Page 14 - Australian Photography Dec 2020

BIRD’S EYE VIEW
Much has been written about drones, but the technology and price is now at a point where they are a great creative option for your camera bag, as Darran Leal explains.
Ever dreamed you could fly? I’m sure all of us have looked at soaring birds and been very jealous at how easy they make it all look – in my next life I want to come back as an eagle!
Today, the closest we can get to flying with limited budgets is a drone. My family started with toy drones when our boys were about six or seven years old in the 1990s. They also had remote control helicopters growing up.
Then, a few years later my friend, Russell Brown, gave me a DJI Phantom 3. It was a great drone, but also a bit large to take on tour.
I recently added to my kit what I consider to be the best compromise of weight, size and cost – the DJI Mavic Air 2. At just 570g, this drone fits
perfectly in my camera bag. I can have a camera body, two lenses, the drone and batteries for about 8kg of total weight. The drone also connects to my smartphone with an app. The controls are simple, and I love the fact I do not need to be a “tech head” to drive it. Technology-wise it offers plenty, too: 48MP RAW files (four im- ages stacked), 4K video, and a host of other features for under $1800.
Yet despite all the benefits, the drone is not a camera I take out regularly. In fact, even when I do use it, typically I don’t take a lot of images. This is because it works best in very particular applications.
I’ll reach for the drone when I can shoot creative images, such as abstracts, and especially near water. The key
is looking for areas of contrast – a beach, for example, is visually in- teresting right where the water meets the land, or a road or train tracks snak- ing through a landscape can provide a rarely seen contrast.
Sometimes you will never see the image until you take time to put the drone up, and it can bring a different perspective to a location than what you get from the ground. I’m not just talking about the ‘classic’ bird’s-eye/top down view you often see, but also locations where you just need to get a bit higher and are limited by the terrain around you – flying at just 10m above a subject can bring a totally different feel to an image. Look for areas of contrast, and look for ways you can use recognisable
STRAIGHT SHOOTER
| 14 | DECEMBER 2020 | AUSTRALIANPHOTOGRAPHY.COM