Daniel Bergmann and I have just wrapped up an absolutely brilliant 2015 Winter workshop here in Iceland. We had some incredible light, Aurora and experiences during our time exploring the winter countryside with a fabulous group of passionate photographers. In brief, we photographed the spectacular snow covered landscapes of Southern Iceland, partially frozen waterfalls, and the magical Northern Lights over a period of ten days.
A full trip report and photographs from the workshop will come later once I have a chance to sort through the images and fully digest our shared experiences. Just a reminder if you would like to join us on our 2016 Winter workshop to Iceland there are now only a few places remaining before it will be sold out. We will be exploring the northern landscapes of Iceland and visiting some of the spectacular northern features and landscapes whilst they are covered in fresh snow. You can register your interest by dropping me an email.
I am headed North tomorrow via Oslo to the small town of Longyearbyen in Svalbard on a scouting trip to photograph Polar Bears and Reindeer in the deep freeze of an Arctic Winter. Longyearbyen is the world’s most northerly permanent settlement at 78º North and has a population of around 2,500 people. In summer, it is the jumping off point for many Arctic adventures including my own Polar Bear Photography Expeditions. In winter, it is a sleepy frozen town held tightly in the clutches of the Arctic night. Longyearbyen is only my starting point for this scouting trip however, and I will be heading further north with a few friends via snowmobile (snowmobile and dog sleds are the only way to get further north in winter) to a very remote hut by the edge of one of Svalbard’s most spectacular glaciers. We intend to spend a week at this location photographing wildlife and landscapes in the Arctic winter light. At this time of year we are expecting temperatures to potentially dip as low as -30 Celsius and possibly even colder, but we are also expecting incredible winter light should the weather and conditions co-operate. Because of the extremes of temperature at this time of year as well as the danger of camping with Polar Bears we are utilising the small hut as our Basecamp and will explore the landscape daily on snowmobiles and then return to rest in the warmth of the hut. This is the first time a photographic expedition of this nature has been undertaken to my knowledge and it should be an incredible experience. It is our hope that we may be able to offer this remarkable opportunity as a workshop expedition in the near future if our scouting trip is successful. I am very excited about this new opportunity and will have more to report once I return. In the meantime it is time to catch a few hours sleep before I catch my flight to Oslo.
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