Day 4 was here and my second bucket list item would be ticked off today, the famous Vestrahorn mountains for which there are billions of photos online.
A photography friend of mine said to me last year “The world doesn’t need anymore Iceland photos.” While that is true, I want my own versions of those photos and the world will just have to tolerate seeing them!
Beyond the photography though, there is the life experience.
The previous evening of this trip, I had witnessed the Aurora as I have never done so before. I had witnessed ice rocks on a black sand beach. I am visiting places and a country I’ve never been to with like-minded photography enthusiasts.
These are lifelong memories to treasure alongside the thrill of dropping images into my collection.
Our first destination was Eystrahorn and the most Easterly point we would travel in Iceland on this trip.
En route, we did stop to shoot Batman Mountain in the distance – named so for obvious reasons. If you can’t see, zoom in. If you still can’t see, well I can’t help and it’s Specsavers for you!
The white snow-capped mountains do look amazing in contrast to the orange tones of the morning sky.
We hopped back in the van and made our way to Eystrahorn.
Eystrahorn
About Eystrahorn
At the southeastern edge of Iceland lies this epic mountain range called Krossanesfjall – and at it’s tip is the now famous Eystrahorn (“corner of the East”). It’s both beautiful from the ground and through the lens of a drone.
At 756 metres (2,480 feet), Mount Eystrahorn a notably tall feature in the Krossasnesfjall mountain region.
It is one of the few mountains in Iceland that is composed of gabbro, a dark, jagged lava rock that is rich in magnesium and iron. Evidence of gold, silver and mercury have also been found here. It is a scree mountain, meaning it has very steep slopes; slightly more gentle slopes of gravel lead up to the rocks, making it nearly impossible to climb.
Eystrahorn is connected to another gabbro mountain to its south-east, Vestrahorn, by a coastline of black sands, interrupted by a few bays and rivers. This area is called Lón, which translates to ‘lagoon’, and is renowned for its vast array of wildlife.
The Shoot
We parked up and started to take in the scenery around us.
Below is one of the first images I captured.
I did a few shots of the recognisable mountains but this was definitely a place to launch the drone, and I’m very pleased with the end result below.
Another shot from the same flight path is below, and if you zoom in you can make out our van alongside some others in the lower part of the image.
I flew further out to see if I could try one of the other options for pano capture, and this wider panoramic looked awesome.
However, I’ve noticed there’s a blurry artefact in the final .jpeg file output by the drone so need to revisit on the computer and see if stitching the images together in Lightroom or Photoshop will fix it.
Assuming the artefact is just a software error, then I hope I can produce a corrected version.
More drone panos?
Given the issues I’ve been having with the drone not retaining the bracket setting, I’m started to wonder if I should do more panos as the end file appears to be in a megapixel range akin to my main camera.
I suppose this won’t help contain exposure though. Nevertheless, the two drone images above are my favourite images from what I captured at this location.
Final shot at Eystrahorn
Below is one of my last shots looking out to Brunnhorn aka Batman Mountain.
We packed up and headed back to the van. Justin, Jackie and Steve were good at taking some pictures of us all throughout the trip.
And another…
We cantered back to the van, piled our tripods and bags on the back, and hopped on-board for the journey to Vestrahorn.
We were on our way to Vestrahorn! The second of the two locations on my bucket list.
En route, we had a couple of roadside stops.
I quite liked the wavy pattern in the snow and the textures so grabbed a portrait-oriented shot.
The other side of the road from this scene was a mountain with some very interesting patterns where clumps of snow had rolled down from the top.
We hopped back in the van and made our way to the road to Vestrahorn.
Another roadside stop for the Icelandic horses.
A couple of montages below show off the cuteness of these horses.
I quite like this next horse as they were quite the character.
We hopped back in the van and arrived at the entrance gate to Vestrahorn and the Viking café, said to be worth a visit for its hot chocolate.
A ham and cheese toastie and a hot chocolate (which was indeed very nice) fuelled us up and we drove through the gate and up a short road to the car park.
Vestrahorn
About Vestrahorn
Vestrahorn mountain is located on the Stokknes Peninsula, close to the town of Höfn. Unlike most of the mountains in Iceland, it is made out of iron- and magnesium-rich gabbro rock, which leads to its dark and jagged appearance.
Standing separate from the mountains of the nearby Vatnajökull National Park, Vestrahorn is an impressive 454 metres (1,490 feet) tall. It faces out to the sea on its southern side and is surrounded by a sandy coastline that is often home to seals. Like most stretches of beach in Iceland, the sands here are black due to the island’s volcanism.
Vestrahorn translates to ‘West Mountain’ due to its proximity to the similar Eystrahorn, or ‘East Mountain’.
The Shoot
We walked through some snow-laden dunes and to a ridge above the beach.
Needless to say, when your eyes first catch the view of the Vestrahorn mountains, it’s a jaw drop moment. One of those picture postcard views where you can’t quite believe your eyes are witnessing this scene.
My first shot is below.
We did quite a few shots here before moving down onto the beach.
Once onto the beach, the aim is to get that classic reflection of the mountains in the sea/sand shot.
I was not quite far enough towards to the sea which Steve kindly pointed out.
It was here where I once again wished I had brought my wellies. My new snow boots had been great, and I had waterproof over-trousers on but the inbound waves would move up over my boot and in through the laces so I had to watch myself.
Some variations of the shots I captured are below.
I fired off a lot of shots here, mainly because of how awesome it was and the feeling of not quite believing what my eyes were being treated to!
I did not have any desire to do the “me in the shot” vs Vestrahorn image. It’s not really my cup of tea. Too selfie-like or clichéd maybe.
It was time to walk a short distance inland now and onto the famous dunes but first it was time for a souvenir photo.
We were all enjoying wandering around looking for compositions. Justin’s advice, given the deep snow and much of the sand and dunes being covered was to look for grasses that stick out as your foreground interest.
It took me a while, and a few test shots in different places to get something decent. Without trying to brag, this next shot could be potentially one of my best from the trip.
The lighting in this shot is most pleasing as well as the composition. It has a leading line, foreground interest and an epic background, and a decent sky. Come on, it’s a 10/10 comp shot ready to go right? Please?
There’s another variation with more of a view through to the bumps (dunes) in the mid-ground.
It was time to get the drone up. I had a glance around and just checked with Graeme as his drone was in the air but he was about to land.
Justin and Steve were almost certainly going to fly their drones but they were nowhere near us so I prepared for take off.
Once again, I took the opportunity to take panoramic wide or other different setting captures. After all, I’m in an epic location and this calls for something different.
I really like what I’ve captured with the scene below showing off what this location looks like from further out.
I flew back inland and wanted to get as much of the dunes in the shot as possible to really emphasise scale.
I love the lighting and tones in the shot above and you can also see a couple of people in the lower part of the image which really blows your mind in terms of scale.
Just for a bit of fun, I flew the drone a little lower and pointed it towards me and Graeme and I like this memento shot.
I packed up and had a final wander around the dunes. Photographically, I was spent and had that familiar feeling of maybe I should continue but it’s likely to not be productive and just firing at random.
I bumped into some of the others who were taking their final shots and made my way back to the van. I was content I had my best efforts in the bag.
Very shortly after, everyone was at the van and were we loading up.
I had really been thrilled to witness the glory of Vestrahorn and was sad to leave but equally quite knackered. But would this be our only visit? 🤔
We had a chat in the van as Jackie (who is a big fan of the Aurora) said that conditions and forecast looked favourable for the northern lights to make an appearance here tonight.
The suggestion was that we don’t go back to our hotel (about 50 minutes away) but have supper in nearby Höfn and come back. The problem was that many of us including me had left our Astro lens or other gear back at the hotel.
We decided we would go back to our hotel and discuss things further over dinner.
At dinner, it was tempting to say let’s not bother. Many of us were knackered from the full day. One person was canvassing for Aurora shooting nearer to the hotel but on further discussion we were all of the opinion that if there’s even a small chance of the Aurora over Vestrahorn, we have to do it!
A few minutes grace for quick turnaround at our rooms changing out of our casuals into our thermals and outdoor gear and we were back on the van driving back to Vestrahorn.
Parking back where we were earlier in the day, head torches were deployed and we headed for the ridge where we had started the daytime shooting.
Unsurprisingly, there was a row of photographers already set up shooting, so we joined them. We could see that there was some colour in the sky but initially it didn’t look anything wow. But as the evening developed, the lights would get better and better.
Our head torches went off while we got set up. There were a couple of whinges from this other group as a couple of us put our torches on to set up our cameras or help others and they moaned it was affecting their images.
I was helping someone next to me so put my red light on but the same guy moaned again muttering something like “Red light affects the images too…” and Justin went over to introduce himself and us as a fellow set of photographers.
The guy was German, which is of little significance other than he was very direct in his language and expectations. I heard him continue his complaint with Justin albeit in a calm manner, something like “You’re photographers right, so you should know the red light still disrupts our shoot?”
Alright mate I was thinking, calm the f*** down and be a little more generous please!
He and Justin were chatting away so all was well and everyone happy. Perhaps the directness I interpreted as overly zealous was simply German efficiency!
Anyway, as I looked to refine my settings and start shooting, I really appreciated the benefits of the chunky Z9 camera because I had a toggle switch that lit up my control buttons which really helped not have to feel around like I was trying to peel an orange in my pocket!
Justin and Steve were checking in on everyone to ensure we were doing OK. I had in-camera noise reduction on now which had worked well at the lagoon.
I fired off several shots of Vestrahorn.
As you will notice, an incredibly annoying part of the scene above is the café lights on the left of the image.
I’m not sure what the other light is, it could be a car or people’s torches. Yes, I can edit this out but for the time being, I’ve left it for another time. Another reason being I have another image and different composition that is top of the pile.
The Aurora was getting more intense to the right of Vestrahorn as we look at it and we recomposed to turn our attention to that.
The two shots below demonstrate the changing lights.
As I watched and shot from this composition, I started to notice what I thought was a superhero shape in the lights in the sky.
This is my favourite shot from the evenings Aurora shoot.
And that was a wrap!
What an epic day and evening!
We got our stuff in the back of the van and tranported our tired carcasses back to the hotel.
I literally did the minimum I could get away with at the hotel. Started charging any batteries I needed, got some clothes out for next morning, set my alarm and got to bed.
Day four was done and only two days left.
Onwards and upwards…