Lost

Photographer

Mark Gray

Category

Nature Photography - Aerial/Drone

Company

Mark Gray Gallery

Submission Group

Professional

Year

2026

Country / Region:

Australia

It was a privilege to be able to spend some time exploring and capturing the incredible central highlands of Iceland in September 2025. Despite visiting Iceland many times in Winter previously, I've never been able to enter the highlands region because it's only accessible for 4 months of the year, around the Summer months. I was travelling with a long term workshop client and now good friend Thomas from Switzerland. To explore the highlands you need a well equipped 4WD as it's completely off road and requires many river crossings. Thomas sourced us a Toyota Prado 4WD with 35 inch wheels and a snorkel which worked really well for the most part. This particular day we were trying to find a way through the highlands from our hotel to visit a beautiful volcano called Maelifell. We tried a track in from the south western end of the highlands and successfully crossed about 14 small to medium sized river crossings before we came across this stunning volcano. We pulled over and launched our drones. We flew for nearly an hour and although it was around midday by then, we had a brief break in the clouds which allowed some soft light to come through. Thankfully, it was just long enough for me to capture this stunning scene.

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