Aurora Borealis over Jokulsarlon Glacier lagoon Iceland

I had hoped to see some Northern Lights during my trip to Iceland, but by evening 7 of my 10 day trip I had only a couple of clear nights and no Northern Lights.  I had a full moon by the second day, so I began to think that I probably wouldn’t see the Aurora Borealis with the bright light of the full moon… Until the second last night when I arrived at Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, at about 9pm (after many hours of driving).

When I pulled up there was a line of tripods set up in the carpark with a whole bunch of excited photographers buzzing around.  The sky was clear, the moon was out and it looked like this…

Apparently it had begun only a couple of minutes before I got there, full moon and all.  So you can see the Aurora Borealis with a full moon, and the great thing is that the moon lights up the landscape beautifully.  The 2 photographers on the skyline of the hill on the right side add a nice perspective and the Vatnajökull Glacier is visible glowing in the background.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on one of the above images, and then click on the right or left side of the image to scroll through each of the bigger versions, and you will see how the lights move in the sky.  The images change brightness due to slightly different exposures (I was experimenting) and clouds moving across obscuring the moon.  These images were shot on the Sony A7-r and a canon 24mm f1.4L lens (with an adaptor).  There was not enough light for the Hasselblad H4D-60 as it has a CCD sensor (not great in low light), Hasselblad wouldn’t lend me the new H5D-50C with the CMOS sensor…