Are Drones Dangerous?

As I am sure you and most everyone is aware by now, drones are becoming more and more mainstream, especially professional drones. No I am not talking about the Reapers that Uncle Sam uses to rain down Hellfire missiles on terrorists, I am talking about photography and videography drones.

I personally own the DJI Phantom 3 Professional drone and love it! But many people are nervous or even scared of drones after all of the negative coverage on the news, especially on TV. They hear stories about drones falling on people or crashing into objects and wreaking havoc on innocent people.

People are afraid of many things, and thanks to all the negative press, many people are afraid of drones. They are paranoid that someone is using a drone to film them in the shower, or in some other "Peeping Tom" fashion, or that a drone will fall out of the sky and hit them or their children in the head.

Still from video I shot in Barnesville, Ga with my Phantom 3

The truth is drones are no more dangerous that anything else and safer than cars, yet you drive your car all over town every day and never give another thought about it. The incidents of drones crashing are the exception, not the norm as a general rule, anyone like myself that has spent considerable money on a professional grade drone will take the time to learn everything they can about it to fly it as safely as possible. I watched hundreds of videos on the Phantom 3 and drones in general to try and make myself as knowledgeable as possible on the subject of drones and safe drone flying.

Additionally, the better, professional drones like mine come equipped with a "Safe Mode", which prevents the drone from flying more than a certain distance away from it's GPS "home point" and it also doesn't allow you to fly more than so many meters off the ground. The manufacturers
put these safety features into their software to help prevent people from making serious mistakes and hurting people or property. Once you have mastered your drone and honed your piloting skills, you can take it out of "Safe Mode" and then you can fly mine up to 2 miles from the take off point and fly to the maximum legal altitude which is 400 feet in the U.S.

The point I am making is that drones, like many other items are just another tool in a professional photographer's bag. A drone can be dangerous, but why live in fear of something happening when the chances are Slim to None and Slim is out of town. I personally have practiced with mine a lot while nowhere near people or property, I also use and recommend an app call UAV Forecast, which uses your GPS location to tell you if the weather is suitable for flying or not.

Railcar I shot in Barnesville, Ga with my Phantom 3

Most anyone that is a serious drone photographer or videographer is going to spend considerable time learning everything they can about their new gear before they ever use it out near people or objects that it could cause harm to, no one want to pose a risk to the health and well-being of others on purpose and most of us also buy special drone insurance just in case something does go wrong. Many of you probably don't even realize that a lot of your favorite TV shows and movies now use professional drones with professional "pilots" flying them to film.

With the enormous cost in making a block-buster movie these days, studios look to save money any way they can and a $1,000-$5,000 drone that be used over and over again is way more cost effective than say a $60,000 a day camera boom truck. Just as many of you might not be aware, but the GoPro action camera is also used by many studios for shooting TV shows and movies because again a few $300-$400 GoPros mounted on car bumpers for chase scenes are way cheaper and the GoPro is capable of extremely high-quality video and stills with it's 12MP camera capable of 1080p or even 4k HD video as the new model is capable of and so is my drone.

If there is one thing I want you the reader to take away from this week's post is that drones are nothing more than another camera "body" and most of them are being flown by professionals who take flying and filming with them as seriously as any other photographer using any other conventional camera body and lens combination. So, next time you are out at a skate park or some vacation spot like a beach in Florida and see someone flying one of these professional drones, instead of being afraid of the drone, walk over and strike up a conversation with them.
I have people walk up to me and ask me about mine all the time and many times they ask me to shoot some footage or stills of them.

Keep in mine that the media loves to blow things out of proportion as they are looking for ratings and sensationalism and less about sharing the truth on a subject. Now get out there and check out some drone photographers, or rent one and try it out for yourself!

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Don't Let Social Media Stifle Your Creativity

Social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, 500px.com and others can be a great way to share you work as a photographer, but they are not the end all be all. Many times photographers get discouraged with the results they find on these sites, especially if they don't receive a large amount of "Likes" or "Shares" or "Favorites".

These responses are not an accurate gauge of your creativity or ability as a photographer, they are more the results of Social Media popularity contests. I have talked to and see so many photographers become discouraged with these platforms because they don't gets tons of "Likes" or "Shares", they think their work is not good enough or that no one likes they creative flare.

When it comes to your art and your work, you have to be the one true judge of your creativity and always strive to try new things and think outside the box. I can personally tell you from experience that I have posted photos on 500px.com and even on Facebook that got very little attention, but that same photo on EyeEm.com and Getty Images is selling like hotcakes.

Tybee Island Sunrise - Not liked at all of Social Media, sold 50 copies on Getty Images

 On the other hand, images I have posted that got scored really high or gotten lots of "Likes" and "Shares" didn't sell at all even though they were fantastic images and very creative and visually pleasing. The point is you are the best one to determine your best work and you can also get a more professional, objective opinion from your professors while you are still in college or from other professionals you are friends with or network with in the real world.

Social Media sites and platforms can be great for getting your work out there and noticed by a wider audience of people and perspective clients, but if you go into Social Media with the wrong mind-set, it can also suck the life out of you creatively. I find that a good way aside from the ones I mentioned a moment ago to have your photos honestly critiqued is to join some of the larger photography groups on Facebook that have been around for a while and have a large number of pros and seasoned hobbyists that are very active on there.

I personally created a Photography Twitter account that is totally separate from my personal one and have picked up quite a few professional photographers as followers and some of them are even nice enough to talk to me on there via Direct Message on a regular basis and are even kind enough to give me honest feedback on my work that I post there all the time. Some of your more famous photographers like Chase Jarvis and Zack Arias won't give you the time of day on there and most of them won't even answer emails either but there are still some pros out there that are more than happy to talk to you and even critique your work, such as Jared Polin from FroKnowsPhoto.com, Josh Schmidt from PhotoTipsHQ.com, Ken Rockwell from www.kenrockwell.com and Leigh from www.snapchick.com.

Wall of Light - Got tons of Likes and Shares, was used by AI for publications, never sold a copy

 I have also had personal exchanges by email with David Hobby and Scott Kelby as well, but they are a bit harder to catch up with as they are always so busy and get so much email, and I have never felt like bother either one of them for a photo or portfolio review/critique.

The point I am trying to make is you cannot let these sites pull you down and make you second guess your abilities or creative abilities as a photographer or artist. Take most of the response you get on Social Media with a grain of salt, I don't even let myself get overly excited when people gush over my work posted on there, but I do make sure I always thank them for their comments.

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