Vestrahorn Stokksnes, Southeastern Iceland

Vestrahorn Iceland , located on the Stokksnes peninsula, is one of the most photographed mountains in Iceland.  This majestic mountain is located close to the town of Höfn in East Iceland.  From Höfn, continue back onto Route 1 (Thorvegur) and follow it for about 10 km or so before you come to a right turn to Stokksnes (an old radar base from what I understand).  The road turns into a gravel road with a few narrow spots.  Follow the road till you reach an intersection where you can find a cafe in the corner called the Viking Cafe.  You have to pay a fee of 850kr. to enter and you can use the ticket twice to go in and out of the area.  Follow this road toward the radar base and to the left is your photographic playground.

We were at Vestrahorn on 12.09.2018 and we spent two nights in the city of Höfn, an Icelandic fishing town in the southeastern part of the country. It lies near Hornafjörður fjord.  The town, the second largest in the southeastern part of Iceland, offers scenic views of Vatnajökull.

Black sand beaches are common in Iceland and are primarily the result of volcanic rock being ground down to fine particles. The dunes though are quite unique to this location and make it a fascinating spot. The location is quite spectacular but it can be interestingly very hard to frame a good composition. The hard part is finding a good dune to use in the foreground but to also not spoil the scene by trampling across the sand. You can also head down to the beach side and shoot lovely reflection photographs.

The following slideshow are some of the images captured at Vestrahorn, from afternoon till about midnight.

Vestrahorn is a 454 metre tall scree mountain, mainly made up of gabbro and granophyre rocks. The Stokksnes peninsula on its west side locks in seawater by the land, so it's possible to get some great shots of the mountain mirrored in the calm seawater, that's almost like a big lagoon, but varies in size with the tide.​

I used my SONY α7RIII and SONY FE 16-35mm f/2.8 GM lens, mounted on my Gitzo Mountaineer GT-1542 and FLM 32FP ballhead. I used NiSi CPL, NiSi GND .9 Soft and Nisi ND8 filters to capture these shots.  

Here are some photography tips of the Vestrahorn mountain:

• Don't be sidetracked with the entrance next to the Viking Cafe. The views are too tight, even with my 12mm Laowa lens.  The only reason to go there is to visit an movie setup for an ancient Viking village.  If you don't have time, skip that; 
• A very wide angle lens will definitely help. The landscape is is spectacular but hard to frame into a good composition with a medium wide lens;
• Alternatively, move further down the straight road to Stokksnes old radar base and you should be able to capture the whole "Batman Mountain" with your 16mm ultra wide angle full-frame lens (or 10mm lens on your cropped sensor cameras), complete with it's reflection. Check out the Vestrahorn sunset image above.
• It is a dawn location. The first light from the sunrise is spectacular as it lights up Vestrahorn;  Sunset is equally spectacular with the illumination from the left side of the mountain;
• It can also be a location for northern lights photography,  Although it doesn’t face North, aurora waves move across the sky and if you are lucky, you can find some strong burst of green over the mountains and reflected in the water.
• If you go closer to the beach, the wet sand from receding waves could allow some lovely textural reflections.

Participants to the Iceland Photography Adventure 2018. From L to R: Yours truly, Shaari Mat Saod, Othman Abdullah, Sheikh Izham Sheikh Razak, Abdul Rahman "Arman" Haron and Izzuddin Hanur Harith.

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