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Initially, I thought drones would be another passing fad, a cool but silly toy.
Then during my tenure as NPPA President, I got asked to speak at a Drone Journalism School the organization sponsored, and I sat in all weekend and audited the class. When I got back home, I was intrigued enough, I decided to study and see if I could pass the Part 107 test. (I did. And *SURPRISE* this native Floridian knows nothing about cold weather — the only two questions I got wrong were about frost!).
A short while later I got my first drone assignment, an epic opportunity to fly a drone in 8 cities on 4 continents for a photogrammetry project, flying in specific patterns so they could be stitched together with a CAD-software program to essentially create augmented reality models of buildings that “are an exploration of creative solutions to the challenges of urban living.” Crazy, huh?! But what an incredible learning experience.
I’ve had a few occasions since to put the eyes in the sky on a few other assignments, when a different angle or vantage point makes sense, like the one on mining In North Dakota so we could show how close the mine is to the river that it's polluting. And I’m currently in Southwest Virginia, on assignment, getting the chance to fly again for a bigger commercial client. #NDA
I appreciate the challenge of seeing things differently and honing my skills. And I’m pumped by people doing really great drone work, pushing the envelope, in new and interesting ways. When used right, a drone is an incredibly effective tool.
These are a few drone-related things that get me excited about the technology and its capabilities not only to wow, but to be used as a storytelling tool:
Reuben Wu uses drones as a light source for his awe-inspiring Lux Noctis series. I first heard Reuben speak at the Nat Geo Seminar in 2020 and I’ve been following his work ever since.
The viral one-shot 87-second take of a drone flying into a bowling alley is incredible, and still some of the coolest drone work I’ve seen. The same pilot took us on a journey through the Mall of America and Miami’s Formula One race, too.
Tomas van Houtryve is always working on something impressive. The first thing I remember seeing from him, aerial wise, was a very simple video piece he called “Divided.” Then there was a little more work from the US-Mexico border. Then his first monograph “Blue Sky Days” came out. Spend some time with this Q&A where he talks about that project, drones, and the future of photojournalism. And then his most recent work was flying a drone in, around, and over Notre Dame Cathedral, documenting its restoration after the fire.
I met Danielle DeLeon on an amazing assignment for Google doing a 360-VR project for the United Nations Women’s Day. Danielle is one of the most badass drone pilots I’ve met, and she’s doing some really rad stuff mounting 360 cameras on them. Check out this piece from Iceland she worked on for NatGeo. Be sure to move your mouse around the video so you get the full 360. She’s also a drone pilot instructor, so if you’ve ever wanted to learn to fly… look her up. She’s great.
Also, loosely related, I highly recommend the Google Earth View browser extension for Chome. It always reminds me to look at things in new and different ways. These were some of the sweet views I got today:
Lastly, there’s the flip side. Drones are being used as tools of war, and the PTSD that those military drone pilots are suffering is unprecedented.