by Scott Shephard

I was back out north of Watertown two days ago with my drone. I was ready to lift off when my phone rang. Deb, who was out of town, was checking in. She asked what I was doing and I said I was in the country ready to take a few photos with my Phantom 4 Pro (P4P). She said, "But the sun is going down." I said, "I know! I have about 5 minutes of good light." She told me to be careful, we said goodbye, and I quickly launched the drone.

I knew from the ground that these trees were casting interesting shadows, but when I got up to 150' I thought, "Holy cow!" or something close to that. At the precise instant I took this photo, the shadows must have been about 200 yards long.

As I think about this photo today, I am reminded of the power of photography. I've talked about this before here, but we photographers have the ability to record brief, once-in-a-lifetime glimpses of the history of the universe, as I did here.

We also have the power to turn the familiar (like tree shadows) into something worth seeing. With aerial photography, we begin to expand the third dimension. In doing so, we certainly have the ability to portray the world around us in ways that are new, alien and perhaps fascinating.

Phantom 4 Pro FC6310 1/320s f/5.6 ISO200 8.8mm (35mm eq:24mm)