Southern California is a place of unbelievable environments that seemingly appear out of nowhere. Driving down the highway and there appears towering and endless sand dunes. Drive another direction and the desert gives way to a vast expanse of electric blue water surround by haunted white sand. See this, and you are looking at the Salton Sea. Saltier than the ocean, mysterious, and graveyards for beaches, the Salton Sea holds as much to view as it does to think about. Look closely at the beach photos below. The sand is made from infinite fish skeletons. There was a mile long line of these poor fish lying bleached in the sun. They get ground up and added to the granules of sand.
Entering California from the southern route along I-8 out of nowhere appears Imperial Sand Dunes. I was awestruck by this true desert landscape of sand and dunes. I did not know the U.S. had a desert like this with golden sand one could confuse for being out in the Sahara. It was pure coincidence that upon leaving California to return to New Mexico the dunes were passed by at sunset time. I flew my Mavic Pro drone for some cinematic drone video and aerial photos, with still some time to tote my Nikon up a dune for some HDR and long exposure still photos from the ground. What a landscape this was!
After a year of flying my Mavic Pro drone over the deserts in New Mexico, I had the chance to return to California with my much improved piloting skills and fly over the ocean. In particular, the Sunset Cliffs are of San Diego. As you can see in the drone video, cars line Sunset Cliffs Blvd the entire length showing how popular of a sunset viewing area it is. You basically can park anywhere and get access to the cliffs and a great view. Some people scramble down a cliff level or two, while others remain planted safely on the roadside.
On assignment for Albuquerque, New Mexico real estate agent Steve Etkind, I had the opportunity to fly my drone over the Rio Communities Golf Course in Belen, New Mexico creating a promotional video he will use to sell lots along and around the golf course. Drone video is a great way to showcase something like a golf course and the lifestyle living on a golf course offers.
I visited Big Sur, California soon after becoming a certified drone pilot with only a few flights of experience. I wish I had the cinematic drone flying skills I have now then! I never move the gimbal while flying, the drone is only moving in one direction all the time, save for an attempt at using active track on the rocks. Someday I will return to Big Sur and make a much better drone video!
I met Glenn and Maria of 4 Directions Branding over the summer at a 1 Million Cupsevent. We then met for a 1-on-1 as it were meeting to get to know each other better and to see if our businesses would be a good match to eventually work together. We have not had that particular chance to work together yet, but we did have a photo shoot and drone flight together out in a random desert setting off of Highway 550 west of Bernalillo, New Mexico. Thank you Glenn & Maria for braving the cold morning!
I was contacted out of the blue to make commercial photographs of this self storage facility just off of I-25 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The client wanted both regular photos and drone aerial photos. For the drone photos, the client wanted to showcase the property’s proximity to the highway, which was not a problem since only the frontage road separated the two! Having the drone about 150 feet up in the air showed how easy it is to access this site where my Nikon on the ground could not. Shooting from above and at ground level is the best way to fully feature a commercial property as you can see in the two photo galleries below.
