Day 3 of the Incredible Iceland (South) trip was here.
We checked out of the Fosshotel at 08:30 knowing that there’d been some heavy snowfall overnight.
The van had been cleared and we loaded our stuff onto the van and we were off.
I was especially looking forward to this day of the trip as Diamond beach is a location on my bucket list as I’ve been fascinated by seeing pictures and videos of it online.
We arrived at the location to find the Diamond beach car park still closed so parked at the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon car park on the other side of the road.
Diamond Beach
About Diamond Beach
The Diamond Beach is a strip of black sand belonging to the greater Breidamerkursandur glacial plain, located by Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon on the South Coast of Iceland.
At the Diamond Beach, the icebergs that fill the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon wash up on shore, creating a stark contrast with the volcanic black sand. This beautiful display makes it a favourite location for photographers and nature lovers.
The Shoot
We walked from the glacial lagoon car park a short distance under a bridge and to Diamond beach.
The view you see on arriving is amazing but quite cluttered. There are ice rocks and structures all over the beach and plenty of tourists and other photographers so you want to find an isolated rocks or set of rocks to focus on.
Below is a montage of me doing just that.
At this location, I felt like an over-excited kid in a sweet shop and realised I would need to maximise the time we had by not spending too long in one spot.
I had a few minutes of panic as various shutter speeds were not on the mark. Justin came over to check in on me and reassured me we had plenty of time and he suggested a 1 second shutter speed. I tried that and it was spot on.
The other tip Justin gave me was to use the touchscreen to fire and stop my shutter. To date, and not wanting to use a shutter release, I’ve been relying on a 2 second delay timer and a bit of luck.
Justin said the touchscreen technique would enable me to shoot at the moment I’m after and with a light touch, I should not deliver any shake to the image.
I moved to another ice rock and grabbed a shot as I loved the aqua colour of the ice rock.
I decided to attempt a bit of the old swooshery and got a few captures with the water hitting the ice rocks.
What becomes apparent very quickly is that the ice rocks have a glorious look when backlit but the water hitting the back of the rock turns the rocks darker so they lose some if not all of the impactful lighting.
I have a phone shot which is better than the one my camera achieved.
Next up, I think is potentially my best and favourite shot of the morning.
Our Diamond beach shoot came to an end and we walked back along the path to the van. In the glacial lagoon car park, they have a café, toilets and some street food vans.
A coffee and cake refuelled us and it was time to take some shots of the lagoon.
Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon
About the lagoon
Jökulsárlón (translates to “glacial river lagoon”) is a large glacial lake in southern part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Situated at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, it developed into a lake after the glacier started receding in the late 19th century.
The lake has grown since then at varying rates because of melting of the glaciers. The glacial front is now about 8 km (5.0 mi) away from the ocean’s edge and the lake covers an area of about 25 km2 (9.7 sq mi).
In 2009 it was reported to be the deepest lake in Iceland, at over 284 m (932 ft), as glacial retreat extended its boundaries. The size of the lake has increased fourfold since the 1970s.
Jökulsárlón has been a setting for four Hollywood movies: A View to a Kill, Die Another Day, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and Batman Begins, as well as the reality TV series The Amazing Race.
The Shoot
First off, a fellow photographer (Steve) and I headed down to the edge of the lagoon with the intention of shooting a panoramic shot.
As we crossed the path, I slipped over in a real ‘arse over tit’ fashion and landed on my butt with my camera bag cushioning the fall. Steve thought this was hilarious and he was giggling for the rest of the day about it.
I couldn’t actually get up off the floor myself, and Steve and a Chinese chap had to pull me up. I was concerned that I may have damaged some gear in my bag but all seemed well on that front.
Anyway, enough of that, back to the image captures…
Here is a pano which shows off the lovely reflections.
We did a few shots here then walked back up onto the main path and joined the others who were lined up taking shots across the lagoon.
I was struggling a little to decide what to shoot. Once you’ve done the wider shot of the whole lagoon, you need to look carefully to see what might be of interest.
I was quite fascinated by the ice structure at the front of the lagoon which reminds of a spaceship.
I’m haven’t been able to align my spaceship thoughts to any evidence of this existing in any film or TV series so for moment, it’s just my imagination.
My final shots involved zooming in closer and concentrating on a lovely reflection of some aqua coloured ice boulders in the water.
We made our way back to the van and grabbed another drink and something to eat before we were intent to head back to Diamond Beach.
I was really pleased to be going back as I felt earlier I could’ve spent all day there.
Steve had been looking at the weather forecast and said snow was coming so we knew in advance we wouldn’t get long there.
By the time everyone was back at the van, he estimated that we’d have about forty minutes, and as it turned out, he was spot on, literally to the minute.
Back to Diamond Beach
We drove over to the car park at Diamond Beach and made our way back onto the sand.
I was desperate to get a swooshery shot and I did get a shot (below) although not quite with a big enough ice rock.
The conditions were a lot more ‘stormy’ now and it was obvious from the clouds that snow was coming very soon as per the forecast.
To the left, I spotted a superb looking cloud with a opening of light which I had to grab.
It was now snowing and getting more intense.
I moved along the beach hoping to get a few more shots but it was impossible. You can see the snow collecting on the ice rocks.
I had a little feeling of disappointment at home when reviewing the set of images from Diamond beach, but decided to cut myself a break. For my first visit, I’ve got some very pleasing images.
We made our way back to the van, loaded our bags and tripods on and left the car park.
As an example of how quickly the weather can change, the conditions appeared to have dramatically improved in a short space of time.
We were all packed up, in the van warming up and more than ready to check-in to our next hotel.
We arrived at the Hotel Smyrlabjorg and checked in. This hotel is somewhat basic compared to the plush ones we had been in to date.
Justin referred to this hotel as the ‘dead animal hotel’ which I would see for myself later on.
The rooms were basic but one particularly useful feature was heated floors which meant any damp boots or clothing could be dried quickly.
I was in a room right at the end of a long corridor for which Wi-Fi and data signal was too weak to attempt to upload/backup my images but it was a blessing as it meant more sleep time.
We had dinner early as there was news that conditions were favourable for the Aurora/Northern Lights. The grub was not great but Justin explained that this hotel is a common stopover due to its handy location.
We would seek a wider menu choice the following night but this hotel out of the many we stayed in is rough and ready.
Apparently another hotel is being built on the other side of the road which appears to be a little more in-tune to others we had experienced so far.
At dinner, I took a quick phone shot in the restaurant which explains why Justin refers to this as the dead animal hotel.
We finished dinner, got quickly changed and assembled in our rooms then met at the van.
Once we were on the road, we started to see the lights in the sky and wanted to stop as soon as possible to grab some shots before they may disappear.
We pulled into a car park off road and most of us grabbed some phone shots while getting our tripods and cameras set up.
While we were shooting, Justin and Steve walked along our row to offer advice on how to shoot the lights.
The advice for shooting the lights was to zoom in on a prominent star and manually focus until the star is as small as possible. Use a shutter speed between 8 and 20 seconds and ramp up ISO as necessary.
I took several shots here to practice:
Every day is a school day…. One thing to be wary of when shooting more than 15 seconds is that you will be subject to the stars blurring – not to forget that the earth is turning therefore the stars are moving!
We decided to drive up to the glacial lagoon to see if the lights would continue to show with a more interesting foreground.
Ice grips were a must since the snowfall during the day had frozen over and I was conscious too that this was the place I had slipped over earlier in the day.
We made our way down to the shore and I fired off several shots taking care to perfect the image.
Justin gave us a tutorial on editing Aurora shots later on in the tour which I will share in the blog as it arrives chronologically.
Also worth noting that I had bought the Viltrox 16mm prime lens last year after booking this trip as I knew from Justin’s helpful “What to bring” list that I would benefit from a lens with a wide aperture. All of my other lenses are f/4 wide open so the Viltrox at f/1.8 widest would be perfect.
You’ll note the aperture for the above lagoon shot was f/3.2 – I stopped down a notch or three as I wanted as sharp an image as possible and knew with reasonable certainty that I would be able to denoise the image to remove or reduce a lot of the noise from the high ISO setting.
I have a lot more shots from this location but they are variations of this same composition and with some varying white balance changes but the shot above is one of my favourites.
It was at this point that one of the sections on one leg of my tripod was starting to resist movement. I ignored it though and put it down to the cold temperature outside.
We made our way back to the van and drove back to the hotel.
It had been a full blown day visiting one of my bucket list places at Diamond Beach and seeing the Northern Lights and capturing them in camera was just awesome.
Back at the hotel, I was now beginning to see for myself Steve’s warning about the black sand. He was spot on, it was everywhere! A shower helped me and my boots but this sand would be the gift that keeps on giving.
Day 3 had finished and we were glad to get back.
Tomorrow would bring further excitement and a visit to my second bucket list location.
Onwards and upwards…