In this episode we take a look back at Our trips to Iceland, and talk about some of the challenges, lessons learned, and some of the technical details of shooting some of the subjects we saw in Iceland.

The gear



What photographic gear did we each take with us.. And was there any gear that was more important than others.  Flying with gear is always stressful, especially when the lose your luggage like happend to two of our participants.

What special clothing did we take for wintertime in Iceland, and what weather did we encounter there.



The Weather:



People often ask, how cold was it.  Its not so much that it is so cold, its the wind and the humidity that really add bite to the air.

The wet stormy conditions can make for some really challenging shooting conditions.  When you combine this with Wind and Waterfalls you end up with a recipe for sad cameras.



Trip highlights:



Ice Cave tour,  



The experience itself was maybe the coolest part of the trip.  Hiking on a glacier using special gear added a sense of adventure to the trip.

Photographing the Ice cave proved both challenging and rushed.  Sadly we didn’t have the place to ourselves nearly as long as we would have liked.  

Getting around in the caves was pretty rough as well, huge boulders, cold water, and multiple bodies made it pretty challenging.





Photographing and planning for non ideal weather



Lots of checking weather apps, and trying to put yourselves in a position to be in the right place at the right time

Choosing your location based on what is light dependent and what is not

Choosing your staging hotel or location based on access to multiple types of locations.





Photographing Aurora Borealis



Keeping a close eye on cloud cover predictions to be in the right place

It doesn’t take huge KP numbers when your that far north

Being setup and ready for it to happen is key.

(Live view in A7R2

Shutterspeed suggestions for shooting aurora





Take away’s and things we learned in Iceland this go around



Hold on to your door when its windy

You can never have too many lens cloths and towels

Big aurora is amazing

Have a plan for keeping stuff dry

Silica packets

Remain flexible