Virgil is from a small French town between Lyon and the Swiss border.
In June 2011, with nothing more than a bag on his back, Virgil set out to explore the world and discover his passion for the great outdoors and photography. Throughout this time, he has lived in 7 different countries: Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Iceland, Norway, including Svalbard, in the high Arctic, and visited more than 50 others across every continent. He felt in love with the Daintree rainforest (Australia) and its local community where he started guiding friends and tourists for fun in 2011, his first year of traveling.
The Guiding Parcour
Over the years, Virgil built a global network of connections that led him to become a full-time outdoor guide in 2016. He slowly headed north to the Arctic and began guiding snowmobiles that same year during his first winter in Lapland, Finland.
For the next three summers, Virgil was guiding white water rafting in the glacial waters of Iceland and on the rivers of southern Norway. Always looking for new challenges, in 2018 Virgil will be guiding further north in Svalbard for a Norwegian local company based in Longyearbyen.
After years of building contacts and skills in the Arctic, he now works about five months a year for polar expedition vessels. Thanks to his knowledge of the Arctic, Virgil now guides in wider polar regions, including East Greenland, South Georgia and Antarctica, and since the winter of 2018, Virgil has been teaching photography professionally in Tromsø - Northern Norway. There, he hosts private photography tours and workshops focused on Arctic landscapes and the famous Aurora Borealis.
Does Virgil live of his photography?
Experience as a nature guide in the North allows Virgil to achieve financial comfort, continuous apprenticeship, connection building, and incredible photo opportunities. Years of being a tour guide allows him access to more remote and difficult locations. Sharing knowledge has now become a passion as well.
Day after day he is out in the wild and is able to follow the evolution of light, ice and wildlife from one month to the next. Each season offers different perspectives in the polar regions, and witnessing these changes is a great advantage when it comes to photography and the story behind the shots.
This attitude makes him develop his photography and take his guiding skills and creativity to a new level; he is able to combine passion and work. In other words, guiding in such remote and hostile places on earth feeds his photography and natural knowledge.
His Photography Mind
Virgil is now specialised in Arctic Landscape and Night Photography. He has a huge focus on polar light, and the famous aurora borealis.
''Patience and creativity are all you need.''
Virgil is self-taught and believes in self-guided learning along with mutual knowledge sharing. His unending passion for photography and the outdoors pushes him to improve constantly, making photography part of his everyday life.
NorthernLights are a unique feature of his photography style and lead him to build robust and constructive compositions around them. The movement of the eye into the frame is the whole beauty of building strong images. The photos you find in his gallery are the result of thousands of hours outside in snowstorms, strong winds, extreme temperatures, and a tremendous amount of time spent waiting on nature for that precise, extraordinary moment.
"A great aurora image is a great image even without aurora."
Really often, the aurora is the wow effect of the photograph, the icing on the cake. Virgil is always oriented on understanding his surroundings, finding the best angles for his compositions, and finding the right orientation to sublime the light in relation to his chosen subjects. Many attempts are made to capture the unique shot, and this is what makes stories behind the photo; This is what makes a cliché unrepeatable.
Public Collaborations
Early 2022, Virgil made his first contributions with the European Space Agency. He was invited to participate and hold an online presentation at the Aurora Service workshop about Space Weather activities and end user experiences.
End of October 2022, Virgil finds his aurora photography work exhibited at the 2022 ESWW, The 2022 European Space Weather Week organised by the European Space Agency.
Seven of his aurora photographs are displayed for the exhibition during the whole week in La PLAZA - Zagreb - Croatia.
Virgil is also holding a presentation of his photography work in person at ESWW & an Instagram Live session via ESA account (2.7M). Included in this presentation, the planification behind the shot, the use of the ESA's aurora tools and some story telling images.
PUBLICATIONS
PETAPIXEL - March 2022 - ''The 2022 Unique Aurora Shot'' - Full article https://petapixel.com/howIcapturedaskierwithaurora
DIY PHOTOGRAPHY - March 2022 - ''The 2022 Unique Aurora Shot'' - Full Article - https://www.diyphotography.net
VISIT NORTHERN NORWAY Tourism Board - March 2022 ''The 2022 Unique Aurora Shot'' - Full Article - https://nordnorge.com/en/artikkel
THE EYE OF PHOTOGRAPHY - February 6th2021 - Series ''Arctic Night Life'' - https://loeildelaphotographie.com/en/virgil-reglioni-dv/
LE ROUTARD - July 2020 - Article & interview with Portfolio on ''How To Capture The Aurora'' - https://www.routard.com