After months of admiring the fresh standpoint of professional and amateur drone photographers, I read reviews and product details to choose a modest starter UAS (Unmanned Aircraft System, a.k.a. unmanned aerial vehicle) with a camera that has usable image quality for less than $200. Other considerations were GPS “automatic return to home” and brushless motors, since these are quieter and more long lasting than the cheaper motors that rely on brushes to make the motor convert electrical current to locomotion. Then there is the legal cut-off at 250 grams. Anything above 250 grams must be licensed with the FAA for a nominal sum. No matter the weight or commercial use, though, all pilots must do a self-paced online test to get acquainted with current UAS rules and restricted places and gatherings (www.faa.gov). Each country has rules about maximum altitude above ground, for instance 400' in most cases for USA (airports, military, and other installations have lower ceiling limits or total bans at the nearest perimeters). The “B4UFly” app plots a pilot’s flying area onto a map of altitudes permitted.
The special exemptions for sub-250g private use UAS presents the fewest obstacles. Professional users require permissions, licensing, and so on. But even for the lightweight drone photography enthusiast the window for flying conditions is limited to daylight, light wind (or windless), no precipitation, and maintaining line-of-sight flying. Unlike photography on solid ground, you can’t just grab a camera and set out in search of a subject at all hours and in all weather conditions. Besides these physical conditions, there are social rules to steer clear of: no flying over private property without express permission, no infringing on emergency response events, major sporting events, presidential movements, and so on. Spaces and times that are available are still numerous, but far from unlimited: open spaces free from overhead wires, towers, and air traffic include parks, beaches and open water (at risk of batteries dying and drone drowning). Other sites allowed might include derelict property — or at least along its margins and looking in; one’s own property; agricultural land (landowner permission is a courtesy, if not a law); city limits around the edges of the local government jurisdiction, and so on. It is not uncommon to find posted warnings forbidding drone flights, too (solemn monument areas; sound that disturbs animals or recreational nature lovers; worries about “eye in the sky” acting like mobile surveillance).
Given all the restrictions both physical and social, national laws and local ordinances, drone photographers continue to “write with light” in surprising and wonderful ways, both with still photos and video recordings. But there is a non-trivial learning curve to control the UAS movements deftly and to orient the camera side of the aircraft in addition to tilt the lens so as to frame a composition before releasing the shutter or triggering the video recording start and stop point. Here are the pre-flight points and then the launch sequence for the Holystone HS-175d camera drone (first released in 2021). With repetition these steps flow without thinking, but at first it seems like a checklist for operating a small airplane.
PREFLIGHT: inspect the drone and lens before and after use (make sure no smudges mar the lens, no nicks mark the propellers), check weather and restrictions map for flight location, make sure batteries are full (drone, transmitter, smartphone).
LAUNCH SEQUENCE: turn on drone and controller (transmitter) and pair them (left stick up then down), calibrate compass (long-press the compass button on the controller) and rotate the drone body on horizontal axis and then on vertical axis, also calibrate the gyroscope that hovers drone in place (left and right stick both moved to lower left quadrant). Now turn on smartphone wifi to pair with the drone (images will be recorded onto the phone) and launch the proprietary app. Finally, place the drone on a flat launch spot (the above photo shows a cardboard circle near the pilot) and unlock the motors so they can respond to the controller and/or smartphone touch screen commands (left stick down and inward; right stick mirrors with down and inward). Press ‘takeoff’ button or manually gain altitude with the left stick. When the flying and/or photography is finished, or to let the drone cool down for an interval, three different ways bring the UAS back: press ‘home’ to come back to initial GPS launch spot automatically, or manually get the drone pretty close to landing target before pressing ‘land’, or manually lower the altitude and finally kill the engine.
In summary, a new drone flyer has to get acquainted with the parameters of when, where, and how to fly. As well, there are the photographic considerations to keep in mind: positioning the lens for front-lighting or backlighting or side-lighting, what to juxtapose in foreground and background, how close to get to the main subject (or how much surrounding space to include around the subject), and what moment to capture with the shutter release. Things like aperture and ISO and shutter speed are automatic since framing the shot and maneuvering the UAS already preoccupy the flying camera-person. As with any set of skills that fit together into a larger performance, “practice makes perfect.” The more experience you log and the wider range of conditions you challenge yourself with, the better your own results AND the better you can appreciate the work of others who also put their lens up where the birds see things.
