Landscape Aerial Photography Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have recently been receiving a lot of attention in the press, both good and bad. UAVs (remotely piloted vehicles, drones) have been popular for decades as a hobby, with the primary goal just being the fun of remotely controlling model aircraft, including model airplanes, helicopters and multi-rotor copters. But just in the past couple of  years, circumstances have come together that are attracting the attention of serious photographers. First, the flight control systems of multi-rotor copters (quad, hex and octo) have become sophisticated enough that it is relatively easy to learn to fly them. Second, companies are starting to build multi-rotor copters that are large enough to carry useful cameras. Finally, gimbal stabilization systems are available for multi-rotor copters and various cameras so that professional quality video and still image photography is now within reach of most photographers.
Let’s start with a short discussion of definit...