“All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person’s (or thing’s) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time’s relentless melt.” ― Susan Sontag
We spoke of our drone expeditions recently with AR’O’Dynamics (That’s just a fancy name I made up for dear friend AR who is the pilot of these videos). Both of us are learning and hence the shots aren’t as cinematic as we would love them to be. However, contrary to my earlier convictions of waiting for the fine-tuned version, and on a firm realization that waiting for the ultimate perfection would be like a day that would never come, I’m putting up some of the footage here. Some of the awe-inspiring video creators whom I have been fortunate to have listened to always reiterate the importance of putting up the work into the open once we have an inspiring one. If we wait for the chiseling and polishing looking towards a day of perfection, that’s not gonna come. This is something that I’ve learned the hard way over the past few years. And that’s the reason there is a plethora of video footage that stay buried in my archives. Let’s pop them out for our wonderful audience.
The video is titled “The Circle” inspired by the green and beautiful traffic roundabouts at the University of Sharjah. That’s where we took many of our baby flights. And I’m thankful to AR for meticulously and patiently sharing those huge volumes of drone video footage with me.
I went with AR for another round of drone trials early morning.
While the motor bird was flying, I was engrossed with some silhouette moments.
Stay tuned as we plan to roll in some visuals of this little guy flying around very soon.
“Let us take you into a deeper experience, make a moment a lasting conveyable memory. Let us help build your tribe.”
Last week, I was able to experience drone flights with Afeef. I’m really fond of aerial photography and we were talking of the different visual perspectives that we can craft when a drone is used, unlike a traditional camera where either the subject or the camera has to move to compose the scene that we intend to shoot. Wondering at the boundless possibilities offered by aerial photography. His drone is Mavic Mini by DJI. Unlike other heavy-duty drones which are pretty heavy, Mavic Mini is known for its low footprint and unit compactness. I had seen some reviews of extra flight packs that are augmented with additional battery packs and other accessories. While we enjoy using them, we need to exert best efforts to assure that we respect the civil aviation authority guidelines and rules on operating aerial vehicles in the particular geography that we operate in. Different countries have different guidelines and instructions on flying these marvels and these are to be respected. We talked about a recent footage which he had posted.
Netta, the first lady of this kingdom has her page released. Tagged as the “millennial experimentalist“, she’s intending to feature slices of memories from her alchemy of thoughts. She’s a trained scientific bio-researcher by profession and has an eye for exploring details and concepts beyond the novel subtleties. Can’t wait to explore, God bless.
Dear friend AR recently teased with a glimpse of some of his exquisite aerial shots coming straight from the vast UAE deserts terrains. The creative tiger inside AR surprises us with such brilliant roars. I can’t wait for more to come from him. He’s an amazing photographer as well.