Iceland - Jan '23

Iceland !! I know what will be going in your mind – “Is this guy crazy to go to Iceland for the 4th time? ”. And yes I am and indeed this trip to Iceland was my 4th one. One can never get bored visiting Iceland with the variety of landscape it can offer. First trip was a fun trip with my brother in 2014. Second was in 2018 for summer photography (https://www.gopsview.com/post/iceland-oct-18 ). Third was a short 4 day trip in between East and West Greenland trip in Aug ’19. And now to capture the winter landscape. If I am asked to describe winter landscape, in Iceland, I have only one word – STUNNING !!

I usually fly to Reykjavik via Dubai / Copenhagen. But this time I decided to fly into Helsinki as Finnair started a direct connection to Helsinki from Mumbai. I stayed overnight in Hilton Helsinki which is just a 10 minute walk from the Helsinki airport terminal and then to Reykjavik next day morning in Iceland Air. It was an absolute comfortable journey. Finnair service was outstanding. For all my earlier visits, I had to apply to Denmark Consulate, Delhi for Iceland visa. However from 2022, Iceland have started accepting visa applications directly in India. Appointment date took a while but once the documents were submitted it took just a week to get the passport back with Visa stamped. It was pretty smooth.

Travel Date : 9th Jan ‘23 to 22nd Jan ‘23

Company : Iceland Photo Tours – Led by Kevin Pages for Snæfellsnes Peninsula and Brynjar Agustsson for 11-day Northern Light workshop around Iceland.

The tour that I initially signed up, was for the 11 day tour starting on 13th Jan. But then I decided to go earlier and cover Snæfellsnes Peninsula as this wasn’t included in the 11 day tour. Iceland Photo Tours organised a private tour for me and a friend of mine, who also joined this trip.

Kevin Pages who guided the Snæfellsnes Peninsula trip was outstanding. We did this on 11th and 12th. In just two days, Kevin managed to cover most of the important and scenic photo spots – Kirkjufell (known as Arrowhead Mountain in Game of Thrones), Budakirkja Church and Arnarstapi. The entire drive in Snæfellsnes Peninsula was so beautiful.

The second (main trip) started on 13th Jan from Reykjavik. This tour was guided by Brynjar Agustsson. Brynjar has a minimalistic approach towards photography. He looks for very finer and close-up details thus creating an art from photography. There were 10 photographic enthusiasts in the group from US, Canada, Israel, Greece and India. Brynjar did an amazing job of keeping the interests of everyone live. He was a great source of learning for the entire group. Total distance driven in the 11 day trip was about 1600 KMS.

Group in action (Photo Credit - Ken Webster, Kostas)

The tour Itinerary :

Visit to Aldeyjrfoss was interesting and an adventurous one. Access to this fall is closed during winter and if one need to visit, it has to be well planned and can be accessed only in super jeeps. We were fortunate to visit this fall. The drive for almost an hour through 4 feet snow and in darkness, was nerve breaking. And then after the jeep stopped in a particular place, we had to ascend and descend for about 15 minutes in 2 almost feet snow to reach the water fall. It was tough but was really worth it. The water fall was mind blowing.

Super Jeep

Winter photography not just in Iceland but in any other location comes with a lot of hardship due to extreme weather conditions. Iceland I feel is lot tougher due to unpredictable weather changes and with just about 5 hours of window with light (if lucky). Winter beauty is totally mesmerising and different from summer. I have attempted here to bring out a comparison of summer (from my 2018 album) and winter landscape.

Kirkjufell Summer / Winter

Seljalandsfoss Summer / Winter

Aldeyjarfoss Summer / Winter

Skógarfoss Summer / Winter

Godafoss Summer / Winter

Hraunfossar & Barnafoss Summer / Winter

One of the main objective or rather attraction is the Aurora Borealis (a natural electrical phenomenon characterised by the appearance of streamers of reddish or greenish light in the sky) or Northern Lights. We were lucky to see this on one day (though unlucky on all other days due to bad weather). The feeling and experience of seeing the green colour all over the sky cannot be expressed in words and it has to be experienced.

I have compiled a small time lapse of Northern Lights. This is a combination of three different compositions.

Overall this was a fascinating trip. I have covered both summer and winter landscape and what is remaining is only Autumn. Hopefully I will cover this also at some point of time. A big thanks to Iceland Photo Tours, Kevin Pages and Brynjar Agustsson for having made this a memorable trip.

The group :

Photo Credit - John Burker

To view the album --> https://www.iceland-jan-23.gopsview.com/

Warning !!! It was a herculean task to filter the pictures that need to be retained in the photo album. Given a choice I would have retained everything. So the album has more pictures than usual and hence you might have to spend more time viewing my photo gallery !!!!!