go with that one. 😉