One of the main advantages of studio photography is the complete control that the photographer has over their environment. Location photography requires a need to be flexible. When shooting portraits, especially in the UK, I always have a plan for dry weather and for wet. If the location is particularly open, strong wind sometimes needs to be factored in. At times, changes in the weather can provide opportunities for backdrops that hadn’t even been considered until they are experienced.

Since taking up drone photography last summer, one of the things I have become very conscious of is the weather. In fact since learning to fly, the weather app is probably one of the most checked apps on my phone. If you have a planned aerial image with a drone and it’s raining, the only flexibility you can add in is waiting for the rain to stop. Likewise, if the winds are too strong, flying and landing a drone can become hazardous. Once again flexibility comes with a wait.

So after several weeks of wind, rain and snow, there was finally a break. Given that the future outlook wasn’t looking great, I thought I would take advantage and get some practice in. So out I went first thing, no wind, no rain, all good. About 5 minutes into the flight, a gentle wind appeared. All fine, it was gentle enough to not be a safety issue for flying or landing. What I didn’t expect was for the wind to bring with it low lying cloud. Not a sea fret, but low lying cloud. The two images below were taken within seconds of each other. This wasn’t an issue just with the camera, it also created a potential safety risk in that if I had gone any higher I actually would have lost visibility of the drone. There was one one thing for it and that was to land it.

Further drone images can be seen at https://www.saraporterphotography.co.uk/pp_gallery/drone-photography/