I captured this footage at Mount Bromo in Indonesia, Java. There is not really a storyline in these scenes. You want a story?
Well, then here is a behind the scene one.
I wanted to visit the viewpoint, where you can watch the sun rising above the crater of Mount Bromo. But first you have to hike to that place. And not only that, you have to get up early. We are talking about 3 a.m. And of course the temperature had to be 0 degrees Celsius. So fully packed with warm clothes and my camera equipment I hit the road and walked all the way up the mountain to the viewpoint, past other people and a huge amount of jeeps which brought a lot of tourists up the mountain. After arriving at my final destination I had to find out that not only the viewpoint was overcrowded and really windy but also covered in extreme thick fog, which made it impossible to see if I had to retie my shoe laces. But hey, the statue, which was built for the tourists, made for good wind shield, so I got that going for me, which is nice. Meme-pun intended.
So after all, the sun rose. Well, I think it did, because it was still foggy as hell, but the darkness of the night was gone. I spent hours full of hope that the weather condition would change, but I waited in vain. I decided to find my way back down and thought I should try another spot: the crater itself.
But to get there, I had to cross a desert made out of ashes. So as I walked through the valley of the shadow… hold up, that was a line from the song Gangster’s Paradise… or was it the Bible? So as I walked through the surreal desert which surrounded the volcano, a really strong wind pushed raindrops and tiny little ash particles into my face… again and again. That hurt and felt like a thousand needles. Even during daytime it was really cold, windy and rainy. And it was getting worse and worse. So my window to fly my drone was very short. Drones are not yet water resistant, so ideally I had to wait till the rain stopped and the wind got a bit better… which of course did not happen. But after all the pain and all the frustration I experienced on that day, I had to fly, I just had to do it! This is not a place I have the chance to visit everyday. So I powered up my drone, it just got up into the air and flew the hell around and into the crater. I never had to hurry like this before and I had never been that excited and anxious at the same time while controlling my drone.
So after all, I am glad that I could capture some scenes at least. And this again is the reason why I had no time to plan my shots nor to develop a story. Well, maybe not visually, but as you may see now, there is one for me behind it: the one I just told you. I hope you liked it, and of course the video! Oh, and by the way, the drone is still fine and did an awesome job! Thank you so much, Lilly! Yep, that’s the name of my drone!
