Nikon School Adventures: Iceland Winter 2024

Course Contents

This Nikon School Adventure is a great opportunity to explore some of the iconic locations in Iceland while learning how to take great landscape and astro images. Highly experienced landscape and astro photographers, Neil and Ricci will be on hand to help you with all aspects your photography showing you tips and techniques settings that will enable you to get great images.

Iceland has many amazing locations with mountains, waterfalls, glaciers, icebergs, canyons and fjords that we can visit and photograph. Using our local knowledge and extensive experience of running workshops in Iceland we will also take you to some of lesser known locations that will give you chance to shoot unique images. Once we have finished our daylight photographic adventures we will return to our hotels for dinner and a chance to review and edit images. Nightfall brings the possibility of going out Aurora hunting if the forecast looks promising.

On the workshop, we help you to make the most of the beautiful surroundings and cover landscape techniques such as settings for sunrise and sunset photography, long exposures, exposure bracketing and using ND & Grad filters. Weather permitting, we will also hopefully see the aurora borealis and can advise on the techniques needed for great images or timelapses of this awesome phenomenon.

Throughout the workshop we will also provide guidance on composition ideas and how to maximise the light available to us.

Each day will be spent ‘following the light’ and we aim to visit locations that have been specifically chosen for the chance of great landscape depending on the prevailing light and weather. If the weather does go against us and we are forced to stay inside, Neil and Ricci will run image editing workshops or camera and lens Q&A’s until the weather clears and we can return outside.

This workshop is limited to 6 delegates with two Nikon School tutors.

WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS

Photographing spectacular scenery around Iceland
Weather permitting, Sunrise, Sunset, Astro and Aurora photography shoots.
Landscape Photography, video and timelapse techniques in stunning locations.
Photography guidance, advice and hints and tips from Neil Freeman and Ricci Chera.
Transport around Iceland in Jeep or Toyota 4x4's
Stay in Luxury Hotels or Boutique Farm B&B's

An outline itinerary is below, but please note this is very weather dependent and may change at a moments notice as the weather can be very unpredictable in Iceland.

Arrival date 14th January 2024 at Keflavik Airport, Iceland.
Depart date 22nd January 2024 from Keflavik Airport, Iceland.

**All delegates are responsible for their flights to and from Iceland**

You may arrive earlier and leave later but must be in Keflavik Airport on the 14th January by midday at the latest to meet Neil and Ricci.

14th January - Travel South

Arrival at the airport at Keflavik. After introductions and a quick welcome briefing we will aim to set off and start our Iceland Adventure immediately. This will hopefully give us the opportunity to photography some amazing locations on our way to Vik. On arrival at the hotel we will settle in and over dinner we can continue a Q&A about Iceland and what to expect from the workshop. In the evening, weather conditions permitting we will go aurora chasing.

Day 1 – 15th Jan - South & South East Iceland

We will aim for a Sunrise shoot at Vik and then visit some of the iconic locations in this part of Iceland when we make our way east along the coast. There are many other locations we might be able to photograph along the route as well, giving us a full day of photography as we head to our next hotel after sunset. After dinner we also have number of great locations to potentially photograph the aurora borealis if conditions allow.

Day 2 – 16th Jan - South East Iceland

Depending on weather conditions sunrise will be at around Jokulsarlon or Vestrahorn, and then we will visit many other locations that offer terrific photography opportunities (weather permitting). There are many iconic shots and locations to be visited in this part of Iceland, plus a few that only locals know about. Dinner will be at a local restaurant or at the hotel and we will be keeping a close eye on the aurora forecast with a view to venturing back out for more photographic opportunities.

Day 3 – 17th Jan - South East Iceland

We aim to visit some more locations in this area or maybe revisit locations as the light and weather conditions change constantly in Iceland providing opportunities for many different images. As ever we will be watching the weather for the chance of photographing the aurora borealis in the evening.

Day 4 – 18th Jan - South Iceland

Today we will journey back west passing looking to revisit iconic locations in different light and weather or explore a range of new locations as we journey towards a possible sunset shoot at Vik. After sunset we will arrive at our hotel near Vik for dinner and the chance again to go aurora chasing if the weather allows.

Day 5 - 19th Jan - South West Iceland & Snaefellsnes

Starting with sunrise at Vik, either from the iconic church or rock stacks or black sand beach at Reynisfjara. Weather permitting we will then visit the Dyrholeay sea arch and take in the amazing views. We then continue to head west photographing locations we go and finally making our way to our hotel on the Snaefellsnes peninsula. After dinner, we can again go aurora chasing if the forecast is good.

Day 6 – 20th Jan - Snaefellsnes

A full day of locations on the Snaefellsnes peninsula including the iconic Kirkjufell. There are so many stunning locations in this area including Arnarstapi harbour and sea stacks, Londrangar, Djúpalónssandur as well as Svörtuloft Lighthouse with it's fantastic rugged cliffs. We will then finish the day back at the hotel, still keeping an eye on the forecast for the aurora borealis.

Day 7 – 21st Jan - Snaefellsnes

We will continue to explore and photograph locations on the Snaefellsnes peninsula until early afternoon when we will make our way back towards Keflavik. After dinner at our hotel or local restaurant, we can then either head out one last time to chase the aurora or stay in the hotel for an image editing session.

Day 8 - 22nd Jan

Farewells and leave for the airport to return home

To book:

Please contact us at Nikon School to book your space on this amazing photography adventure. This workshop is for photographers of all levels whether you are just starting out in photography or an experienced photographer. To secure your place on the workshop a non refundable deposit of £1000 is payable with balance due around 2 months prior to the workshop starting. Further joining instructions will be sent out closer to the workshop as well as an invite to an online Zoom briefing prior to the workshop starting.

Notes:

This is a Photographic workshop and will we prioritise the opportunity for you to shoot great images above everything. We will plan each day around the weather and light, which means that meals may be at non standard times and we may start the the day very early and be out until late in the evening. Depending on the weather and light we aim to visit several locations that have been specifically chosen for spectacular photography. Please note that in the event of severe weather the locations may have to be altered at last minute.

Food:

Lunches and dinners, snacks and refreshments / alcoholic drinks are not included. Spending money of about £500 for a week in Iceland is usual for your food and day to day expenses. Many hotels and restaurants are closed during winter in Iceland, so our food choices are limited once outside of Keflavik. If you have any questions about dietary options, please let us know and we can discuss this with you. We aim to eat either at the hotel restaurants or local high quality restaurants frequented by Icelanders which will give you a feel for the 'real' Iceland. The Icelandic cuisine is mainly fish or lamb based and outside Reykjavik unfortunately there are limited options for vegetarian or vegan dishes.

Luggage:

We will be adventuring in either Jeep Wranglers or Toyota Land Cruiser 4x4's which have a good amount of space for all our requirements. However, luggage is limited to one medium suitcase and one camera bag per person. This should give you plenty of room for all you need.

Fitness:

This workshop requires a high level of physical fitness as you may be standing with your camera for extended periods of time in cold conditions. Most locations are close to car parks or our 4x4's can get you there. However, some locations do require short hikes over potentially icy and uneven ground. Please advise us before you book about any medical conditions you may have which may impact your participation in the workshop or may affect the other delegates on the workshop.

Accommodation:

All rooms are single occupancy good sized rooms usually with a twin or double bed. All rooms have well appointed en-suites. We have stayed at all the places we use which range from 3 and 4 star hotels to family owned boutique B&B's. Where possible this workshop uses accommodation that is chosen to give us proximity to great photography or potential aurora locations (most of the time right outside the hotel). We try to choose the best possible accommodation available in each area offering luxurious surroundings in which to relax and unwind a long days photography.

Photography Tuition:

Neil and Ricci can show you how to get the best from your Nikon camera and lenses. We will also teach landscape photography and can explain the best settings to get front to back sharpness in your landscape images and techniques such as focus stacking, HDR, panoramas, timelaspe and slow motion video if your camera supports these features. We can show you how to shoot long exposures to make night landscapes look like daytime shots and we will also take you through the apps or websites we use to plan landscape and nightscape shoots.

Photography Knowledge:

You will need a basic understanding of your camera and it is recommended you are familiar with either aperture priority or manual mode, ISO, aperture, and some basic knowledge of landscape photography prior to the workshop will help you get the most from the workshop.

Icelandic Weather:

The weather in Iceland can be very changeable and extreme. While we will do our best to follow our planned route and itinerary we will always put safety first and only travel or visit locations if it is safe to do so. Due to this, we may not cover all of the planned locations. Each day we choose the locations to visit depending on the prevailing weather conditions to ensure you get the chance to shoot the best possible images. Please bring suitable clothing and footwear for cold temperatures. For example in January 2023 the daytime temperature did not get above -10 and the night time temperature with windchill was around -20 C.

A Typical Day:

We will start each day with breakfast and a briefing about weather conditions and the locations we hope to photograph each day. Sunrise is around 10:30am. Some days it's on our doorstep, other days we may need to travel 30 mins to an hour to reach a stunning sunrise location. Depending on the light and weather we aim to spend up to 2 hours at each location, followed by refreshment and comfort breaks either at the location or while we travel onward to our next exciting photography location. Some days we may shoot 5 or 6 locations due to their proximity, other days only 1 or 2. Sunset is around 3:45pm. The light (if we get it) during Icelandic Winter is magical. Dawn, Dusk and Golden hour lasts a long time. Iceland is also a lot bigger than you think, we will travel around 1000 miles on this workshop. We aim to keep individual journeys to less than 2 hours before we stop for refreshments or arrive at a photographic location to shoot.

If you have any questions about this workshop, feel free to get in touch at [email protected]