Aurora Borealis Hunting in Iceland

The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis is a natural phenomenon that can paint the night sky with unearthly, surreal color. The spectacle of Aurora Borealis requires dark and partly clear skies. Best time to catch for aurora borealis is between September to mid-April.


In winter time, I has chosen Iceland as my travel destination to chasing after northern light. I bought a super jeep northern light tour with Arctic Adventures http://www.adventures.is/.

The tour guide pick up us from our hotel in Reykjavik about 0745PM. The wonderful adventure begins, he (tour guide) drove the super jeep all the way up to the top of mountain near to Reykjavik city which offers us an amazing sunset.

Super Jeep with beautiful sunset

I believe I can FLY!

Overview of Reykjavik city from top of mountain

Amazing sunset ever!

Once we are done with the beautiful sunset view, northern light hunting journey continue. He continue to drive out of the Reykjavik to another mountain which is far from the city light. 

Tour guide mentioned sometimes you might need some luck to see the northern light. After driving like 2 hours in the middle of no where within the mountain area, he suddenly stop the super jeep. Exactly 0012AM in the mid-night, finally the spectacular aurora borealis showing and dancing on the sky. 

The magic light show appear on the clear sky!



I was using Canon 6D to captured all the northern light photos. Here some tips and tricks to captured the aurora borealis:

1. DSLR camera
2. Solid tripod for long exposure
3. Set camera to Manual focus
4. Set camera focus to Infinity
5. Remote control with Bulb Mode of long exposure 15 seconds above
6. Set ISO between 400 - 800 
7. Aperture 4.0 or above
8. Shoot in RAW format

Unforgettable moment ever! The journey end about 0130AM mid-night. Arctic Adventures nice drive, thank you for the wonderful night.