Icelanding Paintings from the sky
- Albert Dros
- Mar 13, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 31, 2020
Everyone knows that Iceland has amazing landscapes throughout the whole country. But Iceland doesn’t only look beautiful from the ground. It also looks incredible from the sky. On a recent flight I had the opportunity to expand my aerial portfolio and focused on mostly top down images. Photographing top down is not easy. The landscapes look completely different than you’re used to. It’s like seeing a whole new world. New views go by every second and you have to be quick to capture them properly. All these top down views really look like paintings, hence the name of this series.
Rivers, ground textures, valleys, they all look very different from a top down perspective. The advantage of using a plane is that you can quickly fly everywhere and your perspective is much higher as opposed to using a drone.
Special thanks to Haraldur aka Volcanopilot for being a great pilot!
Swirling glacial rivers
Flying next to the Icelandic coast with interesting textures in the water. The colour of the water almost looks like its tropical here.
This flight was late autumn with lots of autumn red covering the valleys.
Top down abstract of the bottom of a wide river. The bottom texture looks like blue flames.
Simple top down view of the waves on the black of the Icelandic beach. The black sand with the white waves makes up for a great contrast.
Different colours of different mud and glacier streams coming together out of the mountains.
Sunlight hitting the greens in a valley in the Icelandic Highlands.
A river formed like a snake finding its way into the ocean.
An abstract view from the bottom of a glacier stream. I can spend hours taking pictures like this. They all look like paintings.
Harsh light on a bunch of streams. It looks like they’re forming the roots of a tree.
Another close up abstract in the form of an arrowhead or an organ. Whatever you want to make of it!
The autumn red combined with the blue of the rivers make for a beautiful complimentary color palette.
Black & White abstract of river flows.
Rivers along the coastal areas with lots of different textures combined. It looks like a water painting.
Big rivers mounting into smaller streams. The excerpts are like organisms on their own.
Gear used:
Sony A7RIII
Sony 16-35GM
Tamron 28-75 f/2.8
Icelandic paintings from the sky capture the country's surreal beauty—volcanic landscapes, glacial rivers, and rugged coastlines forming natural masterpieces. The aerial perspective reveals stunning patterns that almost look hand-painted by nature itself. Just like how these landscapes transform with colors, when you paint your house, it can completely change its character, bringing new life to its appearance. Iceland’s unique terrain, seen from above, reminds us that both nature and human creativity can craft breathtaking visuals.