Years ago, capturing close up images and videos of extreme events such as the eruption of a volcano was not possible but thanks to the advent of drone photography, videographers and photography enthusiasts can now take close range photos and footages of an exploding volcano without risking their lives.
Using a DJI Phantom 2 drone and GoPro Hero 3, Icelandic photographer Ragnar Th. Sigurdsso and DJI's director of aerial imaging Eric Cheng, successfully captured the fury of the erupting Bardarbunga volcano in Iceland with the resulting video offering an unprecedented opportunity to take a closer look at the extremely hot molten lava in the volcano's caldera.
The Bardarbunga, a volcano inside the largest Icelandic glacier, started to erupt in August earlier this year. On Sept. 20, Cheng and Sigurdsson set out to capture videos of the erupting volcano. To get more spectacular shots, Cheng had to walk closer to the volcano wearing a gas mask and a heavy pair of boots, where he launched the DJI Phantom 2 carrying the Gopro camera towards the volcano.
The drone, which costs about $1,000 is equipped with a wireless video transmission system and a failsafe mechanism that would bring it back to the launch point when it gets out of range, a feature that allowed the pair to fly the drone out of range relying on its failsafe mechanism when it gets pushed too far.
Cheng managed to get the drone close enough to the volcano that the GoPro camera he used melted. GoPro cameras are known to withstand high heat such as boiling water. One user has in fact managed to capture videos of an egg being poached but the extremely hot temperature of lava and molten rocks spewing out of Bardarbunga is apparently too much for the camera to handle.
The memory card inside the camera was fortunately fine though so the duo was able to retrieve and share videos of the raging volcano that can be described as nothing short of spectacular.
"I brought (the drone) in for landing and I noticed that the front of the GoPro had been completely melted," Cheng related. "Apparently it had been so hot that the camera had melted. Luckily the micro SD card survived and I was able to pull the drone off of it."
Watch the molten lava bubbling in the volcano's caldera up close in this amazing video footage by Cheng and Sigurdsson:
