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Welcome to the Incredible World of Drone Photography: These Shots of Iceland are Stunning

This guy is helping pioneer a whole new type of photography... but could it be short-lived?

Aerial photographs always throw up fascinating perspectives, whether it’s shooting wild landscapes, action or even portraits.

But until recently, aerial photography was the preserve of the rich or the exceptionally jammy – essentially those with access to a light aircraft, or better still, a helicopter.

“Until recently, aerial photography was the preserve of the rich or the exceptionally jammy…”

All that’s changed with the invention of drones however and these days anyone with a few hundred pounds can see the world from the air. One photographer who’s making excellent use of this new technology is Polish snapper Jakub Polomski, the man behind these incredible shots of Iceland.

He’s shooting as much has he can now because – as he explains – he may not be able to forever…

Photo: Jakub Polomski

“I started shooting after I saw some pictures in an issue of National Geographic Magazine about 10 years ago,” Palomski says.

“I borrowed a camera from my friend and just started taking photos but I never had any formal training.”

“I’d only been shooting with a drone for about three weeks when I took these shots though. This was the first trip I took with it.”

Photo: Jakub Polomski

“I chose Iceland because it had been on my checklist for a very long time.

“I really like cold and wild places. Iceland in the summer is also perfect because you have daylight all the time. And it offers very wide variety of natural places you could go to.”

The resulting photos are truly stunning, showing Iceland’s snow-capped peaks, glaciers and wonderfully remote towns in all their glory.

Photo: Jakub Polomski

The drone offered Jakub a chance to push his photography in a new and different direction to previously. But it presented challenges too. “Photographing by drone in my opinion is more difficult [than with a normal camera].”

“Mainly because you have unlimited in no way composition capabilities. The second difficult thing is that you have to focus not only on photographing, but also, and primarily on piloting drone safely.”

Photo: Jakub Polomski

Piloting of course is an art in itself, and with drone racing and even drone freestyle fast developing as sports in their own right, we wondered if a drone photographer like Jakub put a lot of thought into his piloting skills?

“No, I don’t really look up to pilots,” he says. “But I love watching air shows.”

Photo: Jakub Polomski

By virtue of having gone out and done it though, Jakub had to overcome many of the problems that even the most experienced pilots struggle with.

“The weather in Iceland is windy for the most of time, so that was a bit issue that prevented me flying safely. I also had a problem with birds attacking the drones twice,” Jakub says. But at least “I haven’t had any problems with people so far”.

Photo: Jakub Polomski

This is perhaps unsurprising in this instance, as Iceland has a reputation not only as one of the most naturally beautiful places on the planet, but also one of the most welcoming.

Photo: Jakub Polomski

It’s also sparsely populated, which when you’re flying a drone is a good thing. They are, of course, dangerous tools.

Photo: Jakub Polomski

That’s one of the biggest difficulties, he says, when doing drone photography. “You have to focus not only on photographing, but also, and primarily on piloting drone safely.”

Photo: Jakub Polomski

It’s also one of the things that Jakub believes will make drone photography impossible in the future – ironically as the devices become more popular, so operating them will inevitably become more dangerous as the skies get more crowded.

“I think in years to come drones will become prohibited in many countries,” he says. “These are really powerful but also very dangerous tools.”

Photo: Jakob Polomski

For now though, Jakub is going to keep shooting with his drone as much as possible.

So where to next? Where will he and his drone be headed? “I don’t have any plans where to go next, but you never know what tomorrow brings. For sure I would like to go to New Zealand, but I don’t know when yet.”

Photo: Jakub Polomski

Whether or not Jakub’s predictions of drones being banned for public turn into reality, we hope the art of drone photography doesn’t die completely. Because images like these ones are incredible.

Photo: Jakob Polomski

And much as the invention of more portable cameras allowed Ansel Adams, one of Jakub’s photographic heroes, to push the boundaries of landscape photography, so this new technology is allowing a generation of snappers like Polomski to pioneer a whole new style.

Here’s hoping we’ll see more of it in future.

Photo: Jakob Polomski

See more of Polomski’s work on his website and follow him on Facebook to keep up to date with his latest projects.

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