"Sunrise" at Reynisfjara beach and my birthday!

It's my birthday and not just any number: I turned 50 today! I'm spending my birthday in Iceland as a guide for a group of photographers. It turned out to be a day of many more surprises than anticipated.

First of all, Johan had decorated the breakfast area of the hotel where we were staying. He got me some presents and the entire group had arranged for some presents as well.

It was a very rainy day but despite that we visited the Reynisfjara beach for the sunrise shoot. We never saw the sun nor any light to speak of, but it was fun capturing the huge atlantic waves crashing on the beach despite the heavy rainfall. We were all soaked when we returned at the vans.

The day went on in pouring rain with only a few dry moments in between. While we were on our way to the Jökulsárlón glacial lake, Johan stopped at a restaurant for another huge surprise: we met "our" other group present in Iceland, with Yolanda and Bas being the guides for that tour. "Happy birthday" was sung for me by the other group and it was very nice to meet with Yolanda, Bas and some of the participants of their group who I had met on previous trips where I was the guide.

With the rain continuing and getting worse even, shooting at Jökulsárlón was out of the question really, so we ended up driving to our hotel and explaining the use of various filters in photography before we had dinner.