Inexplicable Tubers

Iceland Drone Workshop— August 2026

We visited many locations in the Iceland Drone workshop. Most of the shooting spots were a short flight from where the van parked. This location was unusual as it was a 4 km flight to get to the place where the pictures would be taken. So we were warned not to dally near the van but to get up and get out.

While the others were setting up their drones, a pile of what looked like rocks caught my attention. We were on a huge volcanic plain of black sand, and there was this big pile of pale something that demanded my attention. Before launching, I walked up to it and discovered a pile of potatoes. That was not on my bingo card of “things to find on a volcanic plain in the middle of nowhere, Iceland”. But there we were.

Inexplicable Tubers on a volcanic plain

Okay. That was random. I shrugged and got Flying Thing into the air. Going out 4 km was not particularly difficult, except the controller I was using had one flaky antenna that sometimes makes talking to the drone difficult. In really bad cases the drone loses contact with the controller. When that happens, the drone executes a return-to-home (RTH) maneuver, which means the drone flies itself back to the launch point and lands. So once I got close to the shooting spot, the drone began losing the connection. I didn’t feel like I had a lot of leeway to mess around with a flaky connection 4 km away, so I headed for the first thing that looked interesting and took the shot.

Potato-laying snake?

With the controller complaining, I flew back. Once I got over the van, I looked down and saw that the Potato Pile was even more interesting from the air. So I took a picture.

Alien Landing Strip

Nobody had any idea what was going on with the taters. From above, it gave me a somewhat creepy crop circle kind of vibe. Perhaps the tubers interfered with radio communications. Whatever. Everyone got their drones back on the ground and the shoot was a wrap. The mystery of the Inexplicable Tubers remains unsolved.