06 April 2022
Hilary Musk contacted us in preparation for her upcoming trip to Iceland as she was keen to capture the beautiful landscapes and the Northern Lights in all their glory. After some deliberation, Hilary opted for the Nikon AF-S 14–24mm f/2.8G ED, a lens that is absolutely perfect for this sort of photography, with its wide focal length, a large maximum aperture of f/2.8 throughout the zoom and a robust build quality to withstand the harsh elements. Hilary was kind enough to share her images with us upon her return and as you can see, they look amazing – almost other-worldly! As soon as we saw them we were keen to display them here, and we were delighted when Hilary agreed. Without further ado, let’s hear from Hilary about her trip and her experience with the lens.
I have just returned from the most amazing photographic holiday in S. Iceland, a special birthday gift from my husband. One of my fears was not coming back with at least some amazing shots! I contacted Hireacamera, having used them before, as I needed a very wide-angle lens to photograph the Northern Lights. They did have such a lens – the Nikon AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8, which I arranged to hire. Chloe was so helpful and approachable on the phone!
I tried the lens out at Skogafoss, just to get the feel of it; the sunrise lit up the snow-covered mountain beautifully!
Mountain and river at Skogafoss
Then the second night, the beautiful Aurora Borealis made an appearance at Jokulsarlon. We were able to shoot the lights reflected in the water at the Ice Lagoon and the 14-24mm lens was perfect for the job!
Jokulsarlon Ice Lagoon
The lens was so wide, making it ideal for Mt Vesterhorn – reflected in gold in the wet sand as the tide came in. All in all, it was a wonderful holiday, despite being snowed in for two days at Viks!
Mount Vesterhorn reflected in the wet sand
Reflections in the wet sand, Mount Vesterhorn
I usually use a Nikon D750 and my main ‘kit lens’, which is a is a Nikon 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens. I also took a Nikon 20mm f/1.8 lens. I often used ND Graduate filters with these lenses as the sky was sometimes brighter than the sea – the 14-24mm lens does not take filters.
To illustrate the amazing standard of customer service, a couple of days before the lens was to be delivered, I had a call from a member of the team saying that he thought that the lens we had had chosen might not be the best one for the job as my camera is a full-frame camera. We agreed on the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens and it was delivered in good time before I travelled. I was so grateful that someone had taken the trouble to think about this and call me as I would have been very disappointed otherwise.
Thank you, all the lovely staff at Hireacamera for your very personal, friendly and efficient service and for the use of an excellent lens at a very reasonable price! Well worth every penny!
Hilary was an absolute delight to assist and we are thrilled she was able to get these amazing shots with the Nikon AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8. Thank you for sharing Hilary, we very much look forward to helping you again in the not too distant future!
If you would like to try the legendary lens for yourself, it is available for hire, HERE.