The Photographer's Third Eye
Twilight and tall trees make this home look like a magical hideaway deep in the woods.
In many Eastern spiritual practices, the “third eye” is able to perceive beyond ordinary sight, often to reach a higher consciousness. While drones aren’t known to grant spiritual enlightenment, they nonetheless provide access to a physically higher point of view and can “see” things not visible in a photograph taken at street level.
This sprawling house feels even more picturesque in the context of the beautiful rolling hills around it.
Drone photography maximizes the impact of the surrounding environment—especially in the summer, when brighter days and vibrant greenery add visual appeal and interest. A winding park walkway looks much more alluring amid leafy trees in June than among barren woods in December.
A drone was the perfect way to document this new pedestrian walkway/bridge in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park.
Likewise, a water park with an ocean view is best photographed with a backdrop of blue summer skies and a sparkling shore.
Not all water parks come with a view of the ocean, but this one does!
We have used drones to take photographs since 2015. In those ten years, we’ve perfected our technique across different venues, with new technologies, and in compliance with evolving safety standards. We’ve also adapted to the unique challenges of summertime photography. For instance, warm air and direct sunlight make drone batteries prone to overheating, so we come prepared with extra long-life batteries to make the most of the long daylight.
Photographing the University of Pennsylvania’s Burk-Bergman Boathouse from a boat would require life jackets and additional motion control, but flying a drone over the water needs no extra work.
Although drones can’t fly as high as helicopters can, they are both more affordable to use and better able to access tight spaces. The latter is particularly useful when navigating between skyscrapers in downtown Philadelphia
The new Amy Gutmann Hall at Penn has a beautiful mass timber and glass exterior that can only be fully captured from a drone’s-eye view.
The lingering sunset highlights the Philadelphia skyline behind apartments in Old City.