So I opened a maps website with 360 panoramic images and saw views like this:
Sunrise, shadows and fog. Just some aerostat took a photo and it’s beautiful. But I very rarely see aerial photos! There are so many landscape photographers, but they all shoot from their perspective. So why isn’t aerial photography as popular?
I actually really want to get in to aerial photography. I’d like to take pictures of clouds. I don’t have a drone or a helicopter. I could buy a drone, but in this economy my money is reserved for higher priorities
cost of choppers are yet another factor
The overwhelming majority of aerial photography is taken with fixed wing aircraft.
My one and only time doing arial phography was from a microlight in the Himalayas. Even that was US$120 per hour Nepal prices about 15 years ago
I only shoot stills on my drone so maybe there’s more than you think but they are not shared in the places you look
In the US, is kinda surprising how many places restrict drones. Any government property, national parks, within x miles of an airport, etc.
And part 107 certification needed for professional work.
Remote is tracking.
Sad how bad it has got for no reason 😥
RID is built into almost every drone made in the last 3 years. A 107 is not difficult and frankly everyone should go through some kind of training.
As for the restrictions comment. There are a lot of fences on the ground restricting where you can walk. And I can show you how to fly just about anywhere. All you need to do is know who to ask.
I totally agree with banning drones in national parks. I don’t want to hear drones buzzing about while I’m hiking, and I definitely don’t want people harassing wildlife with them.
Well when people kept crashing drones into thermal features in Yellowstone, they locked that shit down in a hurry.
I was shocked that micro drones in the US are only allowed to fly up to 400 feet. In Canada I can fly mine up to 500 meters.
It’s because controlled class E airspace goes down to 500’ AGL at the lowest here.
drone laws
this screams “why do people rent when they could just buy a house?” homie we don’t all have drone kinda money :/ i shoot with a nikon e995 lmaooo
Drones are just generally a pain in the arse. They can capture nice unique images but they always felt detached from me in a way. Plus using them is a faff, people just gawp at you. If it’s busy you feel like a right pillock making a bunch of noise and it’s more stuff to carry.
I’ve taken aerial photos all over the world. The regulations limit where, when, and how I can do it though.
Where I am you require extra licences to take commercial photos, some locations need special permissions and many are off limits.
Add that drones don’t have cameras comparable to professional gear until you get into the much more expensive tiers and it takes it from something a hobbiestt can dabble in, to something with a high level of investment.
Sounds like you need to check out golf course photography…
Maybe because we can’t get up there
Why isn’t deep space photography as popular? Only like one guy bothered to take a picture of a black hole.
500,000 or 5,000,000 telescope isn’t quite your $250 little camera drone?
I bought a drone.
Here they’re banned in:
All Municipal Parks
All Provincial Parks
All National ParksNot allowed to fly them over people, roads, or buildings. not to mention anywhere near an airport or heliport.
Pretty much the only place you can legally fly them is from private land. I honestly can’t figure out where i can fly this thing without risking huge fines.
It’s illegal to do 90+ on highways, but people still do it.
Accessibility.
- Price - An entry level drone is still expensive.
- Laws and Regulations - For example: In the US, you can’t fly above 400 ft of the tallest structure, within a 400 foot radius of that structure. The drone must be within visual line of sight. FPV is a major no-no without another person watching the drone, etc. These laws are ALWAYS changing. Add in the local ordinances and the problem multiplies. You could be complaint federally, but not locally or vice versa. By the time you’re comfortable with them, something major changed. Some drones can’t be flown anymore without remote id. Commercial work requires a license, with its own set of rules. Getting waivers, especially early on to simply fly 1 foot in the air in a controlled airspace like class D, is a months long process with immense planning required to do anything. Most of the US is in controlled airspace, even in the sparsely populated midwest states. This means, you need to get authorization to fly. You can’t fly in most national parks without a waiver, national and local government permissions, etc. The ones you can fly in, require a whole different process.etc etc etc. Basically, it’s too much of a hassle.
On the creative side:
- All aerial shots with drones are almost always generic garbage. If you’ve seen one, you seen them all, save a few exceptions. They are “epic” wide shots that showcase the general area, almost exclusively a plains area of a small town with lots of hills, because you can’t fly in a large city.
I post a good bit of aerial photos. I credit aerial photography with reigniting my interest in photography.
I don’t shoot aerial as much now as I did a few years ago though, primarily because I haven’t travelled much recently and I’ve grown bored of my current location.
Posting online quickly turns into a minefield also, with other drone operators debating the legality of my photos. I got kicked out of my local drone group because a member ripped photos from my website, and posted them to the group with the purpose of debating how high I was flying. They didn’t understand the concept of stitching photos in post, so they assumed that I was at least 1000ft up. I wasn’t, but this is the level of petty you have to deal with when it comes to the drone community.
As others have pointed out also, most aerial photos are mediocre because drone owners are simply satisfied by the perspective they are getting. Very few of them are editing these photos in post, and when they do, it’s not of the quality of someone who has a passion for photography.
