Over the winter I added a new dimension to my photography with the purchase of a DJI Mavic 2 Pro Drone!

Morning light on the forests of the Middlesex Plains with Cradle Mountain in the background

There has been a fair bit to learn obviously, and I am still well and truly a beginner but I was able to get a good trial run in recently under the beautiful morning light on the Middlesex Plains up near Cradle Mountain.

Sunrise over the Middlesex Plains, Tasmania

Flying within the National Park is of course strictly prohibited so I headed out of the park to a spot where Cradle Mountain just pops its head up over the horizon. It was nice to see Cradle Mountain this way, but the highlight for me was in fact the snowy Black Bluff to the north.

Black Bluff in the morning light

Flying a drone obviously offers a completely new perspective on the landscape but the fundamentals of photography remain the same, the main thing being of course – light! These shots were captured right on sunrise, so the tops of the trees were catching the warm red light while the ground remained shrouded in shadow and ice. A lovely contrast.

Black Bluff in the morning light

Black Bluff and the Iris river as the sun climbs higher into the cold winter sky

As well as flying high and getting broad landscape views it was nice also to shoot from relatively low altitude, such as the shot below which was taken at about the same height as the tallest trees.

Tall trees

My first thoughts on the drone are the obvious – amazing new potential for image making. Having never done much video before I am now looking forward to getting into that too. The hyperlapse feature in particular looks like fun, and creates some great moving landscapes. The panorama modes are pretty fantastic too.

Beautiful morning for flying 😉

I will share more thoughts, images and video as time goes by 🙂