Well the weekend's over, but what a weekend!

Before I get into today's blog, I wanted to say thank you for reading it! I've had lots of really positive comments and shares and I am enjoying writing it as it keeps me connected.

I will begin by saying that yesterday, I was really happy with the images I made and found it therapeutic to be close to the sea all day. The surroundings have infiltrated my system and I am enjoying walking around the village, seashore and beyond to the mountains. I haven't managed to get up the local mountain though as people just don't seem to do winter walking. I will get up there before I leave.... It's good to be with such a diverse range of artists with disciplines across most media. There are sound artists, painters, printmakers and digital artists all getting on with it and working ridiculous hours. By that I mean that they tend to spend all night in the studio and sleep most of the day. I can't do that as I am so enchanted by the light - sun or cloud as it is ever changing and I need to photograph it!

I have amazing news and hopefully some photographs you will like. Last night, in the studio, someone came in and said - "the aurora are just starting". I can honestly say that in the beginning, this was so unimpressive - compared with say, a sunrise or sunset here (or anywhere really). However, as my eyes became accustomed and as I moved away from the lights of the main street, I had the magical experience everyone talks about. It was worth coming to Iceland for this and if I don't see them again, I will feel that I have had my fill.

These are taken from my computer screen:

So at first it was difficult to tell the difference between a faint green light in the sky and a cloud, and then the green got brighter and started to move slowly in an arc across the northern horizon. The big orange object in the top left is a moving cloud.

After the initial arc, the green started to spread out and work its way slowly across the sky towards the sea. There was less light pollution here, so the colour was clearer and brighter. It was moving so slowly that it was difficult to see where it was going.

Back to just above the main street, so lots of light pollution. I wanted to run to the other side of the village to avoid it, but people said the lights sometimes don't last more than a few minutes. I wasn't taking any chances.

And then the sky just set alight with green. Most of the yellow in the lower part of the image is tungsten light pollution over a long 40 second exposure, but I quite like the contrast - even though I've toned it down quite a lot. I have saved a couple of my favourite images for when I return, but suffice to say, it was the best 90 minute show I've ever seen!!

You can imagine how I felt. It did actually make me cry. I have wanted to see this for a long long time but not managed it. Now I feel so privileged. 

So that was yesterday. Etherial, beautiful, sublime even. Today was..... equally sublime in a different way. But first I should mention the health risk of seeing the Aurora Borealis. I got back to the house at 1.30am absolutely hyped up on excitement, wonder and very strong Icelandic coffee. I lay down but couldn't sleep one bit. I resorted to watching 2 films on the trot, eventually dropping off to sleep at 5.30am this morning. Watching Everest wasn't the best idea I've had.

Which brings me onto my gargantuan walk in the outer reaches of the village....

This is one of the gravel roads out of the village with Spakonufell, the 646m high mountain on the left. It always looks so close but I walked for what felt like miles today and didn't get to the foothills.

This is not to model my enormous legs... but to show how low the sun is at 3 wish in the afternoon. It never rises too far above the horizon which means the light is like having the photographers gold hour all day. I had sunshine all the way today.

Obviously this one is to prove I don't have to have my hat on and hood up all the time.... It felt less absolutely freezing today. This was a little before my small accident......

The above is just a beautiful picture to stop Steve, Lizzie and Matthew from worrying about said accident...

And this is me, absolutely fine after the accident.

Well, I was walking along, taking pictures, minding my own business when I happened upon a beach, a beautiful black shiny beach, which was screaming for me to go and look at. I walked towards it via this little space:

Just after taking this photograph, I walked towards the sea and promptly fell into a snow hole which went up to my waist. I know! It looks completely flat, and the fence should be a guide..! but no, just beyond that little tuft about halfway up on the right hand side of the picture was a 5 foot drop, hidden by layers of fresh snow. Obviously as soon as I stepped onto it I went through and was sitting there looking like this:

As I mentioned earlier, I watched Everest last night (spoiler alert!!!) many people die! It wasn't such a good idea considering I was now stuck in a hole with no-one in sight (and considering I hadn't seen anyone on a 'busy' workday, I was hardly going to bump into the local 'getter out of holes' on a Sunday afternoon miles away from anywhere. So what did this intrepid explorer do???

I cried and had another little accident which will remain nameless. I did save the camera but couldn't get any purchase to move. However, from the depths of my memory I harnessed a technique I remembered from when John Wayne got stuck in some quicksand in a western. Spread the weight out, make yourself flat and work very slowly towards a visual point of higher ground. So with the imaginary sound of Van Morrison and Cliff Richard singing "get your feet back, feet back on higher ground" I got out. Hooray!!!!

I was never really in any danger. I could have waited for the snow to melt. I could have shouted as sound travels a long way or I could have dug myself out with the camera, or bag. So basically the moral of this story is, don't watch Everest the night before going out in the  Iceland hills alone after a heavy snowfall - particularly on no sleep.

Nearly done now, but it's interesting to note that after the beautiful weather today, I walked to the studio at around 6.45pm to get this blog done and nearly got knocked off my feet with the wind and snow. It's likely that we'll sleep at the studio tonight as it's too dangerous to walk back. I don't want two dangers in one day!!

Thanks for reading.

Love,

Aly x