I’ve been toying with this idea for a while. To take a drone shot of the magnificent sunset in Redondo Beach.
It is intimidating. Flying your drone is always intimidating. I like to say that every flight feels like your second flight.
At the same time, I’ve been studying hard to get my Part 107 commercial drone pilot license, and that’s where Francis Bacon’s famous motto comes into play: Scientia Potentia Est, “knowledge is power”. Knowledge lets you do more, better, and with more confidence.
There’s a bit of a paradox surrounding drones: everyone loves drone photography and footage, but many people dislike seeing drones flying around. There is a lot of negative bias around drones. One day I will elaborate on this, but I think that half of the issue is purely evolutionary: the fact that drones sound, look, and fly like big insects, and the whole thing of being seen by something we don’t see elicits our primordial scare of predators. On top of this, a few people have been using their drones in illegal, annoying, reckless, or simply stupid ways. Sadly, it takes a few morons to taint the reputation of a whole sector.
I hope I can do my part and show how drones are tools of beauty that give us unprecedented views on everyday vistas.
Without further ado, here’s what I did yesterday.
Checklist:
✅ Request LAANC authorization from Torrance Airport (funny enough, my home is on the demarcation of the 100ft and 400 ft clearance areas of the Zamperini Airfield airspace. If I take off from the back alley, my allowed ceiling is 100ft, on the front Avenue, the ceiling is 400ft).
✅ No people, kids, and pets close to the take-off and landing area.
✅ No hawks or ravens flying nearby.
✅ Good weather, low wind.
Here’s what happened:
This was not a real “flight”, more of an elevator kind of thing. I flew up, stayed there a few minutes, flew down. Here’s what Redondo looked like from up there.
I did also take a 180º panoramic shot, right into the sunset, stretching from Palos Verdes to the Redondo Pier.
Kind of magic, huh?
Now that I found this safe and beautiful spot, I cannot wait to see what this looks like at other times of day. What I am really looking forward to is to capture the marine layer blowing in from the ocean. That will be some eye candy.
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