Chris Burkard is a professional travel/adventure photographer who recently found himself as the focus of a video from Great Big Story. If the name Chris Burkard rings a bell it might be because he’s got 2.2 million followers on Instagram already. And it’s easy to see why he has such a massive following after taking a quick perusal of his IG feed, this bro knows how to travel.
The video above focuses on a recent trip Chris took to Iceland where he was photographing surfers shredding absolutely frigid waves under the majestic Northern Lights. I was actually in Iceland myself just a few days, I went to Reykjavik for NYE this year and spent a week there traveling around and doing all the epic shit Iceland has to offer for tourists. Before I show you how shitty of a photographer I am, I’d just like to say this: go to Iceland, it’s the best country I’ve ever visited and I cannot praise it enough. If you want Icelandic travel trips I’m happy to help, just shoot me a message on Twitter and I’ll respond.
Now, here’s what Chris Burkard’s photographs of surfing under the Northern Lights looks like vs. my shitty iPhone picture of the Northern Lights….
Me:
https://twitter.com/casspa/status/815306223805485057
Chris:
Seeing the Northern Lights on NYE 2016/2017 was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. I actually went on a tour the night before (the 30th), and this SuperJeep.is company drove us out into the frozen tundra to stare at a vaguely bright cloud. They told us it was the Nothern Lights, and pictures of that night looked AWESOME with a long exposure camera because you could see all the shades of green and yellow, but in person it totally looked like shit.
The next night, NYE, I actually ran into a close family friend at dinner in Reykjavik in one of the most freak/random occurrences ever. They told me they had a private Northern Lights tour booked and asked if we wanted to tag along. I was skeptical because the night before with SuperJeep.is sucked donkey balls but the aurora forecast for NYE was high so I figured fuck it, I came to Iceland in the middle of Winter to see the Northern Lights and I needed to really see them. So the driver picks us up, drives 30min outside of Reykjavik down some desolate country road between jagged snow-covered mountains. After 30min he just pulls over on the side of the highway and points to the sky.
HOLY SHIT! It was awesome. It’s hard to describe how ethereal they look in person, but I’ve been likening it to that scene in Finding Nemo where they get into the Eastern Australian Current with the turtles. You could see the green particles dancing in the sky, moving along as a ribbon. It was everything I’d wanted to see and then some, and like I said before, if you ever have the chance to go visit Iceland you need to book your flight immediately.