An evening of pictures and videos giving a very different take of the world around us.

Alison Jenkins and her husband, Simon, demonstrated how even one the simplest of commercially available drones can take stunning pictures.  Alison showed a wide range of pictures including some of well-known landmarks, but from a whole new angle (literally).  She showed the capabilities of modern photo drones with straight-forward videos plus time-lapse and “hyperlapse”* making even otherwise mundane scenes, eg an M25 junction, seem dynamic.  Landscapes also benefit form the drone treatment and Alison showed a selection of stills and video ranging from just up the road in Ware to the Highlands of Scotland.

Drone flying is governed by strict rules laid down by the Civil Aviation Authority (and its EU counterpart for flying on the other side of “the channel”) and Alison gave the details of the various levels of qualification necessary for safe and legal flight.  She also busted a few myths about where you can and cannot fly.

Tea break discussion

One of Alison’s drone photos of London at night

This was definitely an evening of different imagery and the number of questions at the end of evening showed how much interest was shown, summing-up Helen Frost commented on how much we see the footage that results from drone flights but now we got to see what goes in to getting them in what was a “really, really, excellent evening”.

Our next meeting at Wyllyotts is on Monday 11^th May and will be by Matthew MacPake a multi-award winning photographer and photography lecturer at The University of Hertfordshire.

* hyperlapse is an advanced form of time-lapse photography that adds camera movement over long distances