They can cost as little as R800 and can fly to places impossible for humans to reach. Welcome to the brave new world of drone photography, writes Lucy Davies
IT’S NOT uncommon for marrying couples to be photographed at various landmarks or with the ocean as a backdrop. It is uncommon, though, for the couple’s special day to be captured from above, and with scarcely any of the party noticing.
Likening the experience to “trying to sleep in a swarm of mosquitos”, Boatwright said then: “There is no denying the footage is brilliant, but there is no need to buzz surfers at a quiet break when there are other more popular and well known spots to film.”
Drone photography is still in its infancy, but things are changing fast. For relatively little outlay, anyone can buy a small drone, many of which come fitted with a camera. Amazon sells them, and that’s where Van Houtryve bought his, for $60 (about R600).
Newer models can be modified to carry a good-quality camera. The added weight makes flight times short, “but you’d be amazed how far you can fly in just four minutes”, says Van Houtryve.
Photographers have been taking cameras into the air almost as long as the camera has existed.
Early practitioners, such as Nadar, who rose 80m above the Paris suburbs in a balloon in 1858, and James Wallace Black, who photographed Boston from 610m in 1860, had to apply a chemical solution to their glass plates and then develop the picture in a mobile darkroom in the balloon basket.