Drone video from Iceland – see amazing landmarks from the air

Drones have a mixed reputation here in Iceland. On one hand, these flying machines can be a bit of a menace if the person operating them is not qualified or licensed to operate them. On the other hand, there are few more captivating videos of impressive landscapes than drone videos. I frequent the Travel Iceland Facebook group. One evening I saw an impressive drone video from Iceland by a Brazilian gentleman, Marcio Marcelino. It is title Ice, Fire and, Ashes. He clearly knew what he was doing, not only was the video impressive but he had also secured a license for his flying. So I decided to contact him for a short interview.

Collection of beautiful landmarks in this drone video from Iceland

The video features a lot of beautiful Icelandic landmarks and it has a wonderful soundtrack, “Try again tomorrow” by Audio Machine. I have this really nice Philips HD TV and playing the video there was really cool. Among the places featured in this Iceland drone video is Malarrifsviti lighthouse in the Westfjords, Hraunfossar waterfall, Brúarfoss waterfall, the mighty Dyndjandi waterfall, Hjálparfoss waterfall, Skógafoss waterfalls, Seljalandsfoss waterfall, Háifoss waterfall. Hveradalir in Kerlingarfjöll mountain range, Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon, Múlagjúfur canyon, Hangandi waterfall, Glymur waterfall, Mt. Vestrahorn, the Arctic henge in the north of Iceland, Lake Ljótipollur and beautiful scenes from glaciers and the highlands.

Hello Marcio and thank you for taking the time for this interview. Can you please give us a little background on yourself?

Hello! Thank you so much for the interview and your comments about the video!

I’m from Brazil and I live in State of Santa Catarina, in South Brazil. Apart from the regular job I work with filming on my days off. I’m 51 years old and i love to travel with my motorcycle around my country. I made a Youtube channel account to share the drone videos that I make In the region where I live.

It certainly looks like you got all around Iceland, can you tell me about your trip and how you planned it?

I have been planning this trip there are 3 years, and I was building the road map of the journey over that time. At first, it was one hundred and fifty locations to visit. This was reduced to a hundred. These were the places I believed were the most beautiful and exotic. I had only 1 month to cover the whole country!

I tried to find out the names of the places where photos and films were taken in Facebook groups dedicated to Iceland. Then I searched for these places on Google Maps. I only learn about some secret locations a month before traveling! I drove more than 5.000 km

You got a license for shooting your Iceland drone vide, was it difficult to obtain it

Getting permission from Isavia to fly a drone close to airports it was easy. I applied on the Isavia website. I got permission in less than 15 days. It just needed to call them 15 minutes before each flight and tell them that my drone was taking off.

I didn´t fly once in Reykjavik because of the strong wind so I have no images from the capital. I had to wait longer for an answer from Þingvellir National Park but I got permission eventually.

Vatnajokull National Park has a lot of restrictions and I could not fly the drone in some places. I asked permission from the owners if I was at a private property I had no problems

Regulations for drone flying in Iceland

What were your main challenges in creating the video?

The strong winds! Some places I definitely wanted to shoot and had to wait up to 3 days for the weather get better.

I took one month to create the first video. I had 2TB of files to separate and choose from.

After choosing the song, it was hard to pick the best scenes to include in the sequence.

What were your favorite places to film?

Múlagljúfur Canyon It’s unreal! It was the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Kerlingarfjöll it’s magic!

I want to return to Landmannalaugar because I couldn’t stay longer. There was a storm warning and we were told by the Rangers to leave.

Can you tell me what equipment you used for your drone video from Iceland?

DJI Mavic 2 Pro and a Sony a6500 camera. I have only one lens.

What advice do you have for those who are coming to Iceland for the first time?

The roads Are very dangerous! There are many landscapes that distract you on the way and the roads are very narrow! Watch out for the Big Trucks on the roads in the Westfjords! LOL!

I bought a prepaid card twice for 10.000 Krona at N1 and it was empty. Test prepaid cards as soon as you buy them.

When you pick up the rental car make sure that it comes with a lug wrench and a jack! My lug wrench was unusable and the hub bolts were all stuck! Imagine the tough time I had in the middle of nowhere in the Kerlingarfjöll path with a flat tire! LOL!

Watch the amazing drone video from Iceland by Marcio Marcelino: Ice, Fire, and Ashes