Back from Iceland

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi,

Just got back from Iceland where Rachel and I were treated to an amazing display of Green, Yellow, Purple and White aurora.

I'll put some of the images up when I have loaded them all, but here's an average one two.  Taken with a 17mm lens at F2.8 30 seconds.  The Aurora were 360 degree, possibly should have taken the fish eye, look at the snow, its green.

Chris


Iceland Test by chrissuddell, on Flickr


Iceland 2012 218 by chrissuddell, on Flickr

[Mac]

Wow,

[MarkS]

Stunning!!!

[mickw]

Fantastic stuff

[JohnP]

Wow amazing - bet you are chuffed with those - stunning photo's. Is there an 'aurora' season or where you just fortunate...

Nice one - John

[Fay]

Really great Chris!!! How lucky you were

[Rocket Pooch]

Hi,

Have a look here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13007140@N05/sets/72157632044524915/show/

Chris

[Rocket Pooch]

Wow amazing - bet you are chuffed with those - stunning photo's. Is there an 'aurora' season or where you just fortunate...

Nice one - John

Hi,

I picked a moonless weekend and the sun is active this year and in November the weather in Iceland is OK, so I gave myself a chance.  Still -12c where we were though.

Chris

[Fay]

how did you get there & where did you stay?

[Carole]

A nice set of photos, were you at the Ranga Hotel?

Carole

[Rocket Pooch]

how did you get there & where did you stay?

Hi Fay,

I booked with Iceland Air online, with all tours included (Golden Circle and Norther Lights) in a nice hotel for £550 a head.  We could have done a whole week with some additional tours "Super Jeep" and "Volcano" for another £150ish a head but we wanted a quick break.

Hotel http://icelandairhotels.com/hotels/reykjavikmarina

As you know I work in Travel, so I did not bother with Western and Oriental or Astronomy Tours, you get hammered for the guide and the free places they build into groups (sounds funny because the WO MD's partner I know personally and AT are part of Tui who I work with ).  Iceland is also dead easy to visit.

Chris

[Rocket Pooch]

A nice set of photos, were you at La Ranga?

Carole

Hi,

Nope, just about 40km short if Reykjavík (you can see the John Lennon laser in the photo), the tour was one of those where if you did not see it the 1st night you could just keep going every night until you did FOC.

Chris

[Carole]

We went on one of those trips out of Reykjavik that took you to really dark sites (past the Ranga Hotel area) and if you don't see it the first night you get a free night, unfortunately we didn't get a "go every night until you see it offer", just one free night.  

Trouble is the first night it was very cloudy and you couldn't see the aurora, then on the free trip, it was clear but no aurora!!!!!  

We managed to see the full works on two of the nights when we went to the remote lake Myvatn in the NE of Iceland and as we were staying there we could stay up all night, and some of us did.

Amazing experience isn't it?

Your photos are better than mine as I used a modded DSLR with the stock lens and have virtually no experience of photography just using a camera lens (except to use auto  , which doesn't cut for this sort of imaging).

We didn't book with Astronomy Tours either, as we didn't want to pay for a speaker to tell us about the aurora, plus we wanted to do a longer trip to see other geological things while we were there and we managed to do a lot more for the same price that they charge by tailoring making our own holiday.  We went through Iceland2Go who did all the bookings for us.

Carole

[Tony G]

Great images Chris, and make me more eager to look at booking up something in the new year, a short break or something.

As you know I work in Travel, so I did not bother with Western and Oriental or Astronomy Tours, you get hammered for the guide and the free places they build into groups.

How do you get these free spaces, sound good!
Carole did any of your group get free spaces, and what was the price per head with the tour company you went with? and how many were in your group?

Tony G

[Carole]

Carole did any of your group get free spaces, and what was the price per head with the tour company you went with? and how many were in your group?

I think we paid around £1400 for our trip, but we did 10 days as we all wanted to see a lot more of Iceland while we were there.  We flew to the North and had a full day's guided tour on the way to Lake Myvatn, 2 Northern lights jeep trips, Golden circle, Reykjavik city tour, Blue lagoon, trip to the Eyafyalljokull volcano and a whale watching trip all included in the price.  Some of us did some optional extra trips as well.  There were 12 in our group.  The Tour Operator tailor made our trip to our requirements.

They do shorter packages if you don't want to do as much as we did for around the price that Chris paid.  If you want further info PM me.  

I think what Chris means about free spaces, is they charge extra in case they don't get enough bookings.  

Carole