Before my 10 day landscape photography tour into Icelandic wilderness started (I will tell you more about this tour in later blog post), I wanted to do some aerial photography. I have done earlier twice aerial photography (Helsinki and New Zealand), but on those times I had to photograph through a window. On small web sizes that does not cause any noticeable quality problems, but this time I wanted to photograph through open window. So, I needed to rent a plane where I can open a window 🙂 Luckily, through my Icelandic contact, I found such a plane and a pilot that was experienced with aerial photography.

My aerial tour started from Reykjavik, the northernmost point of this aerial tour was lake Hvítárvatn (Google maps link), easternmost point was Lake Langisjór (Google map link), and southernmost point was Vestmannaeyjar (Google map link).

I used two cameras and two lenses (24-70 mm and 70-200 mm). When the window was open it was rather windy, especially when I pushed partially the camera and my hands outside to capture some composition… I used aperture priority mode, the aperture was typically F4.5-F5.6 and the shutter speed was typically 1/800-1/1600 sec.

I was very lucky with the weather, there were nice clouds, and more importantly, nice shadows in many areas 🙂 Especially in Landmannalaugar area the clouds were almost perfect. I had seen spectacular pictures of river details, but still the reality surprised me. The river patterns were truly amazing.