Iceland 2014 - Day 4a: Magical Jökulsárlón Beach

After a disappointing drive and first day in Jökulsárlón I was hopeful to wake up knowing that the weather-forecast was good for today. It's always nice to return to a place that you love again and again, knowing that it will never disappoint you. Even in the rain it was still magical. So I returned to Jökulsárlón beach again yesterday, just as the clouds were beginning to lift. 


I parked at the east beach and was somewhat taken aback at the amount of photographers already spread out along the iceberg-strewn beach. I counted 19, and another couple were just unpacking their gear in a car next to mine. The light wasn't great, very bright straight out over the sea, and any shot along the beach would have a dozen or so other photographers in view. Oh well, I somehow managed, playing around with a few different directions, filters and shutter speeds. I was grateful to finally have some sun during my time at Jökulsárlón; it had been pretty limited on previous visits.
Having learned the hard way last year about the damage that water droplets and spray can do to the picture quality, I wiped the filter regularly. The salt left a smeary film on the glass, so cleaning was a laborious job. Better that, though, than smeary photos. Occasionally I'd find an iceberg - or a collection of bergs - that took my fancy and then would spend ages photographing it again and again, waiting for the right wave movement. As I discovered before, a question of a few seconds can make the difference between and average shot and a great shot. Other photographers would move straight in once I'd vacated a spot near a decent chunk of ice! I particularly liked this one below, a little black but still striking; it was about 2-3 feet on each dimension - it's difficult to get a sense of scale.

 

The minutes and hours floated past with the waves. The photos were mounting up, the batteries wearing down. I decided to try something a little different, and took my spare camera out with the zoom lens attached and began trying to capture the movement of the waves, with different shutter speeds. Again, the sun was too bright and I was shooting towards it, but it gave quite dramatic results.

Eventually I had both cameras out - snapping waves with my 60D and 200m lens and my 5D with the 24-70mm attached to the tripod, waiting for a decent wave trail to come along (so glad I'd brought the spare body!). Finally when my second battery died and my feet were blocks of ice I hobbled back to the car and drove home. I realised that I'd been on the beach from 8.45am to 2.15pm - a whole five and a half hours! There were only a couple of photographers there when I left, everybody else choosing to avoid the harsh middle-of-the-day light, which I still think can lend itself to striking shots, given the strong black of the sand, blue/green of the icebergs and white of the frothy sea. 

I raced home, bunged the batteries on the charger, had my usual lunch of volkenbrot, cheese and ham, and warmed up a bit. I'd had one accident on the beach where a wave came in over my boot, but my feet had dried off pretty well. I'd also tried standing on a flat iceberg to take a few shots, but that method came to an end when a big wave nearly toppled it (and me).

I headed out again at 4.30pm, my two main batteries charged, thinking that I might be out for the rest of the day and evening, if the northern lights that were forecast appeared straight after dark. I headed past the lagoon, which glowed in the afternoon sun, and went on to Fjallsarlon, another glacial lagoon which is off the main road and rarely seems to have any visitors. There were two cars there when I arrived, but they left and I had the place to myself, as usual. I wandered down onto the beach and took the opportunity of the solitude to do a couple of silly self-portraits. Some whooper swans flew over from time to time in v-shaped formations (I wished I had more than a 200mm zoom).

I stupidly forgot about the mountains when working out the sunset time - had hoped to spend a good hour and a half at the lagoon back at Jokulsarlon, but as I sat enjoying the view at Fjallsarlon the sun disappeared behind a cloud just above the mountain-top. I headed back to the lagoon in case there was still some good sunset light, but had left it a little late. I still managed a few shots of the nice colourful clouds. Obviously I wasn't the only person there...

And then, you guessed it, it was back to the beach for the last light! Only a handful of photographers were out, which was nice, so there wasn't too much queueing to shoot the best icebergs. There was still a glow in the sky, but the light faded fast; just long enough for my feet to freeze again.

Normally that would've been the end of a long and wonderful day in the life of a photographer, but no, there was more to come.... I headed home, recharged the batteries (again!), cooked some pasta, skyped home, and manically checked the aurora forecast. Things were looking good. The skies were clear, the forecast was for 2.67 Kp, so off I headed out, hoping for a spectacle, and finally I got one!

Click here for Day 3 blog
Click here for Day 4b blog

Iceland Highlights 2013: Day 5 - Jökulsárlón, Jökulsárlón, and more Jökulsárlón

I just love this place. Well, I love the beach. Oddly the lagoon just doesn't really do it for me. But the beach is a different matter and has become something of an obsession...

So, I didn't bother with an early start for sunrise as the weather-forecast had been for total cloud cover (and probably rain or snow too). A couple I met in the guesthouse had got up at the crack of dawn and confirmed that I'd made the right decision. I had a nice chat with them for a while before setting off on the short journey to Jökulsárlón. I thought that I should give the lagoon a chance; it is, after all, the place that everyone raves about and has been used in various films, blah blah blah. Just like last year, the weather was "changeable" - with mostly grey clouds, but a spot of brightness over the glacier to the north. I headed along the beach, noticing how few icebergs there were in the first bit of the lagoon. A few seals swam around, their round nostrils giving them away as they eyed me up.

I started off shooting without any filters, but I just don't like the look of normal water any more (generally), so it was on with the filters pretty much straight away!

Water with lots of little icebergs in doesn't actually lend itself to long exposure either, though, as they can end up just looking blurred. I eventually found a rather nice iceberg in the shape of a heart, with a small pile of pebbles, but it was moving around in the slight swell of the lagoon, so it was off with the filters briefly for a 1/60th of a second shot.

I wasn't really finding the place very inspiring, and it started to snow quite heavily - a cold wet snow accompanied by a biting wind - so I gave up and headed into the café for a break, leaving my cold, wet camera in the car to prevent any condensation issues from the warmth of the café. Inside I treated myself to a lovely piece of apple tart and a coffee and sat chatting to a couple of fellow photographers, who were also taking a little break from the weather and had already been out there for a couple of hours too. Within minutes the snow had stopped and the sun came out, but I didn't have the energy to go back out just yet.

Next stop was the beach again, my favourite spot. I got down to the beach - the weather now much brighter, with some cloud definition - to find it littered with tiny pieces of ice as well as some bigger bergs, as well as about 10 other photographers. The sun even made a brief appearance. My plan was - again - to try to capture water trails from the icebergs, after a wave has washed over them. I've written another blog about this in more detail, but here are a few of my results from the afternoon.

After a couple of hours I thought I should probably have a break, given that my toes were frozen, my memory card was filling up fast, I'd already got through one battery and I was a bit iceberged-out. I headed back to the guesthouse for a rest and a sandwich, and then headed back to the beach for sunset. The weather wasn't great, but there was still some definition in the sky. The odd snow and hail shower were still drifting around, hitting the beach when I arrived.

I stayed until the light disappeared and the nearly-full moon appeared in its place, before heading home to check the aurora and weather-forecast, rustle up an easy pasta dish and download and review the day's shots.

The short-term aurora forecast was pretty active for the evening, but it was snowing outside on and off and generally pretty cloudy. I decided that I had to go and give it a try though, as the weather-forecast was better towards Skaftafell (63km away). I was running low on petrol, so decided that a combined aurora and petrol-filling trip would be a good idea, so headed out at about midnight. I got about 20km, just the other side of Jökulsárlón, when I decided it was a really bad idea after all. There was a heavy sleet accumulating on the road, and I suddenly thought "what if this settles all night and then the road's impassable on my return at 2am?" No-one knew I was even out there. I stopped the car, took some photos of the cloudy sky (to make sure that there were no lights lurking - there weren't) and then turned round and headed home. I'd still have enough petrol to make it back to the gas station the following morning with a little to spare. I got home and had a large glass of wine and felt relieved that I'd made a sensible decision. No aurora seen, but at least I was warm and safe!

More shots of the ice can be seen on my website!

Click here to see Day 6 - Svínafellsjökull & Skaftafell

Iceland Highlights 2013 - Day 3: Drive from Reykjavik to Vik

The following morning I set off from Reykjavik, heading east; my destination for the evening was Vik, about 190km away. The weather was lovely, with pretty clear skies for most of the day. I stopped at Kerið, a volcanic crater lake on the road towards Gulfoss, but unfortunately the sun was a little low in the sky, and it was covered in ice, so I was unable to appreciate the colour that one sees later in the year (a bright blue/green). I had a little hike around the crater and then down to the water's edge (which was all ice) before heading back on my journey to Vik.

From Kerið to Vik there doesn't appear too much to stop at along the way, apart from a couple of impressive waterfalls, but I was pleasantly surprised! Straight after rejoining the ringroad I passed through the town of Selfoss. As I crossed the bridge into town I noticed a striking church on the banks of the icy river, so pulled over to take a shot.

Heading further east I passed lots of interesting geology (you can't travel anywhere in Iceland without seeing cool scenery), and took a turning off the road to the north, to explore a little. The mountain ahead of me was Hekla, which has become a little active (near the end of my stay I was hoping that there might be some action that would strand me there to take more photos, as there had been some ominous earthquakes, but no such luck/bad luck!) At the end of the road I stopped, played catch with a dog that presented me with a lump  of volcanic rock to throw, and stopped to enjoy the view below along the road on the way back to the ringroad. For such a rugged country there are some remarkably picturesque spots too.

Onwards on the last stretch of the journey towards Vik, the sun still shining, and I finally arrived at the first of the two spectacular waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss. I sat on a bench in the sun, drinking some Skyr yoghurt, eating a rye bread sandwich. As I ate the sun was coming around the side of the hill and onto the falls. I was quite surprised at how much ice there still was, as I'd visited on the exact same day the previous year and it had been completely ice-free (and this was also supposedly a much milder winter). I climbed the snowy steps on the opposite side of the falls, getting covered in spray and worrying about slipping in the process. When I got back down and cleaned off the lens and filters the sun was completely on the falls, producing a beautiful rainbow. It doesn't get much better than that!

And the ice formations on the far bank were unlike anything I'd seen before too; they looked like hundreds of grey and white eggs.

Next stop was another waterfall just around the corner (about 30km away) - Skogafoss. The sun was in the wrong place (I was about an hour late), but it was still impressive. I tried to recreate an atmospheric shot I took the previous year, but without the mist and rain (and blue anorak) it just wasn't the same.

From there it was only 30km more to my destination. The sun was quickly disappearing and I wanted to get to a beach near Vik for sunset, but I also wanted to get to the hostel to make sure I got a lower bunk-bed! Sunset took priority (it was only for one night, after all, so a top bunk wouldn't be the end of the world), so I drove to Reynisfjara first, a beach I'd visited the previous year that is on the other side of the headland from Vik, from where you can see a couple of the stacks off the coast, and where there are some beautiful basalt columns. It was a beautiful evening, with very little wind for a change. On my previous visit the winds had been so strong that I couldn't even use my heavy-duty tripod and the car kept getting whipped by the wind (and the beach was a couple of metres higher too)!

I sat on the beach, tripod firmly sitting there without being blown away, and watched the sun dip beyond Dyrholaey at the western end of the beach and the lovely golden light on the basalt columns to the east.

After a beautiful sunset I drove around the headland and into the picturesque Vik and to the cute little Nordurvik hostel where I found there was still a lower bunk available! Apart from a French party who'd stunk the hostel out with some fried fish and a headache from dehydration, as well as the skies clouding over stopping any chance of northern lights, it had been a fantastic day, with more sunlight than I'd had during my whole trip the previous year. If only those skies would stay clear and those aurora make an appearance...

Click here to see Day 4: Vik to Jökulsárlón