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May 04, 2022
When I traveled to Iceland in 2016, something remarkable happened. I had the chance to really get in touch with the raw and wonderful powers of nature while on my photography trip, and it changed my life forever. I will always be grateful for the opportunity to experience it and to share it with others.
While packing for my trip in my home in Connecticut, USA, I received an email from the organizers of my tour of Iceland’s western Snaefellsnes peninsula and southern coast. They explained that they were changing the itinerary for the start of our trip which began the next day, because they had just received news of the forecast for northern lights activity, and it was remarkable. They were going to organize the timing of events to teach us the settings of the camera that we would need to know in order to take our shots of the Aurora and would get us out on the first night to lake Kleifarvatn on the Reykjanes Peninsula in the southwest near Reykjavik. They planned for us to go on the second day out to the tip of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, near Budir Church, where we would hopefully be able to photograph the Aurora again in stunning settings. I was noticeably much more excited for my trip than I already had been.
Upon meeting with the guides of the tour, which was designed for photographers and would teach advanced photography techniques, they coached us in the tools we’d need to know to photograph the northern lights as spectacularly as possible. I was thrilled for the opportunity. With my background as a nature and wildlife photographer who seeks to capture the wonders of nature to inspire others, I felt that my dreams were coming true.
On our drive out to lake Kleifarvatn, I got my first sight of the Aurora that night. Reaching across the sky like great green glowing clouds, the Aurora was beginning to build up in intensity. It seemed to stripe the sky, brighter towards one horizon and softer at the other. I couldn’t wait to get out and get started.
Finally when we were at the shore of the lake, the Aurora began to move its magic. Building up in intensity, it more fully filled in those streaking lines to become dancing, curving curtains. My first photographs still blow me away with wonder every time I see them.
As we continued to watch in awe and click our shutter buttons again and again, the Aurora built in intensity and sprang up on alternating horizons. Every time one formation of the Aurora would fade out into the blackness of the night, another would spring up from a different spot. It felt as if our location there by the lake was the center of a vast circle, a place that was being hugged, in a way, by the great shifting Aurora. The power of the moment was palpable in the air around me. I knew then that as the Aurora inspired me, I would be able to pass its gifts on to others and inspire great peace, love and joy with my images of the Aurora. I am grateful to say I have been able to act as a window for others to see Mother Nature’s wonders and I am glad to continually be able to pass the peace on for others to enjoy. As I made a promise to the skies that night and the next, I will forever continue to share its beauty to help and inspire others.
About a half hour later, something else truly spectacular happened. Looking out over the lake, we began to see the Aurora clumping up; gathering itself into a vast congregation that built brighter and stronger by the moment, pushing back the darkness of the night and appearing solid where it floated there. It was the development of a corona.
“That hasn’t happened here in at least 10 years!” exclaimed one of the guides as we all stood, mesmerized by the heavens. I continually photographed the entire development process, which was stunning in itself, but which then culminated into a near-complete, extremely rare Corona of the Aurora, floating there over the ancient volcanic lake surrounded by basalt rock hills.
I will forever be amazed by this moment.
The next day, we made our way up the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, memory cards full in our bags of stunning captures of the Aurora borealis and hearts brimming with excitement. My dreams of capturing nature’s wonder had just taken a great leap forward and my life was headed in a new direction, to share these images with others. I had fallen in love with the wonders of the arctic night sky.
After an exciting day of exploring the Snaefellnes, we settled down at our hotel in Budir and after dinner, we went out to inspect the sky. Forecasts were good again, and we had our hopes up. Thankfully, the glorious displays began again.
Ricocheting from horizon to horizon, the lights dazzled overhead in unique shifting, turning patterns that appeared to me like the footsteps of spirits as they ran across the night sky, as the old stories often said. My camera caught many of these unique unfolding patterns of the Aurora, including the very interesting, clear and detailed outline of a humanoid, angelic form and the stunning green and purple of a curtain that extended across the sky as if coming out of the steeple of Budir Church itself. My heart will forever be full of these moments.
As I checked my messages later in my room, I saw that one of my good friends had sent me a link to an article featured in the New York Times, “Reykjavik Briefly Swaps Its City Lights for Northern Ones”, with her supportive note, “Make sure you get good pictures!!” The Aurora borealis was so remarkably brilliant over Iceland – better than it had been in years – that the Icelandic government had decided to shut off the lights in the capital city of Reykjavik, to reduce light pollution and allow everyone in Iceland to better enjoy the show that Mother Nature was putting on, and other countries had taken notice. Today, I have a copy of this article on display next to my northern lights photographs from those nights in the store Wisdom of the Ages in Simsbury, CT, USA.
I look forward to one day when the Aurora can dazzle my eyes again and I can come back to tell it that I followed through with my promises to share its beauty with others, and that I always will. Thank you, Green Lady, Aurora borealis, northern lights, my heart’s delight, for sharing your beauty with me and letting me be a window for others to see your wonders through.
Shop my entire portfolio of Aurora borealis photographs HERE >>
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