aerial photography Archives - Photo Tips, Creative Photography + Travel Guides - The Wandering Lens

Behind the Lens: Flying a DJI Mavic Air in -21 degrees

Lisa Michele Burns — Wed, 20 May 2020 07:38:33 +0000

Flying a Drone in Cold Weather – Really cold weather. As the pain became unbearable, my hand quickly resembling a rigid claw, I used my thumb to maneuver the joystick and land the drone. Never had a felt pain like this in my hands before. *Please note the story below is my own personal experience, in hindsight there are a lot of things I would’ve done differently so this is not professional advice or a guarantee your drone will fly in such conditions. The official DJI directions heavily suggest you shouldn’t fly a drone in such chilly conditions. Actually, you could probably describe the cold I felt at -21 degrees Celsius as the frigid, bitter, frozen solid kind. Alas, with the wintry landscapes of Ilulissat, Greenland, luring me to constantly look out the window of Hotel Icefiord, I had that nervous, excited feeling in my stomach, I wanted to fly it. An aerial perspective of the icefjord is what I’d come to photograph and film, my little drone was hopefully going to give me the additional footage I wanted but only if I managed to get it in the air. I had plenty of footage from the sea, filming from...

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Behind the Lens – Flying Over Greenland

Lisa Michele Burns — Thu, 14 May 2020 09:16:04 +0000

A flight I’ll never forget. “As we flew closer to the mainland the drift ice was forming patterns, no doubt shaped by currents swirling along the coast. It was beautiful, mesmerising, astonishing…all those descriptive words you use when explaining the inexplicable.” Hello, Greenland! The story from the beginning… Let’s start with a flash back to July 2019 when I was glued to my plane window with my mouth open staring in disbelief. I had just caught a glimpse of the ice cap for the first time and all the information gathered by reading books and documents about just how big and frozen Greenland was hit me. It’s huge, 1.71 million km² of ice that takes up 80% of the entire country. At the time, I had planned for that trip to be the trip of a lifetime, visiting and photographing somewhere that’s always been at the top of my list. Roughly 15,000km from home, basically the completely opposite side of the world, I was sure it wouldn’t be happening again anytime soon, if ever, so I was trying to make the most of every single second of that flight staring out the window. Now let’s flash forward a little to January 2020...

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Aerial Photography: Floating Above the Namib Desert

Lisa Michele Burns — Thu, 06 Feb 2020 12:34:23 +0000

Aerial Photography in Namibia Orange hues of all shades pass below as the basket drifts slowly across the Namib Desert. A gentle breeze pushes us over deeply etched sand patterns carved by wind, footprints by wandering Oryx and towering dunes stacked all the way to the horizon like they’d been painted perfectly in place beneath a contrasting blue sky. When the subject you’re shooting is a sandy, barren desert, composition becomes the key to creating images that showcase it’s beauty. From above the world is a truly inspiring place and on a recent trip to Namibia I saw just how striking it can be while photographing from both a hot air balloon and a tiny Cessna 206 plane. The aerial perspective is one that I’ve been drawn to for years. It’s one thing to work with a landscape at ground level, using the horizon to compose your image along with elements such as water and wind plus shadows and reflections. From the air though things change quite dramatically, the scene that once had peaks and depth is now flat, stretched out like a giant canvas waiting for your interpretation. Aerial Composition Photographing aerials requires a degree of thought to...

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Setting the Scene: Aerial Photography

Lisa Michele Burns — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 19:41:12 +0000

Aerial Photography Tips, Camera Settings + Gear Advice Capturing an alternate perspective of a scene is always exciting, perhaps never more so than when taking aerial photos. With the world beneath and a never ending canvas of potential shots waiting, aerial photography is a thrilling way to take landscape photos. You can be in a helicopter, seaplane, small plane, hot air balloon…the list goes on, whatever your aircraft of choice is, more often than not, the process of taking a great aerial image is the same. In this months ‘Setting the Scene’, I want to share a little about how I capture aerial photographs and list some of the best lenses, settings and creative tips to use for your next aerial attempt. If you’ve never photographed aerials before it can be a little intimidating at first because you’ve got limited time in the sky, it’s usually a bit of a splurge and with the movement and distance, can be tricky to know what to set your camera at to get optimal results. But fear not, once you land you’ll be wanting to do it over and over again! Aerial Photography – When is the best time? Now obviously this depends...

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The Great Barrier Reef – Photographing Above and Below

Lisa Michele Burns — Thu, 03 May 2018 09:54:16 +0000

Australia’s Natural Wonder Every shade of blue from teal to navy appeared beneath me as we flew over the Great Barrier Reef east of Cairns in Queensland, Australia. As one of the world’s natural wonders, the reef really lives up to its reputation of being a photogenic landscape with that vibrant myriad of blues appearing not only above, but below the water too. Running for over 2,300km along the Queensland coast, the Great Barrier Reef is made up of numerous reef systems, sand cays and tropical islands. Basically if you dream up paradise, this is a giant picture perfect version of it. It’s a huge watery canvas with photo opportunities at every single angle whether you’re visiting it near Bundaberg, Airlie Beach or Port Douglas. I had never visited the reef further north off Cairns so the lovely (and super talented!) Katie from @mycolourfulworld_ showed me around her favourite photography spots and experiences. You can read more about our adventures exploring Tropical North Queensland here. The water has always been a huge inspiration in my work so getting the opportunity to photograph the patterns, natural formations and contrasting tones of this beautiful landscape again was one that I jumped at....

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Photographing aerials of The Great Barrier Reef

Lisa Michele Burns — Sat, 31 Jan 2015 02:00:22 +0000

Listed as one of the natural wonders of the world, The Great Barrier Reef is one big collection of sparkling gems sitting in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland, Australia. It’s a snorkelers dream and a must see location for tourists visiting Australia, wowing with its unforgettable beauty both above and below the water. I will share how to capture the underwater world of the reef in another post but for now let’s get to talking about one of my favourite ways to photograph…from a seat 1000ft in the air! Firstly, helicopters aren’t cheap. It’s definitely a luxury but if you’ve researched your destination and feel aerial imagery could really showcase the landscape then it is well worth the investment and it’s an incredible experience. As a weather geek, I’ll triple check the weather forecast for weeks in advance to ensure the conditions are going to be picture perfect and if not you can usually postpone your flight if you’re staying a few days in the area. The Great Barrier Reef can be accessed from a few locations along the Queensland coast but my personal favourite is The Whitsundays. From this region you can hire a helicopter from...

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