9 Month Aerial Drone Photo Project in Placitas New Mexico
I was contacted about a very interesting aerial drone photography project in Placitas, New Mexico, which is about 30 minutes north of Albuquerque. Cindy & Jeff are building a custom home on undeveloped desert land and wanted a photo story of this process over the 9 months or so it will take to go from land to completed home. I was very glad they chose me as their drone pilot for this project as I will enjoy going out to their beautiful land in Placitas throughout the next 4 seasons documenting with aerial drone photography both how their homesite changes, and also the surrounding natural landscape and the Sandia Mountains standing boldly in the background.
Barb & Dr. Norm are long time photography clients and networking friends here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Recently they become drone video clients as well and I got to visit their home in Corrales! They wanted a drone video for branding that showcased both their personalities and their lifestyle. Well, their personalities are fun and quirky, and their lifestyle is very natural and healthy. As you can see in the drone video above, we captured both! One of my all time favorite drone shots is the clip of them lying on their backs by the fish pond and the drone just slowly spiraling up while the fish (very cooperatively) swim around.
Out on assignment for Hemingway Land in Las Cruces, New Mexico, miles of dirt road took me to an isolated, but beautiful rural desert real estate property with great views of the Organ Mountains. In fact mountains highlighted the views to the west and the north as well. I was actually right in this same remote section of desert in May for another even harder to reach property. I was relieved to discover the washed out road with deep ruts was now mostly filled in with chalky dirt that covered myself and my Jeep nearly entirely. I had to be extra careful to keep my cameras and my drone clean!
A recent drone flight job took me to the far southeast of Albuquerque, New Mexico with the main purpose of making 4K drone video for the client, but while my drone was up in the air, I thought I’d get some still photos as well too as I had never flown in this area before. There is nothing like a drone’s eye view photo to show the grid-like layout of Albuquerque, and the Sandia Mountains looming on the eastern border. Can you see your house in these photos??
On my fourth trip to Navajo Dam New Mexicojust this year, I was treated to both a great sunset for this rural land real estate drone video, but also a chorus of what sounded like marbles being clanked around in a bag! This cicada looking insect was out in mass singing away not caring I needed to concentrate on flying! At least the stuck to hiding on bush and tree branches and were no threat to the drone in the air!
On a recent multi-day drone flight I got work alongside videographer Nate Sorenson while flying over cranes and utility trucks. He was recording from the ground and me from the air. Nate also wanted to get some footage of me actually flying, and in the clip above, landing the DJI Mavic Pro drone. Soon after first learning to fly the drone, I switched to doing mid-air hand landings because I was often flying out in the desert and it made things much easier to land without aiming for a small helipad that I use to launch from. Thanks Nate for capturing this!
It is rare I get to go to a new place in New Mexico already haven criss-crossed the state dozens of times in just over 2 years for the rural land real estate photography and drone video work I do. So it was very welcome to make my way to Artesia, New Mexico for my latest shoot. I drove east out of Cloudcroft down a beautiful country road through tall timber along a canyon for miles. This is very unusual scenery for southern New Mexico which is mostly empty desert.
