Iceland - Our Aerial Film

Iceland - Our Aerial Adventure

Back in June/July I made my first post, an introduction that detailed our then recent filming trip in Iceland (https://steemit.com/photography/@blacksails/my-introduction-and-iceland-photography-trip) and promised to share the resulting video when it was finished.

Well, that time has come. Months later, I am ready to share with you "Ísland" the film we shot back in March, and explain a little about the difficulties we faced whilst filming. It is not all that I intended it to be and is certainly not perfect, but I think it turned out alright.

So, early this year we travelled to Iceland to film the islands famously magnificent landscapes. We say that the intention was to promote my aerial filming business, Skies Untold, but in reality it was just an excellent excuse for me and Ina to visit a country that we had both wanted to explore for a number of years.
Iceland is the landscape photographers mecca. Exploring the island for the first time feels like stepping onto an alien planet that is still in the process of its formation. The black sand beaches, endless lava fields, jagged cliffs and huge swathes of land carpeted in beautiful green moss, periodically disturbed by the odd monolithic waterfall. It feels raw and beautifully unfinished. What better place to film, Right?

Yeah, unless your planning to film with a drone, in winter, on a tight schedule, and encounter a mishap that leaves you requiring an air duster miles and miles away from the merest hint of civilisation.

Anyway, our entire time in the north was plagued by bad weather and winds that were, quite frankly, just silly. I had really wanted to fly at Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe, but unfortunately conditions were so bad we didn't even get to see it as the road had been closed off. As flying was a nono, we decided that the best course of action was to tourist the hell out of the it. And we did. We managed most of the well known wonders and even got some exploring time in, hunting for elves and stumbling across the odd troll. Much friendlier than people would have you believe.

Due to weather, a lot of the locations we had planned to film at went out of the window, only to be replaced by lesser known spots that we just happened across whilst driving the islands A roads. Frustrating. However, I kind of like this. The result gives you a better impression of the general landscapes you will see whilst travelling around the island, and not just the well known sites posted everywhere online. It really is spectacularly beautiful everywhere you look. Unfortunately I do not have names for the majority of the locations as they were literally just things we passed on the side of the road and so were not signposted.

The little mishap I mentioned earlier that nearly crippled our ability to fly for the rest of the trip was due to Icelands famous black sands. We stopped off at a particularly beautiful river just off of the main road. It was quite windy and I put the drone down on the ground just to grab something from the front of the car. The patch of earth I had set it down on was not sandy at all, however the particularly strong wind was carrying tiny particles of the black stuff from a nearby beach which managed to work its way into ever crevice the drone presented. The result - seized motors. We made a huge detour in an attempt to find an air duster, and spent the rest of the evening at the AirBnB whilst i stripped down the motors to clean them out. Mercifully, I managed to get it all.

As we hit the south the weather finally calmed a bit and delivered us one particularly gorgeous day that we took full advantage of. We managed to film the Glacier Lagoon - Jökulsárlón, Skaftafell Glacier and even Seljalandsfoss, evading the particularly aggressive resident seagulls.
Jökulsárlón was perfect. We got there early and basically had the place to ourselves. Not a whisper of wind and blue skies reflecting on the still water like a mirror. We captured a metric ton of footage here as it was just such an incredible sight, as can be seen opening our video.

Skaftafell was not so easy. The glacier was absolutely choka blok with visitors by the time we got there. We spent ages waiting around for a quiet point to fly, and eventually one came. It didn't last long though as after just one battery another boat load of visitors appeared and I was forced to land. I would have loved to film way more at this location but there was simply too many people around to fly safely.

Seljalandsfoss, the huge waterfall seen towards the end of the video seemed so straight forwards. We were the only people there and conditions were perfect except for less than ideal light. The gulls around the rest of the island hadn't taken any interest in our drone...but not so here. They were kind enough to allow us one shot, and then proceeded to let us know that our presence was not appreciated. I took the hint and made some handheld shots instead.

And then that was it. Before we knew it we were back in Reykjavik. The past few days a complete blur of amazement, frustration, numb fingers and a particularly frosty moustache. We spent the last day relaxing in the Reykjavik area exploring the city, chilling out and eating very expensive burgers. Well deserved, I think. Even through all of the frustration, difficulties, weather and challenges we faced, Iceland has left a very lasting impression on us and we are still very seriously planning a move there next year if funds are kind to us. We thoroughly recommend you visit the little island that straddles the arctic circle. It will captivate you and carve out a place for itself in your heart, just as it did ours.

I hope you enjoyed the film and this post.

Alex