The great disco in the sky: photographing the Northern Lights in Iceland

21.07.2023 - 08:25 / roughguides.com

A photography trip on every lens-lover’s bucket list, shooting the Northern Lights in Iceland really is as spectacular as it sounds. Rough Guides photographer Diana Jarvis went to chase the aurora borealis across the remote Icelandic countryside.

Don't go looking for the Northern Lights and expect to get any sleep: the weather will have final say over your itinerary and there’s nowhere Mother Nature is more firmly in charge than on an aurora-chasing trip in Iceland.

In a land of sugar-dusted volcanic peaks, electric-blue glaciers, meandering meltwater tributaries, ice lakes and wide endless skies, your choice of backdrop for those elusive Northern Lights photos is immense.

By Diana Jarvis

Aurora season is primarily between October and March, as although activity actually takes place throughout the year, the longer summer days mean that it’s never quite dark enough to see the colourful trails illuminating the sky. And boy oh boy does it need to be dark (read: late) and with clear skies. And you need to be in the right place at the right time of course.

But with settlements on the south east coast few and far between, the challenge of finding somewhere to camp out in the cold all night while awaiting the unpredictable aurora can make it a logistical conundrum.

The perfect way to access the elusive Northern Lights

The solution? Jump aboard the ‘travelling hotel’ and a mean beast of an off-road jeep-cum-minibus that can set up camp anywhere Mother Nature decrees. If she lets you sleep at all, that is.

By Diana Jarvis

This warm and cosy accommodation on wheels is run by Tatra Photography, who’ve been providing photography tours for the last five years. My team consists of trip captain Matt, Jón, a native Icelander with expert knowledge of the geography of the country and Mark Bauer, a seasoned landscape photographer whose passion and technical knowledge mean you’ll return home with shots well beyond your anticipated capabilities (and a very expensive equipment wish list).

What I saw with my eyes was darkness, but what I saw on the back of my camera after a 15-second exposure was something quite different

On my first day, after a six-hour drive heading east, we arrived at Jokulsárlón glacier lake where the travelling hotel was already set up for the night. Just as well, too, as the clouds had rolled in and rains were descending – little of the lake was discernible.

Yet as we cozied up listening to the pitter patter of rain on the canvas roof of the ‘dining room’ later that evening, Matt and Mark began to get excited: the Kp readings were reaching 6 and 7 indicating the chance of dancing lights in the skies… at 2, maybe 3am if the clouds dispersed. It was going to be a long night.

My first few attempts were