Shortly before the corona plague struck our world
In December 2019 I went out with two good friends on a 14 day photo tour of Iceland.
Beyond the fact that Iceland is one of the craziest countries I have ever seen and experienced - I promise I will expand on this in a blog in a chapter that I will dedicate especially to Iceland.
One of the main goals of the trip was to be in a nocturnal pursuit of the -"green lady" that is the Northern Lights or in Latin Aurora Borealis.
Some technical information about the Northern Lights:
The phenomenon occurs when Van Allen belts create an "overload" of particles that flow down the Earth's magnetic field and collide with molecules in the air, mainly nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere in the ionosphere, causing them to release energy in the form of light emission. The phenomenon occurs during increased activity of the sun. The oxygen atoms in the atmosphere are permanently charged and while a solar wind coming from the sun is also charged, an encounter is created between the charged atoms that requires the release of energy which is reflected in the appearance of the polar glow.
The color of the polar glow is determined by the type of atom. Green, which is the most common color, is formed as a result of damage to the oxygen atom. Whereas rarer colors such as red and blue are formed from hydrogen or nitrogen atoms, or from damage to a higher level of the atmosphere.
In the past, the phenomenon has been accompanied by many hypotheses, including that the glow is a product of various gases erupting from the earth and superstitions, as the illumination of the way for the dead ascending to heaven.
Iceland is an island nation in the North Atlantic Ocean, located between Greenland, Norway and Scotland.
11% of the island's area is covered by glaciers, including the Vatnajökull Glacier, the largest glacier in Europe. In large volcanic and geothermal inactivity that provide cheap and clean energy.
We started our journey in the capital city of Reykjavik which is in the western part of the island.
We rented a car and did the famous "Golden Circle" (Route 1) - we actually circled the island clockwise, the length of the road is 1,336 km.
Except for the time we slept and recharged
the batteries of our cameras and our "batteries".
The cameras did not get out of hand.
All day long, in pursuit of the frame with the perfect
composition which will illustrate
the madness of Iceland in one frame.
After 7 days of the trip we brought Arie back to the
airport and Mordi and I stayed, on the 10th day of
the trip we came for the second time to photograph the famous Mount Kirkjufell which is in the eastern part of the island.
Of course during the day we marked for ourselves on the map some points of interest with an exact composition, we checked the software and indeed saw that it was going to be another frozen night and the Northern Lights are expected to come to visit.
During the night we drove around the sector and photographed from 5-6 points of interest.
It was already 4 in the morning and we reached the last photo point.
We placed the cameras 4 feet from the waterline, each arranging the composition to perfect accuracy.
While arranging something did not work out for me in terms of the attitude in the frame and I decided to lift my tripod and open another leg and give more height - an action that in retrospect saved me the camera.
We parked the vehicle a few meters from the point where we left the cameras and in the interior mirror it was possible to detect the camera's flicker during timelapse.
After 45 minutes Mordi and I talk about the life we are half asleep.
Mordi says: "Come on, let's see what happens with the cameras."
And I'm in the proper exhaustion for this hour of the night, I said come on let's go.
Of course the light-footed rebels have been 10 steps ahead in the complete darkness.
As I get out of the jeep Mordi yells at me from a distance.
"Harry up!, our cameras are in the water !!"
For a moment I thought he was fool on me but
after taking a few more steps I realized that the
only thing above the water line was the head
of the tripod and the camera.
Mordi did not hesitate even for a moment and
entered above the height of his waist into the icy
waters of the Atlantic Ocean.
He entered 10 meters from the water line, grabbed the 2 tripods in the air and came out of the water at record speed.
And all this is happening before my eyes at least which is some iconic scene from the movie "Rocky Balboa".
For those of you who do not know, when there is a tide in the oceans, the water can rise to a height of 6 meters.
If I had not picked up the tripod my camera would have been swept away, drowning and no Mac Diamond warranty would have helped me.
