Lupines in Iceland - an early Summer Night's Dream

 Date: 10-Jul-2021Category:

Lupines in Iceland

Purple Lupines Fields at Vatnajökull National Park

A magic fairy must have woken me up in the middle of the night on June 30th, 2021. Steffen and I were not really happy when we got ready to bed at the "Potato Storage" (isn't it a funny name for a really cozy room!? ;-) ). We had been scouting the dense lupine fields in full bloom near a glacier at Vatnajökull National Park and hoped to catch a beautiful sunset there. No wind at all, pretty unusual for Iceland and the perfect conditions for shooting wildflowers. But instead of amazing light, all we got was fog. It started moving into the scene during the late afternoon, growing thicker and thicker as the evening wore on. By the time the sun should have been setting (11:30 PM), we could hardly see our hands in front of our faces. A real bummer!
After an only 4-hour-nap (I love sleeping at least 8 hours!) I woke up all of a sudden. The weather obviously turned bright again. I stepped out of the door and realized that the mountains and glaciers were finally clearly visible. All that nasty fog was gone!
Steffen also instantly jumped out of bed and barely one minute later we found ourselves running up the hills surrounded by a carpet of flowers and by an absolutely incredible scent. As soon as we set up the tripods the sun showed up above the glacier, casting a beam on the eternal ice and lighting up the lupines, only shortly before disappearing again behind the clouds. A magic moment which did not last long. But we enjoyed every single minute of it! Were we really awake? Or was it just an early Summer Night's Dream?


Image data:
1/50 s at f/16, ISO 400; Canon 16-35 mm 1:2.8 L II USM at 18 mm, Canon EOS 5D Mark IV

Related Links: Our images from Iceland