I shot this one very early morning a few years back in Malmö. I vividly remember how stressful it was to first position the drone and then allow it to hover 25-30 meters above me while I dove into the sea. A nonetheless interesting technical and creative challenge.
I’ve been working on this assignment for a while now and delivered the final edit yesterday to loud cheers from the client, Vigneron Jeppe Appelin at Vejbystrand’s beautiful winery, Vejby Vingård.
As per usual, it was a shoot with all kinds of lighting conditions; morning, midday, and late afternoon sunlight. Most of the closeup scenes (on the ground) were shot with the Fujinon 56mm f1.2, a lens I just can’t get enough of. Indoors, the Fujinon XF 10-24 f4 proved to be the most useful, at least when I cranked up the ISO to 800.
The Mavic’s tiny drone sensor is still after two years impressing me and the aerial shots are by far the most spectacular of this project.
Much of drone flying, at least technically, resides in my muscle memory. I don’t actively think about what controls do what. I just decide on a manoeuver and my fingers instantly execute the thought. Though perhaps unremarkable because it’s so obvious and natural, I still find it interesting how easily and nimbly we humans interface with machines. How adaptable we are and how fast we take things for granted.
Anyhow… I shot this over Vejbystrand last night at about 9 pm. In the center of the photo, you should be able to see a herd of tiny cows.
I haven’t flown my old drone in about six months. Somewhat surprised how fast my muscle memory kicked in – making flying it feel easy peasy. I’m still fascinated by upside-down perspectives and this is from about 80 meters above Sjömantorp where we live.
I often get the question, isn’t hard to fly a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicles), let alone take drone photos that are commercially and artistically viable? Whether you like it or not, drone photography is here to stay. I’ve unmistakably embraced this enabling technology and saw the creative opportunities as soon as it appeared on my horizon.
My first drone shot was taken probably about 10 years ago when I hired a fella here in Malmö (whom had built his own drone) to fly roughly at the same height as Turning Torso. I’ve since taken several images – via drones – that have eventually been used as covers for my book series about Västra Hamnen and delivered countless photos and videos to clients.
The real trick to really good drone photos isn’t always to climb up as high as possible. That kind of shot is an instant give-away, if you ask me. You look at it and go, well, that’s obviously an aerial shot, big deal. I my opinion, the key to a really good drone capture is the sweet spot when it’s almost impossible to discern how a particular perspective was achieved. A uniuque view that’s somewhere in-between what could be shot from the ground but is just a little too high. In addition to the subject matter, the composition and color array, I also want the viewer to appreciate the angle – and in the case with the above image, some might even think it was taken from a treetop.
After years of hiring drone pilots and watching a few of them crash their aircrafts – and my cameras – to smithereens, I was understandably apprehensive about buying one of my own.
But as leaps in technological advancments in this category (obstacle avoidance, battery life, ease of use) trickled down to the smaller, more reasonably priced drones, I started taking serious notice. And about a month ago, I took the plunge and bought one.
It’s still surprisingly cumbersome to get the controller, the mandatory phone app and the drone itself all configured, updated and connected to each other. Keep in mind, I’m a Mac user, so the tinkering most PC/Android users are adapted to is foreign territory for me. I’m used to things working more or less straight out of the box without having to go through a bunch of reverse engineering just to figure out how to get it all to work. Like a computer, a drone is a tool. And if the tool is too hard to understand how to use, I’ll just find some other way to get the job done. Fortunately for those of us with limited patience and technical savviness, there are dozens upon dozens of tutorials available on Youtube. Some are genuinely pedagogical, too.
Once past the initial stage of frustration whilst trying to get the hardware and software to rock n roll, the flying while filming and shooting stills is fairly straightforward. I’m getting the hang of it now and letting go of my previous distrust issues – so that I can focus on the drone as a creative tool to allow me to get unique perspectives.
What I like best about the flying experience? Possibly using the “Home” button so that the drone flies exactly back to where it took off from – with out any involvement on my part.