The brief

Viking’s own team filmed on the ground: Shehnaz and two camera operators, one of them directing. My job was the air: the river, the terraced vineyards, the quintas and the ship itself moving through the valley. On board, I also filmed the cocktail episode with the ship’s barman.

The challenge: flying from a moving ship

A river cruise doesn’t stop for the drone. Before we sailed, I requested about 35 flight permits for the whole route, some of them in military areas, and confirmed each flight by phone the day before. On the river, I launched and landed the drone from the deck of the moving ship, timing every flight to the ship’s course and the light.

The result

I delivered the raw aerial footage on 25 August 2024, and Viking’s team edited the series. The first Douro episode, at Graham’s Port Lodge, went out on Viking.TV in November 2024; others followed in 2025, including Mateus Palace and Quinta das Carvalhas. I’ve collected the 13 episodes with my aerial footage in one playlist.

Back on the Douro: naming Viking Gyda

A year later, I was back on the Douro for Viking. In October 2025, Viking named nine new river ships at once, and Viking Gyda, its new Douro ship, had its moment in Porto. On 3 and 4 October, for the events company HWM, I filmed the ship anchored mid-river between Porto and Gaia: the bottle breaking at the bow, the celebration and guests on the top deck, and both riverbanks and the city around them. The light was beautiful, and at one point a haze rolled in and gave the images a special mood.

The hardest shot was the bottle itself. As it broke against the bow, I had to be orbiting the front of the ship; then, as the guests started clapping, keep orbiting while climbing higher and higher, until the shot opened up to reveal the city and the Dom Luís I bridge behind.