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Travel Stories

Photographing Iceland - Part 5: Day 7 and 8

Russell Whittemore (rosewood_ltd)


Keywords: photographing_iceland, rosewood_ltd, landscape, travel_photography, travel, iceland, russell_whittemore, egilsstadir, djupivogur, eystrahorn, vestrahorn, jokusarlon

This is the fifth part of a six part series on Photographing Iceland -- The next part will be published next week.

We begin the day with a stop for snacks and diesel, with one of our longer travel segments ahead of us.  We will be traveling along the Ring Road to Egilsstadir, a very new town in East Iceland that was established in 1947 to serve as a regional service and administrative center for the surrounding rural areas.  It is about halfway along our 190 mile route to our ultimate destination of Djupivogur, a fishing village on the Southeast coast, located on a peninsula between two fjords.  

Lake Myvatn to Egilsstadir to Djupivogur
Click for an enlargement

 

The small, sleepy fishing village is that way by intention, being the only municipality in Iceland that is part of the worldwide Cittaslow movement.  For our purposes, it has the virtue of being the closest lodgings to a rather lonely and isolated 60-mile section of the Southeast coast that extends from Djupivogur to the resort town of Hofn.  Along this section will be two of our main “targets” for the coming day:  the Hvalnes Lighthouse and headlands of Eystrahorn and the more famous location of Vestrahorn.  Our plan will be to hit sunrise at Eystrahorn, return for hotel breakfast, stop again in the afternoon along the coast just shy of Eystrahorn and then proceed to check in at Hofn, subsequently doubling back to Vestrahorn to scout for sunrise locations for the following day

After a long day of travel, I am ready for a quiet evening, but a wrench is thrown into the machinery of that plan when our guides tell us that there’s maybe a possibility of some low level aurora activity around 11 pm.  I struggle with balancing my fatigue and desire to wring every opportunity out of my trip.  In the end, I head out with my gear and find a small cove where I can shoot.  Lo and behold, the forecast is correct and starting about 10:45, the aurora faintly appears for around an hour and I am able to get a number of shots.

First Activity of the Night At Djupivogur
Click for an enlargement

 

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5 comments

Russell Whittemore (rosewood_ltd) on April 8, 2019

Donor Ribbon awarded for his support to the Fundraising Campaign 2014 Donor Ribbon awarded for his generous support to the Fundraising Campaign 2015 Ribbon awarded for his generous support to the Fundraising Campaign 2017 Awarded for his in-depth knowledge and high level of skill in several areas. Ribbon awarded as a member who has gone beyond technical knowledge to show mastery of the art a

Thanks you all for your kind comments. I have wanted to make this an article with somewhat of a "you are there" feel to it, and I am happy to see this seems to be working.

Bo Stahlbrandt (bgs) on April 8, 2019

bgs is one of the two co-founders of Nikonians, with in-depth knowledge in several areas Awarded for his valuable Nikon product reviews at the Resources

Thanks for another great article, Russ! Love to have the chance to "follow" you in the trip that you took like this. Wonderful images as well.

David Summers (dm1dave) on April 5, 2019

Awarded for high level knowledge and skills in various areas, most notably in Wildlife and Landscape Writer Ribbon awarded for his excellent article contributions to the Nikonians community Donor Ribbon awarded for his very generous support to the Fundraising Campaign 2015 Ribbon awarded as a member who has gone beyond technical knowledge to show mastery of the art a

Great article Russ. It is unlikely that I will ever get to Island, so it is fun to read a detailed trip report like this.

Bonnie Christensen (BChrisRad) on April 5, 2019

Donor Ribbon awarded for her most generous contribution to the 2017 campaign Ribbon awarded for her most generous support to the 2018 fundraising  campaign Awarded for high level of knowledge and skill in various areas.

Really enjoying this series, Russ. Your photos are amazing. Your commentary informative. Appreciate your sense of humor. Thank you for sharing.

Tom Jacob (sevendayimages) on April 4, 2019

Awarded for his continuous knowledge and images sharing with community members Awarded for his win at the Best of Nikonians 2016 Photo Contest Awarded for his in-depth knowledge and high level of skill in several areas. Awarded for winning in The Best of Nikonians 2019 Photo Contest 
Winner of the Best of Nikonians Photo Contest 2020
This member has gone beyond technical knowledge to show mastery of the art and science of photo Winner in the Best of Nikonians Photo Contest 2021

Another great follow-up article Russ! I run out of words to tell how much I enjoy your informative but funny writing, and of course the beautiful images to go with it. Excellent work...I think one should go there in a lifetime, even if he would be on a diet of pickled herring for 10 days :) Cheers!

G