Fine Art Landscape Aerial Photography

Fine art aerial photography of many beautiful and scenic destinations throughout the US

091 - Monument Valley Pinnacles
I just can't get enough of these amazing slender pinnacles. They speak volumes of the passage of time and are among my favorite illustrations of the awesome beauty of the southwest. I launched the drone from just outside of the Tribal Park and captured this frame with four sequential shots (5 bracketed shots each for a total of 20 images) to compose a nice vibrant HDR edit from an unconventional perspective. I positioned the drone with the top of the spire to the right extending just above the horizon as my primary focus and balanced with blade and centered pinnacle in shadow. Love the flow from the central pinnacle back to the left along the blade leading to the slim lower ridge the sweeps back to the right and up to the base of my foreground pinnacle.
046 - Superstition Buttes Sunset
The Buttes at the north end of the Superstition Mountain range are probably the most photographed part of the range. But the most common if not only perspective of the buttes os from the west looking east. I have wanted to get this perspective from the east looking west back into town for some time. Saw what looked like a nice sunset coming so go myself out to the east side.
Red Mountain Sunset from Salt River
During monsoon season in Arizona, I am always watching the western skies through the afternoon in case conditions might be right for nice sunset. If it looks like the sky will be sufficiently clear to the far west for the sun to shine up under cloud cover to my near west then we might get a sunset and I head out to find a shot. This was my first attempt at a drone based HDR sunset panorama using the DJI Mavic 2 Pro. As drones have evolved, using them as tools for high end still photography has gotten better and better. This is a combination of 3 frames, each frame compiled as an individual HDR image from 5 bracketed exposures. It excellent as a still photography tool because I can position the drone in just the right spot very quickly in order to get the composition that works best for me.
084 - Gooseneck View on the Colorado
Panoramic view of the iconic Colorado River at it gooseneck curves through the majestic landscape of southern Utah west of Moab. I'm actually in this shot, standing atop one of the white rock capped plateaus (Gooseneck Viewpoint) to the far right of the frame. This is a 9 shot (5 exposures each) 45 images in all panorama composite image shot with the DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone (just outside of Canyonlands Nat'l Park boundries). The road to get here (Shafer Canyon Road) is accessed from Island in the Sky Road which is in the park and was quite a trip, offering amazing views - right on the edge of cliffs in some sections dropping hundreds of feet to the canyon floor. No texting and driving while negotiating those curves.

098 - Monument Valley in Sepia
Shot in 2010 from a Cessna on a trip between Utah and Arizona