Northern Lights & Ice Caves Of Iceland

Day one begins with your arrival at Keflavík International Airport; you will take a Flybus to your hotel in Reykjavík, where you are free to unwind until 7 pm. At this point, we will meet our guides and rest of the group in the lobby, and head to an esteemed restaurant for a delicious dinner. Over the meal, we will get to know the people you’ll be spending the next week with and run through the itinerary of the adventure ahead. No doubt full, satisfied, and eager to get on with the photography workshop, you’ll retire to your hotel for the night.

On our second day, the adventure truly begins. We will gather in a specialized, comfortable bus, and set off on our journey along the South Coast. This stretch is one of Iceland’s most popular tourist routes, and why will become apparent very quickly; the main road is lined with fascinating features, great for sightseeing but even better for photography. Our first subjects will be two of the country’s most famous attractions, the waterfalls Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss. The former stands at 63 meters tall, and falls in a narrow cascade in front of a cavern; if the path is clear, we will be able to walk behind it and photograph the water from a unique angle. Skógafoss has no cavern behind it (outside of legend, where there is said to be a trove of hidden treasure), but is much more dramatic than Seljalandsfoss. Though the same height, it is wider and more powerful, thundering to the earth and throwing off clouds of spray. If the sun is shining, rainbows arch throughout the mist, allowing you to practice working with unusual lighting phenomena; this will come in handy for our northern lights photography throughout the tour.

After capturing these waterfalls, we will continue along the South Coast to the black-sand-beach Reynisfjara for your sunset shoot. This magical stretch of coastline was once voted amongst the most beautiful nontropical beaches in the world, and our photographs will tell the story as to why. The main subjects from Reynisfjara beach are the Reynisdrangar sea-stacks. These two basalt columns rise from the tumultuous ocean, 66 meters tall at the highest point, and are, according to folklore, the petrified remains of two trolls caught in the morning sun trying to pull a ship into shore.

Though this is a fantastic photography location (especially if the northern lights make an appearance towards the end of your shoot), Reynisfjara beach has notorious sneaker waves, so ensure you don’t get so absorbed in the area’s beauty that you put yourself at risk. We will spend your second night at accommodation in the nearby, charming village of Vík.

On day three, we will continue along the South Coast until you reach Vatnajökull National Park, a vast area that contains many of Iceland’s greatest subjects for photography. We will spend several days in this diverse region.

Our sunrise shoot on day four will be conducted back at Jökulsárlón; this beautiful area changes under different lighting conditions, so we will be able to capture some unique images while working on our landscape photography. We will also head back to the Diamond Beach for another shoot here. Our main focus for the day, however, will be ice cave photography. Ice caves are only accessible from very few places in the world, and even then only at certain times of the year under specific conditions. The chance to explore one is an incredible, rare opportunity, and the chance to shoot within one with expert photo guides even more so. The ice cave we will explore will be beneath Europe’s largest ice cap, Vatnajökull Glacier. The otherworldly blues, deep tunnels and unusual formations within the cave will help make for some awe-inspiring photographs, which tell the story of the wonders to be found here. We will spend another night in the Jökulsárlón area, with the hopes that you will get a chance (or, preferably, another chance) to practice your northern lights photography.

On day five of our photography expedition, we will have a sunrise shoot at the Diamond Beach. Following that, we will head even further east along Iceland’s South Coast, out of Vatnajökull National Park, to Vestrahorn mountain on the Stokksnes Peninsula. This feature is often called ‘the Batman mountain’ due to its ‘horned’ twin peaks, and it is a favorite subject amongst landscape photographers. The dramatic, imposing mount is surrounded by ominous black sands, allowing us to take pictures revealing the stark, barren and often haunting nature of Iceland’s landscapes. There are several angles we can picture it from, which may also include the churning Atlantic Ocean. We will stay here throughout the sunset when Vestrahorn becomes shadowy and even eerier. As night falls, we can hope once more to capture the northern lights, this time with the mountain as your foreground. After a day of shooting at Vestrahorn, we will return to your accommodation. Of course, if the auroras are dancing when you return, you’ll visit Jökulsárlón to capture them.

On our sixth day, we will visit the spectacular Skaftafell Nature Reserve. This area is so beautiful it was once a National Park in its own right before the newly formed Vatnajökull National Park absorbed it. We will spend the majority of the day shooting its many sites, continuing to practice your landscape photography; by this time in the tour, you will no doubt notice a marked improvement in your skills. Our subjects will include glacier tongues and lagoons, mountains, ice caps, forests, river systems and waterfalls. After capturing the magic of this beautiful reserve, we will head back to the South Coast, returning to Reynisfjara beach for another sunset shoot. If the Northern Lights did not show the first time you were here, you can hope they will tonight. We will retire at accommodation in Vík.

Day eight is our final full day of photography, and we will spend it shooting three of Iceland’s most famous sites: fiingvellir National Park, the Geysir Geothermal Area, and Gullfoss Waterfall, all on Golden Circle Route. fiingvellir is the only UNESCO World Heritage Site on the Icelandic mainland, being where the early residents formed their first parliament in 930 AD. While the history of this place is inspiring, it is the landscapes that you are likely to find most captivating. Located in a valley between the tectonic plates, we can shoot the walls that mark the edges of the continents, the lava fields that fill the area from eruptions in centuries past, and the many ravines filled with crystal clear spring water, opened by earthquakes in the area. Iceland’s largest natural lake, fiingvallavatn, also makes for a beautiful subject with its surrounding mountains. The Geysir Geothermal Area is the prime location on this photo workshop to photograph Iceland’s seething geothermal activity. The area is dotted with many fumaroles, hot springs and mud-pots, the earth is vividly colored by the elements rising from the crust, and, of course, there are geysers on site. The largest of these, Geysir itself, is inactive, but you will have plenty of chances to shoot Strokkur, which erupts every five to ten minutes to heights which exceed twenty meters. Our final subject on this workshop will be one of Iceland’s most recognizable and renowned sites: Gullfoss waterfall. This incredible feature, the name of which translates to the ‘Golden Waterfall’, is immensely powerful, thundering in two tiers into a dramatic, ancient canyon. There are several platforms from which you can capture it. In winter, the rocks around Gullfoss are caked in ice, and snow covers the surrounding landscapes. In cloudy weather, therefore, your photographs can tell the story of the waterfall’s ominous strength, whereas when the sun is shining, and rainbows are cutting through its spray, they will depict how much of a winter wonderland Iceland can be. With any luck, you will finish our shoot with the northern lights overhead. We will then return to Reykjavík for our final night.

Transfer to Keflavik Airport Sadly, our tour ends on day eight. When it is time to hop on the Flybus back to the airport, however, the bittersweetness of departing will hopefully be outweighed by the pride taken in your developed skills, gratefulness for the chance to participate in northern lights and ice cave photography, and awe from the pictures you have created.