Backblip: Aurora Borealis near Selfoss

What a super day we had!

The main blip was actually taken late in the day when our leader messaged us about 11.30pm, just as we were thinking of going to bed after a busy day, to "demand" that we step out of our warm, comfortable cabin and look at the sky.  A rather lovely aurora was just beginning to show - so we donned our warm coats and ventured out into the cold. It was certainly worth it! This is a stitched panorama shot looking across to the neighbouring cabin where some of the rest of the party were staying.

The extras were taken earlier, in the morning, shortly after we left our overnight accommodation at Hofn. The first extra shows the sun rising behind the radar station on the Stokksnes Peninsula, taken from a black beach. (Iceland has 4 radar stations as part of their air defence system - more details here.)

The next two extras are taken from the same black beach but looking in the opposite direction towards the Vestrahorn mountain. As the tide was going out the reflections on the wet sand were rather impressive (I've left a figure walking across in the distance to give some scale) but I've also included a photo showing the black sandy dunes with a light skittering of overnight snow emphasising their contour.

The last two extras are of some rather fine backlit Icelandic horses. I took lots of shots of them but I've chosen these two to include as they're rather fun! I like the middle horse saying "cheese" for the camera, and on the final shot I caught him shaking his head at me - clearly fed up with the paparazzi!