Photographing my travels: Photographing Aurora with Tatra photography

I am just back from another excellent workshop with Tatra photography. Mark Bauer was the pro photographer on the trip http://www.tatraphotographyworkshop.com/tutors/mark-bauer/

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and were driven to our first hotel Frost and Fire. Very comfortable. We settled in and had dinner before going out to see the aurora. Unfortunately, although we found the only bit of clear sky, the aurora did not appear. The next day we went out to photograph waterfalls and geysers. I am waiting for Matt to send me the names of the places we visited so will add them later. The cloud cover was too much in the evening, so there was no aurora.

Gulfoss waterfall

Blue bubble of the geyser

pattern of the blue bubble - the first pic in the triptych

A lot of photographers and tourists. Check out the tablets and phones.

Iceland horses

Pali in our transport

Matt looking at the waterfall

Jenny

Hot tub near my cabin. Jana taking the photo

The next morning we were driven to the beach to take photos. Other photographers appeared after us and one dropped his camera in the sea. Another female photographer decided to walk in front of everyone to ruin their shots. Luckily we all managed to get something although most of the group got their feet wet.

Group at Vik coast

Chris in the sea

Dyrhólaey

Group on the rocks

In the afternoon we photographed a couple of waterfalls.

Artic fulmars courting.

Skogarfoss

Through the window of the jeep

View to the side of the waterfall

Waiting for the sun to appear and light Seljalandsfoss waterfall

Finally in the evening, the forecast was good and we set off. We spent 4 hours photographing the aurora which appeared as soon as we arrived at the lake.

By Pingvellir lake

On Friday we drove to our next hotel which was about 2 1/2 hrs east of where we were. The cloud and rain arrived with us so photography was off. A good tutorial with Mark then a chill out, dinner and bed. More rain on Saturday and we spent the morning at the refreshment hut at the glacier lagoon. On the way back to the hotel we stopped to photograph some more waterfalls. The aurora appeared as soon as we set out again at 11pm but it was difficult to find foreground interest. We arrived back at the lagoon around 2 am. More photography but my focusing was out. Arrived back at the hotel at 6 am. 2 hours sleep, breakfast and back in the jeep for the 4 1/2 drive back to the airport. We stopped at an old plane wreck and took a few photos of the snow through the window.