While taking photographs with your drone is very similar to taking them from the ground, it’s also very different. For me, the difference lies in two main areas. One is in the new perspective a drone offers by being in the air above everything. The other is the ease with which you can change your position from a few feet to thousands of feet from the initial launch point.

Your camera can be raised or lowered in altitude, it can be moved forward, backward, right and left. You have 360-degrees of flexibility with your camera that you didn’t have before. And as you move about, remember to look around at that new location. Pan left and right. Tilt the camera up and down.

Here is an example from a photoshoot I was doing near Mt. Hood. The first photograph was taken about 30 feet in the air of this little creek and the fall colors. After I had taken these shots, I wondered what was beyond the trees in the photograph. The second photograph shows you what happened with I increased my altitude and looked around.

Here’s what I was looking at on the ground: 

It is beautiful and amazing, but look at what was above and beyond the trees!

From the creek below, I wasn’t able to see the vineyards and Mt. Hood. It wasn’t visible even from the highway at this location. I had to rise up to 400 feet to see this view. I also moved right and left and forward and back to get the look I wanted.

Here are the different positions I took photographs moving forward and back, side to side and changing altitude. These are not final photographs but are examples with simple corrections applied to the RAW files.

Conclusion

So now with all this new flexibility, go out and take amazing photographs. Explore and move the drone around. Most importantly though have fun with it!

Fly safe and have fun!