Aerial Photography

If you've played a few shooter video games in the last two decades, chances are you've seen at least one with a point of view that is looking from the top-down. The team over at Corridor Digital wanted to recreate this style in a video short (which also meant doing it all in a single take!) so they partnered with DJI to make it happen.

Eric Crosland is the director of Sherpa Cinema, a collective of artists who produce some pretty amazing stuff. Crosland recently went to some rather remote parts of Iceland with Dave Mossop and John Trapman working on capturing some landscapes, something for which Iceland is a mecca.

Toby Harriman, founder of the creative collective Planet Unicorn and good friend of mine, just finished a beautiful aerial video featuring my hometown, San Francisco. In just two, one hour flights, Toby was able to masterfully capture the beautiful pink sunrise and signature San Francisco fog out the door of a helicopter. It reminds me how much I love this city. 

The On Roof Top boys are at it again, this time "stealing" a digital sign high above the streets of Hong Kong in this sick behind-the-scenes video on how they did it all. Shockingly these guys are rarely caught, given the nature of the city and its crowded streets its almost impossible to catch everything that happens.

Can you imagine having the unlimited golden hour for a photo shoot? In this incredible video project created by photographer Simon Roberts and NATO pilot Jonathan Nicol they were able to exactly that. By exact calculation and plenty of research they made the sunset last as long as possible, here is how they did it.  

If you haven't been to Norway this video by Rustad Media will have you booking your plane tickets. This video is the work of a 5 month adventure, shot from a 15,000 km (almost 10,000 miles) long road trip.

Eric Cheng of DJI recently took his Phantom 2 to Iceland, hoping to get close enough to fly over the erupting Bardabunga volcano. The footage he brought back is spectacular. 

A Dutch man who was visiting Yellowstone National Park was fined $3,000 (£1,847) for crashing his done into the Grand Prismatic hot spring when he pled guilty to the charge of illegally flying a drone last week. He is not the first person who was levied a fine for drone flight this year either. A German man was also fined $1600 for losing his drone in Yellowstone Lake. 

The FAA announced yesterday that it is giving certain exemptions and special status to six video production companies that would use these exemptions specifically for the purpose of aerial filmmaking with drones.

We've shown you how the USAF Thunderbirds get their amazing imagery, but how do others do it? Go behind the scenes with aerial photographer Liz Kaszynski in this incredible video highlighting what goes into the process for the most epic military jet photos in the world.

If you are a quadcopter owner like I am, you know how frustrating it can be when you are in the middle of a great flight and those red lights start flashing that warn the pilot of low battery. Usually the pilot will return the aircraft safely to their side before the impending doom occurs.

Since the 1960s, NASA has accumulated 1.8 million photos from various missions and sources that it now needs help analyzing and placing into context. Volunteers have already catalogued 20,000 photos, according to CNN, but without a greater public interest, cataloguing the 1.8 million photos (and counting) would likely never happen.

The team over at Dubai 360 shared with us a rather unique view of the world. In the video above, you'll get to watch a full day's revolution of the Earth directly above the Dubai International Airport. You'll see airplanes fly in and soar off, you'll watch them taxi into their various gates and you'll see it all from a spectacular 4K panoramic "little planet" downward view!

Director, photographer, and aerial cinematographer Randy Scott Slavin has created the first-ever drone film festival. The New York City Drone Film Festival, which takes place in NYC on February 21, 2015 was created to “celebrate the art of drone cinematography.” I spoke with Slavin about the process of putting together the festival which is, as of today, taking submissions. 

Aerial videos that have been shot by drones have been flooding YouTube for the last few years, especially as the cost and expertise needed to get into it has come down. A birds-eye point of view can add a lot of production value to a video project, but where does one start when looking to get into aerial video?

In December of 2013, Amazon teased the world with the thought of delivering (small) packages to your doorstep using drones, as first reported here. It got a lot of people talking. But since that initial announcement from Amazon, there hasn't been any indication that it was real. Was it purely a publicity stunt? If it was, it was a good one.

You can really get yourself into trouble putting your expensive camera gear on a drone, Lee Morris has personally lost two drones and Chase Jarvis famously crashed his DJI Phantom into a lake in Iceland. Now Swiss researchers are looking to change all that, or at least help prevent some minor crashes.

Yesterday, Fstoppers writer John White shared news of an apparent close call between two irresponsible pilots' DJI Phantom drones and an NYPD helicopter. Naturally, this sparked a conversation about the safety of such drones in the hands of the public. But as with many hyped new stories, all was not as it seemed.

It's always a small handful of people that begin the process of ruining it for everyone else. On Monday, two drones nearly crashed into a New York Police Department's chopper while it was going over the George Washington Bridge.

It's hard to imagine someone not describing what Sergeant Larry Reid Jr. does as a dream job. Once you see what he does, the images he captures and the joy on his face as he explains his process, part of you (no matter who you are) kind of wishes you were him.

Ah July 4th. For us in the United States, this national holiday calls for hot dogs, beer and most importantly fireworks. YouTuber Jos Stinglingh may have published this video of a DJI Phantom 2 and a GoPro a couple months ago in West Palm Beach, Florida, but there are few dates more apt to view it than today.  

Happy fourth of July everyone!

DJI has been a major player in the quadcopter arena for quite some time. While there are MANY other brands out there, DJI has set out to make flying easy, especially for those with no experience. Now it will be even easier to start flying thanks to the addition of Autonomous flight. They call it Ground Station. 

Have you ever considered creating an accurate and detailed 3D model from 2D photos? Probably not, it's incredibly difficult. Now, if you try to do it on a truly massive scale and have a huge castle as your subject, it makes it almost impossible to do by hand.

Those that know me know that Los Angeles is one of my favourite cities in the world. The city just feels like home for a number of reasons and this timelapse from Chris Pritchard absolutely embodies everything I love about it. The ever changing conditions and light, the mixture of urban and landscape and the way the city just feels alive. 

A few weeks ago I released a video featuring my friend and fellow photographer Blair Bunting in the backseat of an F16. The video blew up on Reddit (#1 in r/Videos making it to the top 5 of the front page), was featured on Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Daily Mail, Telegraph, CNN, ABC World News with Dianne Sawyer, hundreds of other blogs and even was officially recognized by YouTube.

During an initial meeting with local publication NFocus Magazine, the Editor-In-Chief asked for a unique aesthetic on Louisville's theater and arts community and wanted a massive group shot, but not your traditional group shot. I threw out the idea to shoot actors and their "characters" from directly overhead on a theater floor, as if they were action figures laid out and organized.

Today, Southland shared a rare look at the growth of DisneyLand in Anaheim, California from construction site in 1955 to the bustling theme park it is today, in 2014. In the two GIF animations of the park's evolutions (below) you see orange groves turn into the parking lots, carefully landscaped jungles, and the themed buildings that make up "the happiest place on earth". 

Videos like this help bring awareness of disaster situations which in turn brings aid and funding for recovery efforts. It can be argued that videos like this are pivotally important in the modern age for any area of the United States to get the help they need.

"Here come the G's." Words that might not mean anything to you sitting at your computer, but if you're strapped into the back seat of an F-16, it means remember your breathing training and don't pass out. Blair Bunting, recent addition to the Nikon Ambassadors list, took to the skies with the United Air Force Thunderbirds in part to see if he could sustain 9 G's.

In an instant, one can feel as though they are in another world. As a landscape photographer you have the power to transport someone in the blink of an eye and send them on a journey into your photography to see the incredible world we live in. Creating amazing landscapes goes far beyond just snapping photos using the HDR setting on an iPhone.

It's not the first time I'm sharing Michael Shainblums work and it won't be the last time. Timelapses are one of the most time consuming forms of photography and only a dedicated person with patience can produce quality results as often as Michael. 

Even the best photographers need inspiration. 500px is a beautiful playground for some of the best photographers in the industry, and also one of the most powerful tools for motivation. There’s no sifting through rubbish to find quality work in your feed, which is often a problem with various social media platforms, like Facebook.

As a photographer, I'm always looking to capture something in a unique way. This is the craziest landscape photoshoot I have ever done. By taping a tiny Nikon Flash to my DJI Phantom II Drone, I was able to fly my remote helicopter up the side of a lighthouse and light the entire thing with flash.

I love aviation and I love photography. So the other day, inspiration struck and I ran to LAX to capture a photo that compresses eight hours of airport traffic at one of the biggest airports in the world into a single frame. Here's how I did it. 

What happens when you combine a GoPro Hero +3, a DJI Phantom II, an actor dressed as Superman, and some clever video editing? How about one awesome simulation of what it must be like to be Superman as he flies through Los Angeles. If you were upset with our recent Phantom 2 Gopro height test last week, you are definitely not going to want to watch this video.

A couple days ago we took a DJI Phantom 2 and flew it straight up into the air over Charleston, SC to test its "range". The video, although interesting, was not fully thought out and we decided to pull the video.

Known as Trappy on message boards and Facebooks groups, and the "aeriel anarchist" among drone hobbyist, Raphael Pirker the 29-year-old swede will be making headlines today after a federal judge has dismissed the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) case against Pirker.

Months of planning, 567 images stitched into a single panorama and a 14.6 gigabyte image results in a breathtaking view of New York City from the top of the Freedom Tower. Deemed as one the tallest skyscrapers in the US, the new Freedom Tower is about one year out from completion.  

Last week Lee, Mike, Lauren, and I headed down to the Bahamas to work out all of the details on the Fstoppers Photography Workshop taking place at the Atlantis Resort from May 28 - June 1st. B&H gave us a ton of gear for our trip and asked us to "test" all of it in as many different ways as possible. I believe we succeeded.  

Here at Fstoppers we featured many animal-related GoPro videos in the past [here are a few as a reminder: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5], and all are unique and interesting. Some are visually stunning. But this video taken by a pelican takes home the award for the most beautiful video ever taken by an animal.  

Take a few minutes to experience this spectacular piece of 90s gold featuring Jean Claude Van Damme, or should I say JCVD. Before this ultimate film bad-ass was featured doing epic splits on trucks for Volvo, he was showing us what cameras were capable of in the 90s film industry. 

Over the last two days, Kiev, Ukraine has seen its worst violence since the Soviet era, with the death toll now at 75. Fighting between police and protesters escalated when protesters used Molotov cocktails and lit several fires in the city square.

The night sky is an astounding phenomenon that fascinates almost every individual. Stars have been around for thousands of years and yet, humankind is still mesmerized by their beauty. Despite the distance, we have such a strong connection and love for these great unknown entities. Capturing the magnificence of the night sky is highly rewarding and can be an exciting process as well.  

Working at high altitude is always a challenge, but trying to follow fast moving objects that are actually people defying death is a whole other level of intensity. In this behind the scenes video for a Verizon Fios ad, Director Rob Cohen has wingsuit flyers recorded jumping off of a cliff, but then has to get creative to shoot the not-so-real landing.

A little over a year ago Felix Baumgartner made history with his record breaking “space jump”, the world’s highest skydive from 127,852ft above ground. The jump was incredible but what many of us couldn’t understand is why there seemed to be no POV footage from Felix's perspective. Yesterday, GoPro released an edit of what many of us have been waiting more than a year for.

Will Burrard-Lucas is a professional wildlife photographer who took aerial footage of life in the Serengeti. His BettleCopter drone took to the skies and captured a variety of life that was beautifully captured. From the primal feeding instincts of a hyena to the group of hippos lazily spending their afternoon submerged in water, this video is worth a watch.  

What type of photography do you do? Portraits? Still life? Macro? Aerial? Fine art?  Fashion? Commercial? Advertising and editorial photographer Joseph Ford does many of these – sometimes simultaneously. His latest project of beautiful diptychs proves unequivocally that your creativity and innovation are what will set you apart and win you top tier commercial clients.

As filmmakers, we often find ourselves in less-than-perfect circumstances; we may be losing sunlight at the end of a shoot or trying to capture a fleeting moment before it disappears. Often times you’ll find that you've captured great moments with an undesirable camera shake.