In a recent email from my tutor while discussing the idea of using a drone to take images for my assignment Russel recommended two drone photographers/filmmakers, Karim Ilia and Gab Scanu.
The URL for Karim is: https://karimphotography.com/drone/
he one for Gab is password protected but I did find his work on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/gabscanu/?hl=en Some of which includes aerial photography.
I find the work to be quite stunning, at first I thought well its all right for people who can afford to travel to exotic places and get these images, however, it also occurs to me that where I live might be exotic to someone from elsewhere in the world, we do tend to think that to get exciting images we have to travel, which is the Douglas Adams Paradox about bypasses:
“Bypasses are devices that allow some people to dash from point A to point B very fast while other people dash from point B to point A very fast. People living at point C, being a point directly in between, are often given to wonder what’s so great about point A that so many people from point B are so keen to get there, and what’s so great about point B that so many people from point A are so keen to get there. They often wish that people would just once and for all work out where the hell they wanted to be.”
– Douglas Adams – the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Why did I write that? well, it occurs to me that as photographers we always want to travel to exotic places and take exotic things! Whilst there is not really anything wrong with that it makes me think about the people that live in these “exotic places” who probably think Aldershot is exotic, and whilst that makes me smile as living here I see nothing exotic about it, I suppose its no different to me travelling to some small town in Germany or France and finding it different photographically worthy etc. while the locals wonder why I am obsessed with photographing their “mundane town”.
Coming back to the drone photographers recommended by Russell one cannot deny they have found some stunning places to use their drones and I admit some envy at their opportunities to do that, one of the better sides of photography is the ability it has to let me experience the full wonder of an African watering hole or some other remote and wonderful place without leaving my seat and risking the upset stomach.
These images and films are awe-inspiring and make me want to produce images from my frame of existence that has a similar effect on people who live elsewhere in the world.