Drone View of Fagradalsfjall Volcano, Iceland
FC7303
Aperture f/2.8 ISO 100 Shutter 1/400 Focal Length 449/100 
Grindavík, Gullbringusysla, IS
Oct, 2021Views
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photograph was taken at the Fagradalsfjall volcano, near Grindavik, In Iceland. The volcano started erupting in the Spring of 2021.Time
This photo was taken around mid-afternoon on 31st August, 2021. I had been carefully monitoring the seismograph charts online from my hotel room in Reykjavik. It looked like an eruption was imminent, but I waited until I saw lava on the live camera which was streaming to Youtube, then I jumped in my rental 4WD vehicle and headed up to the volcano. The winds were very strong that day, and I was not sure that my small drone would make it back for a safe landing, but it was my last opportunity to get an aerial view before I had to leave Iceland so I took a risk. The drone made it back with the low battery alarm sounding.Lighting
This was my fourth hike up to the volcano trying to get the best possible photographs. It was overcast and daylight at the time of this drone flight, but I was lucky that the cloud base was reasonably high and there was no rain. It was also fortunate that the wind direction was blowing the volcanic fumes away from the crater.Equipment
This photo was taken using a DJI Mavic Mini 2 drone piloted by me. I had to fly the drone in 'Sport' mode to give it the best chance of coping with the very high wind speed.Inspiration
I have always wanted to see and photograph lava streaming from a volcano. When this volcano first erupted, the UK was in lockdown due to Covid-19 and it was illegal to travel. Fortunately restrictions were eased and I was able to travel to Iceland. I have to say that the volcano did not disappoint!Editing
I was absolutely stunned at how well this photo came out, given that the drone was trying to hover while being battered by gusts of wind up to 35mph! I did set the drone to shoot in RAW and JPEG, which meant I had PNG and JPEG files to work with. I was able to post the JPEG shot straight to social media while I was still on the volcano, but when I got back to the UK some post processing yielded a better result. This shot was very sharp straight from the drone, but I did edit the PNG file in lightroom to improve the contrast, and I also changed the colour profile so that the colours were more realistic.In my camera bag
The equipment I take with me is tailored to the journey I am on and what I hope to photograph. I took a lot of equipment on this Iceland trip because I knew I would be vehicle-based although I did do quite a bit of hiking - especially up to the volcano! For this trip (apart from the drone I used to take this shot) I had my Canon EOS 5D Mk III camera, my tripod, and the following lenses:- EF 24-105mm L lens (for general travel shots), EF 16-35mm L lens (for landscapes), TS-E 24mm tilt-shift lens for landscape photography and my EF 100-400mm lens for photographing the volcano and for whale-watching photos.Feedback
A long lens is essential for photographing volcanoes from the ground, although heat haze can make focusing and getting sharp images difficult. A drone is a really good option for getting close, where it would be too dangerous for a human to go, and getting above the haze. Care is needed not to get too close to the lava or crater, where hot air currents could destabilise or even melt the drone and it could also be damaged by flying lava bombs. For this shot, I ensured the drone had a blank memory card in it, so that if it got swallowed by the volcano I would not lose any of my previous shots or footage of Iceland.
