Drones are wonderful tools for photographers (versatile and fun to operate) but for one reason or another not every flight goes as planned. This brief viral video—captured in Victoria, Australia by photographer Adam Lancaster—documents a dramatic encounter between a DJI camera drone (just flying along, minding its own business) and what appears to be an irate wedge-tailed eagle.
Drone photography is here to stay, whether the government likes it or not. That’s one of the messages from an intriguing roundtable discussion piece titled “Those Daring Photographers and Their Flying Machines” in an upcoming issue of Shutterbug magazine. In the story, written by Lorin Robinson, three experienced imaging drone pilots share their thoughts on this controversial topic, in what amounts to part “state of the drone industry” and part call to arms.
Because of the “this is why we can’t have nice things” antics of several idiots flying drones, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now requires every drone (and RC aircraft) weighing more than 0.55 pounds to register their craft and have an identification label. Pilots are also required to carry Flight ID.
One of the cooler (or geekier, depending on your perspective) imaging products being shown off at the PhotoPlus Expo show in New York City is a high-performance, remote-controlled car designed to help shoot high-speed tracking video. Called the Tero, the miniature vehicle is being sold by Freefly Systems, which created the vaunted 3-axis MoVI stabilizer camera gimbal.
Here’s something fun to carry you into the weekend. Freefly, which makes the Alta 8 camera drone, released a video today showing someone surfing while being pulled by a high-flying drone. It was shot at Dash Point State Park in Washington.
If there were a Photokina Award for the greatest number of cool new products by an American manufacturer, GoPro would certainly be in the running. The innovative folks that put action cams on the map unveiled two new Hero5 cameras and their first-ever drone, along with some interesting accessories.
Award-winning travel and drone photographer Chase Guttman has a long list of accomplishments, especially for someone who was born when Bill Clinton was President of the U.S. Guttman honed his drone photography skills while travelling across the U.S. to capture breathtaking images of all 50 states from the air.
Maybe you saw the video we posted yesterday showing a pod of curious orcas (aka killer whales) following a lone swimmer off the coast of New Zealand. The amazing aerial video, which was shot by Dylan Brayshaw using a drone, quickly went viral and now Brayshaw has posted another video (embedded below) where he explains the backstory on the clip.
I see a lot of cool imaging gadgets in my line of work but the Lily Flying Camera is one of the more intriguing devices I’ve looked at in a while. A remote controlled aerial drone in the vein of the popular Phantom quadcopters from DJI, Lily adds an interesting new twist to UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles). It’s fully automated and requires very little to no practice from users to take it for an aerial spin and capture sky-high video footage and still photos.
Krzystof Chomicz in an intrepid Polish photographer who crawled through thick mud to rescue a stranded white-tailed eagle trapped in the sludge near the coastal town of Swinoujscie. A drone captured the difficult and dangerous exploit.
Camera drones can be a great way to capture aerial footage of sporting events but they can also be a serious hazard when they crash. That’s what happened during a recent bike race in California where a drone ended up taking out one of the cyclists after it fell from the sky.
NANUK 945 DJI Drone Case: Ideal for drone users, this durable case is crafted from lightweight NK-7 resin with a top foam insert and a polyurethane lower foam insert. The case measures 25.1x19.9x8.8 inches and weighs 12.7 pounds. It is watertight (with a maximum buoyance of 120 pounds), temperature range is a minimum of 20˚F to a maximum of 140˚F. The NANUK 945 DJI drone case has a conditional lifetime warranty and is available in your choice of olive, orange, silver, yellow, graphite or black.
HEXO+: The HEXO+ is another new imaging drone that is capable of auto-following and auto-filming your subject. The HEXO+ is similar to the Lily Flying Camera drone, which we featured last month and took the UAV world by storm.