Of course, however, just visiting Budir on a winter night is not enough to guarantee a display of the Northern Lights. In fact, I’d been shooting the peninsula for a week, hopeful each evening for clear skies, only for this elusive phenomenon to evade me. The responsibilities of Reykjavik calling, I decided to spend a final night at the Budir hotel before returning in the morning, although I was fully expecting another disappointment.

The wonderful thing about the unpredictability of Iceland’s weather, however, is that it doesn’t just go wildly off forecast when the conditions are supposed to be sunny. After weeks of cloud and predictions for more, the cover dissipated over dusk, as if responding to my discouraged pleas. Though the display was not as bright to the eye as one might hope, a camera can pick up far more than we can see when in the right hands.

Using a long exposure and wide-angle lens to let in every bit of light possible, I was not only able to capture a sky filled with dancing green auroras over a mystical landscape and lonely church, but illuminate the breathtaking, snow-capped mountain range that defines the Snaefellsnes Peninsula behind.