There are as many reasons why we use drones as there are people that fly drones. My reason was to get a different perspective on my photography.
Surfers on Bideford Beach (god mode)
Bideford 12th July 2022
In gaming you would call it god mode i.e. an overhead or birds eye view of the terrain or subject. I had a few shots that I wanted to get and the only way to get those shots was by using a drone.
Below you can see the various rock formations around Bideford beach in Devon which is of interest to me geologically.
This part of england contains some of the oldest rock on earth from the Lower Devonian period between 395 and 310 million years old.
Bideford Beach Wide Angle View
Bideford 12th July 2022
Bideford Bay, United Kingdom
I started publishing drone photos and videos on the 18th Mar 2017 after taking a hot air balloon flight over the Cambridgeshire Fenlands.
Balloon Flight View
It opened my eyes to what we can see from the sky and got me interested in what I could see if I had control of the camera using a drone.
There isn't much control from a balloon as it is being blown by the wind.
Below is one of my very first videos using a drone.
It was actually a cheap Skywarrior quadcopter that I had bought to see if I could get the kind of shots I was after using a drone of this type.
It had a HD camera and was cheap enough that if I lost or crashed it, I wouldn't lose that much money. It was a proof of concept and it worked fine.
The skywarrior was not a great platform. It was hard to control and unstable but it did prove that I could get better ariel photos and videos.
Skywarrior Quadcopter
Seeing the admittedly shaky results from the Skywarrior. It did get me hooked on the concept of aerial photography and how it could be used in the areas that I am interested in. Namely geology and investigating landscapes for evidence of human habitation and activity from the past.
I bought a DJI Mini SE and it is brilliant for what I want to film. I have flimed a few Roman settlements in the last year or two at Vindolanda, Hadrians Wall and Homesteads Roman Fort in the North of England that I will edit into a video at some point.
Drone photography itself is a very niche topic and filming ancient ruins and geology is even more niche but it fascinates me that simply by using a drone we can pull up from the eye level scene to reveal amazing structures that we just cannot see at ground level.
Luckily we have a great community here on the hive blockchain that will grow over time as we grow with it.
Whatever you use your drone for. Have fun and share your ideas with us.