"The Spirits Return" | Northern Lights in Iceland, Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

The Spirits Return

When synchronicity starts turning the wheels of time and gathering the elements, magical things can happen in front of our eyes.

Location: Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, Iceland | September 2015

Story:

Three weeks after returning from my second Iceland trip, here is the first selected photo. I thought about starting posting images in chronological order, but couldn't avoid going straight to an image made on the third night, showing an epic display of Northern Lights in Jokulsarlon.

This trip began in a similar fashion as last year's. Arriving to the Keflavik airport at 1h15m and sleep in the car is always quite a harsh start for such an intense trip. Doing 140 km to Seljalandfoss on the next day and then having to return to Reykjavik due to a broken tripod adds to the exhaustion. Fortunately the third day made it all worth, as we had incredible sunset light in the Glacier Lagoon and then three hours of fantastic Aurora activity in the skies. Quite curiously, me and my companion were the only ones shooting there, making it all even more special. It's not every day that you have the honor of witnessing both the Northern Lights and the Jokulsarlon glaciers lit by the moonlight coming from behind!

Technical details:

Finally had the chance to shoot the Northern Lights with a full frame camera. I've always defended (and continue doing so), that an APS-C with a good lens can create stunning landscapes at base ISO that can rival with full frames, but when you venture into ISO1600 long exposure terrain, full frames are light years ahead of APS-Cs. I was stunned to see how much less noise the full frame sensor generates.

Sony a7R + Zeiss 16-35mm f4

ISO: 1600

Exposure: 30 seconds

Focus: Manual

Wireless Shutter Release

Manfrotto 055XPRO3 tripod

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José Ramos © http://www.joseramos.com
Facebook photography page - http://www.facebook.com/joseramosphotography

WOw, what a great photo. I wish I could see northern light in person one day but your photo comes close

Welcome back, with handful of wonderful images. Seems that the " spirits " have cast a celtic circle in the sky. Nature s magic caught by a skilled and artistic eye.

What a wonderful image! Interesting that you got such stellar results with an f/4 zoom. I hear people buying faster lenses all the time in hopes of capturing something like this.

Also depends on the camera and the OP has a very low noise one. The same photo with my gear (song a850) and an f4 lens would have just been a noise, blotchy,washed out mess

snomer said:

WOw, what a great photo. I wish I could see northern light in person one day but your photo comes close

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Nothing comes close to seeing it in person! One day you will see it!

marcodadofoto said:

Welcome back, with handful of wonderful images. Seems that the " spirits " have cast a celtic circle in the sky. Nature s magic caught by a skilled and artistic eye.

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Thank you my friend!

Steve

That's a very lovely image. Well done!

José Ramos said:

having to return to Reykjavik due to a broken tripod adds to the exhaustion.

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I'm curious on this one. Care to share what went wrong? I was there at the same spot as you earlier on in the year and to say it was bas***d freezing would be an understatement

One often hears about bits of tripods not managing in the cold etc. Was it something like that? A huge problem I had was that the wind was so fierce, turning your back on your tripod for a second could mean that it got blown over if nothing was weighing it down!! The photos I got looked all calm and serene, but the reality of the situation at the time was so far from that as to be untrue.

Stunning - thank you for sharing!

Wonderful shot and great luck on the Aurora.

Nice shot. Yes full-frame does high ISO better then APS-C. We did some comparisons several years ago at about 1000 feet on Mauna Kea, Big Island, Hawaii. The difference was dramatic.

Rick

Nice shot Jose. Like the way you framed it and a great reflection in the water.

jacob