DC Plane Wreck & Black Beach by Vík #icelandtravel

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Hey dear lovely Steemians,

I couldn't sleep last night, so I started looking through some footage and began editing our first #icelandtravel video. Most of my previous videos just contained drone footage. This time I tried to mix it up a little bit with some footage from the Go Pro as well. Not that easy to match the colors because of the different raw files.

In the first part you see the DC plane wreck. Sadly this US Navy plane ran out of fuel about 45 years ago and crashed into the black beach along the South Coast of beautiful Iceland. The crew survived and it turned out that it was an mistake by the pilot who turned the wrong switch.

One thing first: You are not allowed to drive to the plane wreck!!! Park in the parking lot and now start walking. It's about 4 km to go but I would say it's definitely worth it. When you start walking, you won't even see the plane wreck. The path is really easy because it's flat but not paved. It took us about 45-60 minutes each way with some photography breaks. Don't forget to turn left and right when you walk down to the plane wreck or back because the mountains all around look great as well.
Try to catch the sun in the morning or evening. We had to go during the day, it was cloudy, just quit snowing and quite some people were around. Online you can also find various images with the aurora borealis that look just stunning.

If you are into photography as I am, you'll love this beaten up plane - Wide-angle shots, close ups of the old tank or outer shell of the plane, walking through the inside, climbing up on the plane and wings or just wandering around the area. As you can see in the movie, I also shot a little time lapse from about 150m away. Seeing all the tourist making all kinds of poses on the plane is quite hilarious.
The drone footage turned out alright. I didn't fly right above the plane and just circled around a little bit. On our way back I saw a helicopter approaching and flying quite close above the plane wreck. I guess I was lucky I didn't fly turing that moment. If you fly a drone in Iceland, you always have to check where you are allowed to fly and be careful because of the strong winds.
On the way back I turned on the time lapse video option on the Go Pro, attached the camera to my back pack and we started walking back to the car.

Second part:
The Black Sand Beach near Vík í Mýrdal. Reynisfjara is a world-famous black-sand beach, even declared as one of the most beautiful beaches world wide by National Geographic back in the 90's, found on the South Coast of Iceland. The small fishing town Vík is just a couple miles away.
But it's not just about the black sand. You'll find enormous basalt stacks as well. They are a superb photo opportunity and you can even climb on the smaller ones. There is a cool cave or let's call it arch formed by the basalt stacks. Another location were you'll find perfectly arranged basalt stacks is in Hofsós in the North-West of Iceland. The weather changed over the day, snow fall in the morning, clouds during the day and sunlight at the end. I guess we were pretty lucky! It turned out that the icelandic weather is like a bag of miracles every single day.
When you walk down the beach to the West, you are almost by yourself. Most tourists stay close to the basalt stacks and take pictures. The drone footage is alright considering that I shot against the sun without an ND filter, which is the next thing on my bucket list for sure.

Before you reach the Black Sand Beach if you are coming from Reykjavik, don't forget to stop at Dyrhólaey. It's a natural reserve because of the wildlife, especially the birds. You are not supposed to fly your drone in that area!!!

Two funny side notes:

1. You can see the Black Beach from the view point in Dyrhólaey but you can't see any people or the basalt stacks at all. First we thought we missed the beach. We also saw some foot prints in the sand and couldn't figure where they came from because you can't climb down the cliffs. They must have walked down the whole beach.

2. When you circle the island during your Iceland trip, you'll see many, many black beaches. But this one is a gem for sure!

Driving to the beach takes approximately two and a half hours from the capital.

So that's it for today. Please let me know if you enjoyed the video!

Used equipment:
DJI mavic air with the following setting:
D-Cinelike
Style: 0, -3, -2
Go Pro Hero 6
Post in FCPX

Music: Ehrling - Sommar

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Enjoy life, have fun and take more beautiful photos!
Sebastian

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