I’ve been to Iceland 8 times so far always en route in all kinds of wind and weather with wanderlust, a thirst for adventure and my camera to catch special moments in this absolutely stunning country. But this time – the ninth (and the tenth) time – was going to be a very different trip: for the first time I had brought a drone… letting my drone fly for the first couple of times in Germany was a challenge for me but doing so in Iceland was still a totally different thing – there was so much more wind, the distances in the wilderness were much longer, the landscape in the highland so much rougher and there was just so much water in the glacial rivers and glacier lagoons where my drone could go for a swim that I started out really excited and quite nervous always hoping for my drone to find its way back to me 🥴. A completely new and fascinating world opened up to me, a world full of awe and wonder. Places that did not look any special from below revealed their beauty once my drone climbed up in the air. I loved the classic landscape photography from above just as much as the more abstract views straight down to glacial riverbeds and geothermal fields and also the transition between the two types. And of course, we also had our “normal” cameras with us although I found it really hard to change from drone to camera and back. Once used to the drone’s perspective my eyes refused to see differently…
What also made this trip so special was that until 24 hours before departure we had no idea if we could actually fly to Iceland. The COVID-19 Pandemic made traveling really difficult again this fall: canceled flights, tests in Germany and Iceland and five days of quarantine in Iceland and the same in Germany after returning…but we decided to give it a go against all odds. A huge reward was waiting for us: an absolutely tourist-free Iceland, empty hotels, a very friendly service and all the iconic locations without a soul in sight…it was just incredible finding ourselves completely alone at Skogafoss, Dettifoss or Godafoss and even on the Black Lava Beach and at the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon we were the only visitors…I loved it so much that I decided to prolong my stay and in the end I spent the whole month of October in the quiet solitude of the Icelandic nature far away from COVID-19 and any other human beings….
October 2020/21
