One of the spots we were most looking forward to in Iceland was Jökulsárlón. It’s a glacier lagoon in South East Iceland filled with Icebergs. The lagoon was formed by global warming a mere 60 years ago as the Breiðamerkurjökull began to retreat. At one time, the glacier reached the sea, but as the ice began to melt more rapidly, chunks of ice broke off (known as calving) and as they fell, a lagoon was formed. Ice is powerful and it created deep gorges in the earth as it retreated. The lake is 200 metres deep!
Bus loads of tourists driving around the ring road pull up to view the Jökulsárlón lagoon filled with ice. It’s beautiful and one of Iceland’s most popular attractions. Most people hop out of their cars, grab a few photos and move on, but it’s worth it to stay closer and have the opportunity to view it more than once. The light changes throughout the day and the crowds thin out at different times as well. It’s quite different every time you go.
We stayed at the very pleasant Hali Country Hotel which is the closest accommodation to the lagoon. It allowed us the opportunity to explore the area and see more than just the lagoon filled with ice. We had heard about the icebergs on the beach, but didn’t realize that they were across the road.
When we first arrived, we found ourselves shooting tiny pieces of ice washed up on the shore of the lagoon. I told Dave that the photographers who showed off giant icebergs must have been doing some fancy manipulation and we both laughed as we moved around bits of ice for hours while trying to find the right perspective that made it look larger.
It wasn’t until we came back at sunset that we made a left hand turn out towards the sea instead of turning right in to the parking lot of the lagoon that we saw all the ice. Oh, that’s what it’s supposed to look like!
As the icebergs melt, they break free from the lagoon and are carried out through the mouth of the river with the tide. When the current catches them, it pulls them in to shore creating a beautiful scene of clear blue ice sitting on black volcanic sand.
We had never seen anything like it. We’ve viewed a lot of ice between Antarctica, Alaska, New Zealand and Greenland but we had yet to see icebergs resting on the beach. It was quite a striking scene.
During our two days at Jökulsárlón lagoon, the sun was shining and the weather was downright balmy keeping things clear and sunny so Dave had the opportunity to photograph the ice exactly the way he envisioned it.
It took a lot of patience taking the photos. He used an ND 1.8 and a Polarizing filter to slow his shutter speed down to ???? This allowed him to create a silky texture with the water while keeping the ice in sharp focus.
Dave found that his filter holder was causing too much of a magenta hue, so he had me hold the filters together right against the lens instead of using his holder. In hindsight he felt that he should have bought the IR filters, but it all turned out because he had his trusty assistant (Deb) holding the filters during the 30 second exposures.
We got wet a few times and had to run from the waves a bit as we took ventured out a little too far to capture the shot, but in the end we got a product that we were really happy with. Besides, the Hali Country Hotel was just a few minutes down the road, so in no time we were back in our room cozy and warm snuggling up to a cup of tea.
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