By amos.chapple
Between the introduction of drone technology, and today’s laws limiting or banning their use, there was a glorious period when you could fly a camera almost anywhere.
These are the results of two years travel with a quad-copter in my backpack.
The neatly arranged suburbs around Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
Octagonal city blocks and spacious street corners create spectacular view. Al fresco beer & tapas in the town become such a delight.
I can’t see what the camera is seeing. People find that weird but I quite like the suspense of not knowing what I have until I get the camera in hand.
Twenty minutes later a thunderstorm hit the city.
Three centuries after the last cannonball was fired in anger at the fort, it now serves as a museum and center of a sleepy farming village in eastern Holland. The low, thick walls were designed to offset the pounding force of cannon-fire.
In the early days (2013) you could fly drones almost anywhere.
Ethnic cleansing went down here in the 90s and areas like this one (near Gali) are now a twilight zone of empty buildings and overgrown farmland.
With tiny little Christians walking round the base.
When I asked “what about helicopters?”
Curiosity got the better of them and I was clear for takeoff.
Security there is incredibly tight and I got busted.
At the Taj though, things were very different.
Known to the locals as a “Hill 3″ this knoll jutting above Mumbai’s northern slums is no more valuable than the land below. Access to running water, which the hill lacks, is more valuable than any view.
The barge in the center of the river is packed full of fireworks. An hour after this pic they were sent booming into the night sky to celebrate the country’s national day.
If you look close you can see the ladder. The terrifying ladder which I eventually had to climb.
Built for the soviet pavilion of the 1937 world fair in Paris, the steel masterwork now stands in the suburbs of northern Moscow.
This picture was taken as the Russian stock markets crashed on “Black Tuesday”. Little whiffs of panic could be felt on the street. Moscow never looked or felt more like Gotham city.
This Kauri Cliffs golf course, they fly in their caddies from Penn State University.
In India I was sometimes told “no photography allowed here sorry”.