This is the second and final part of the behind the scenes of how I filmed my drone and time lapse travel film in Iceland. If you haven’t read part one, start there, or this will feel like walking in halfway.
Before anything else: a massive thank you to my wife Rachel. When part one went up, the most common comment I got was some version of “you’re lucky to have a wife who lets you drive around filming pretty stuff.” It’s true. I’m incredibly happy that her idea of a good time is riding around in a car with me looking at and filming pretty things.
Day Five, After The Night Before
I’m honestly amazed we made it this far, because we both genuinely feared for our lives the day before. After a long trek out to the glacier lagoon we had a three and a half hour drive back to the cabin, and about ninety minutes in we were both exhausted. I drove the first half, Rachel drove the second, and as she took over I looked out of the window and saw the strongest, most beautiful northern lights I have ever seen.
I’d only seen four days’ worth of northern lights at that point, so I’m no expert, but this was easily the most intense light show I’ve witnessed. And as tired as I was, I couldn’t not shoot it.
I set up in front of our cabin and pointed the camera at the cottage, because the lights were coming right overhead with more off to the left. It was hard to choose what to point at, and I picked the cottage because I didn’t have a cottage shot yet. On its own I didn’t think it looked like much. With the northern lights over it, it looked really good.
The Night Sky Settings I Used
Two second exposures at ISO 10,000, with a two second interval between shots so the camera had time to write to the card. I wanted the interval that tight because I wanted the lights moving as fast as I could get them.
Once I had that shot I moved to a rock I’d already time lapsed the day before, but stood further back this time so I got the rock and some trees in frame, which I think looks much prettier. Then around 2am, with the lights fading and me barely upright, I shifted again to put trees in the foreground, and left the camera running overnight in case anything happened.
In case I wasn’t clear about this earlier: I shot all of it on a Sigma 24mm f/1.4 Art, wide open, with white balance at 3200K, which I find looks best for a night sky. Picture profile was set to Raw Photo.
The Wind Is Not A Joke
The single most useful thing I learned in Iceland is that when people tell you the wind is strong there, they are not exaggerating. We hit what felt like hurricane force winds more than once, including at a waterfall we’d driven to specifically to fly the drone at.
The fix, on the day we found a mountain with cloud pouring over it and a frozen lake below, was to park the rental car crosswise and set the tripod up on the sheltered side of it, using the car as a windbreak. That is the sort of MacGyver thing you end up doing when you’re filming in Iceland, and it got me a shot I’d otherwise have lost entirely.
Letting The Weather Pick The Day
One thing that shaped the whole trip: Iceland is wide enough that if one half of the country is raining, the other half usually isn’t. So we’d wake up not knowing whether we were heading far east or far west, and let the forecast decide.
If you want to go deeper, I’ve also got Remember Who You Are | Iceland Cinematic Drone and Timelapse Travel Film, How I Filmed A Cinematic Travel Film in Colorado! BTS of Always 1992, and 10 Iceland Travel Tips For Filmmakers & Photographers.
On this day it sent us west, about a three hour drive, toward the peninsula, and that turned out to be one of our favourite days of the entire trip, easily some of the prettiest and least touristy country we saw. The most terrifying part of getting there was a tunnel, the longest I’ve ever driven through, which goes under the water and costs about ten dollars.
Then we did quite possibly the most touristy thing of the whole trip. We stopped and fed some horses. Because Icelandic horses are extremely cute, and, as Rachel looked up, technically horses rather than ponies despite the size. They have long hair and they look permanently, magnificently sad. I got some lovely footage of one staring longingly into the lens, in freezing gale force wind that I have no idea how they survive.
That’s The Trip
We made it. I’m so glad we went, so glad we filmed it, and so glad we had even a bit of forethought to shoot a behind the scenes while we were there.
If you came here from the behind the scenes and haven’t seen the actual film, go and watch that too. It’s only about a minute and a half, it has a voiceover, and it was so much fun to make.
If you want more of this, me and Rachel driving around somewhere and filming time lapses and drone shots, let me know. We did not see any baby seals. We did not see any puffins either. I’m a little bitter about that.
And yes, my custom gear organisation system is patented Walmart brand zippered bags. That’s the secret.