Popular Photography - February 2015 USA

THE RULES
Ready to fly? Before you
take off, learn to operate
legally and ethically.
CHAD COPELAND (2)
CITY VIEW
Chad Copeland
used the same
Cinestar drone
and Nikon
camera as on
the previous
page to
capture this
scene above
Yangshuo,
China.
Exposure:
1/800 sec at
f/5.6, ISO 400.
and anywhere from 75 feet to 300
feet in the air. My radio control
has two sticks: the left to control
throttle and yaw (rotation), and
the right for forward/backward
and left/right. While making
quick decisions during my initial
flight, I usually identify exactly
where I will return to during my
subsequent flights and spend the
maximum amount of time hovering
and shooting as the light or
conditions change.
A Drone’s Best Subjects
I attempted my first aerial photographs
by tying a camera to a
kite. After crashing this rig into a
coral reef in Tonga and a colony of
elephant seals on South Georgia
Island, I gave up. As drones
became more popular, I decided to
give my aerial ambitions another
STONE
FOREST
Using his
Cinestar
drone, this
time mounted
with a Nikon
D4, Copeland
photographed
the Stone
Forest in
Yunnan
Province,
China.
Exposure:
1/50 sec at
f/9, ISO 6400.
go. In 2013 I had hoped to fly my
DJI S800 over thousands of beluga
whales in Canada, but it flew
out of control and crashed. Since
building my first Tarot hexacopter,
I’ve made most of my aerial
photos—now more successful
than my initial tries—over the
ocean near Hawaii and California;
I’m getting ready to travel with a
drone to the Arctic this year.
Souders’s favorite aerial subjects
are the same ones that he
shoots from eye level and underwater:
the landscapes and wildlife
of the African savannah and in the
polar latitudes. His first aerial rig
was a Canon EOS 5D flying off a
kite. He got some interesting shots
of nesting penguins and shore
birds in Antarctica that he never
would have achieved otherwise. It
cost him less than $150 to put his
camera in the air, but then more
than $3,000 when his kite and
camera fell into the ocean. In 2013
he took his first Phantom drone
to Africa, and in 2014 he took a
Phantom Vision 2+ to Africa and
the Arctic and made some beautiful
images of wildlife, including
elephants. The resolution of his
cameras fell short of his expectations,
so he’s going to try again this
year, with his first Tarot 680 Pro
hexacopter.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Agency
(FAA) is tasked with integrating
drones into the nation’s airspace,
but as drones proliferate, regulations
remain nearly nonexistent. Amateurs
can legally fly pretty much anywhere
there are no airspace restrictions,
below 400 feet and within visual
range. To fly commercially, the FAA
requires a 333 Exemption. To get
one, you must be a certified aircraft
pilot, which will probably strike most
drone photographers as unrealistic.
There are few rules that police
can enforce, though I’ve had officers
approach me out of curiosity.
Copeland says he has flown beside
Icelandic law enforcement, Chinese
military, and other agencies without
feeling scrutinized. Souders has
flown in several African countries, but
drones are banned in South Africa.
In June 2015, the U.S. National Park
Service banned drones.
Fly ethically. If an animal spends
a lot of time looking at your drone,
runs away, or seems bothered by its
sound, land. In the U.S., the Marine
Mammal Protection Act requires all
aircraft—including drones—to be at
least 1,500 feet above any marine
animal. Finally, do not fly your drone
over people. Crashing into a crowd is
a sure way to injure someone.
Copeland, who spent 10 years in
the Air Force and worked as an air
traffic controller before becoming
a photographer, has been flying for
about 15 years. On assignment for
National Geographic in 2013, he flew
China’s Stone Forest, a vast area of
100-foot limestone formations that
from above look like sharp knife
blades. These beautiful formations
had never been filmed or
photographed by drone before, and
the new perspective was unbelievable.
Flying his camera completely
changed his view of photography. An
adventure photographer at heart, his
focus is extreme athletes.
If you decide to take up drone
photography, you will sometimes
experience moments of frustration.
But the satisfaction of creating
unique images will be your reward.
50 POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY FEBRUARY 2015
POPPHOTO.COM