A BUZZ IN THE AIR

BELOW: Adept at shooting both underwater and above water, Chris Crumley captured this visually stunning aerial shot of a “mermaid circle” during his Mermaid Portfolio Workshop.

DRONE DEVOTEES

We spoke with three videographers/ photographers who are using quadcopters to capture aerial footage; all three expressed similar reasons for purchasing drones. Ray Roman, CEO/Creative Director of Ray Roman Films ( www.rayroman.com), who specializes in wedding videography, picked up his first quadcopter—the DJI Phantom—last summer, and currently owns the DJI Phantom 2 (GoPro version) and the DJI S1000 (which he equipped with the Canon 5D Mark III and 24mm lens). “I mainly wanted to enhance our films with some epic aerial establishing shots,” Roman explains.

Similarly, San Francisco-based wedding videographer Sigmund Reboquio of REB6studios ( www.reb6studios.com) added aerial footage in 2014, because “I think that it adds a little bit of flair to my films,” he says. “I have shot so many weddings, and it gets boring at times, so I took the plunge to invest in one and it actually paid off. My clients love it!” Reboquio’s current quadcopter gear includes the DJI Phantom

2 with the GoPro HERO4, along with the Zenmuse H3-3D gimbal, first person view (FPV) monitor and Futaba controller.

Chris Crumley, of Chris Crumley
Productions, Inc. ( www.chriscrumley.com)—a
well-established underwater photographer
whose expertise extends above water as
well—purchased his first quadcopter in
mid-2013, to “have another perspective for
photography,” he says, “to give me another
point of view.” Crumley currently shoots
aerial video and stills with a DJI Inspire 1
and its onboard camera.

ESTABLISHING THE SCENE

Filmmakers have long used establishing shots to to communicate information to the audience—location, time of day or simply setting the mood for what comes next. Likewise, with the proliferation of quadcopters, videographers and photographers have the ability to establish a setting with aerial shots of beautiful scenery surrounding a venue or of the venue itself.

Roman currently uses aerial footage to “enhance the films” that he produces for his wedding clients. Visually, he prefers “using the drone around coastal areas—beaches that have rocks and mountains in the background look great,” he says. “Once legislation is released [see sidebar at right] and we acquire the proper licenses, we will definitely