Today was a fairly short shooting session in the Reykjanes Peninsula located 45 minutes west of Reykjavik.  They say that weather changes rapidly in Iceland,so you have to be prepared. The cold wind was gusting, and we were repeatedly struck by rain, hail, then more rain, however there was wonderful low angle light.  I got soaked through to the skin, and was shivering so badly I had to return to the car while Evelyn continued shooting.

We visited one of the thermal power plants, but went around behind it to an area very hard to find.  You can see the plant in the background of these images.  We then came across a newly formed geyser of hot mud, presenting an unexpected opportunity.

We are now done photographing Iceland and ready to pack up and head back to New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving with some long-time friends.  Was Iceland all we expected?  Not really.  We had not expected such foul warm weather (it felt cold because of the wind, but was actually in the 40’s F) and constant overcast.  We had expected to see aurora displays every night, and only saw a tiny one once then a better display on a single night.

Was it worth the trip? Yep! We did end up with that aurora display I coveted, though only one real night instead of the dozen I had expected.  We saw an ice cave and glacier ice lagoon that presented photo opportunities I have never had before.  Yes, I would shoot them a bit different if given another chance, but that is almost always true after any first session in a new environment.

Will we return to Iceland soon?  Probably not.  I am glad we went this time, but there is so much left in the world to see that we will almost certainly be moving on to other adventures, and keep this blog as a memory jog to keep this trip fresh.

This was our 55th country we have visited or lived in.  The UN says there are 193 recognized countries (more than I realized…), so there is still a lot of the world to be explored!