My trip to Iceland was long in the making, with the decision to go taking place in end of 2013. The aim of this trip was to capture the beauty of the Aurora from some of Iceland’s most famous attractions within a timeframe of 7 days. There always was a risk of not being able to capture it, since Iceland’s weather varies on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. In one night, I experienced clouds, snow then crystal clear night skies several times within a couple of hours . In the 7 days I was there, I was only able to see the aurora on 3 nights while the other nights were completely cloudy
This trip involved a lot of research prior to travelling; best period to see the Aurora had to be identified, locations of the attractions and schedule to see them all had to be planned ahead of time, as some of the locations are around 200km apart
I spent a lot of nights camping near the car while taking photos and preparing timelapse videos on the side. Aurora hunting requires a lot of patience and pre planning as you have to be ready for it when it appears since the weather does not always permit this. Once the morning comes, I would commute back to the hotel to get some sleep, then head out again the following night to a different location to continue shooting.
While I was there, I was fortunate enough to be several photographers from different countries also capturing the aurora. These interactions were fruitful as they allowed us to exchange and share ideas with each other and compare our photography in Lebanon to theirs. This also allowed me to build contacts for future trips/events
Seeing the Aurora was a dream come true; describing it does not come close to the feeling of seeing it live in front of you for the first time. Being able to capture it and see it was a very satisfying and fulfilling point in my trip and I was fortunate enough to experience it, not once but three times.
Iceland is beautiful, majestic, varied country with lovely people and landscape, one that is worth visiting over and over again.