DronePrep’s Pilot in Residence Chris Gorman, aka The Big Ladder Photographer, uses the DronePrep Map for planning aerial photoshoots. Chris just finished an assignment in Devon for the National Lottery Heritage Fund, resulting in this remarkable image of the sunset in Plymouth.
A new dawn for Plymouth. The brief from the Lottery Heritage Fund was simple:
“We’d like a beautiful sunrise or sunset image of Plymouth to send out to media to illustrate our announcement that the city is to be given a £10m grant to help create the UK’s first National Marine Park”.
A simple brief you may think. However, I had just one day to shoot, meaning weather forecasts and permissions needed to fall in line within 36 hours. Sunrises and sunsets aren’t a given, and considering how awful the summer weather has been so far this year, I knew I may struggle.
My first port of call (no pun intended) was the Port Authority and the local council for permission to fly in the Plymouth Sound area. This was the simple part if I’m honest, as the council were most helpful in granting permission straight away after providing all the relevant documentation.
The hard part was the weather.
I arrived in Plymouth to completely grey skies, despite all three of my weather apps forecasting sunshine. The final image you see here was the only time I saw the sun in 36 hours in the town. The shoot was supposed to take place the following day, but I had this sneaking feeling the sun might put in a brief appearance at sunset.
The time of sunset collided with the England-Denmark match, which partially helped as the Sound was near-deserted due to everyone watching the game. All through the very tense first half of the football, I dashed back and forth to the window to check out what the sun was doing. At halftime, I checked once more and, to my amazement, the sun was out in a blaze of glory for the first time that day. I gathered by gear and ran to my pre-arranged take off spot.
I know from experience that a good sunset can last just seconds, which is why DronePrep’s Daylight Tool is so useful when planning these shots. The last hurdle to jump came from the drone itself, which refused to calibrate the gimbal on first start up… This always involves a drone restart, which takes 40 seconds to complete each time. I could see the picture drifting away in front of me…
Suddenly, on the 3rd start up, the drone finally played ball. I launched and immediately took this shot (which is actually a 5-frame HDR blended in Photoshop). This image saved the entire assignment, as the sun didn’t show its face again. And I didn’t miss a single goal in the football!
The resulting image appeared on BBC News, The Daily Express, The Daily Star and various local media.
Check out more of Chris’s work at www.bigladder.co.uk
Chris Gorman (also known as The Big Ladder Photographer) is a fully CAA Certified (PFCO) who has been featured widely in media around the world. He is also DronePrep’s expert Pilot-in-Residence.