Creating Panoramic Images of Glen Etive with a Drone: A 5 Minute Photo Adventure

Over the last couple of weeks, I have told you about my recent photography adventures to the Dalveen Pass, and to Kilchurn Castle.  To be honest, given both these adventures were undertaken while on a family holiday I thought I was doing really well.  After all, I was supposed to be spending time with my family.

Beinn Duirinnis

Landscape photograph aside one of the things I was most looking forward to doing while visiting Scotland was getting up into the hills.  Or to be more precise the mountains!  I love Devon.  It's a beautiful county but I do miss walking the hills and mountains of the Scottish highlands.

When I suggested to my brother-in-law that maybe we should climb a Munro while I was visiting he couldn't have said yes fast enough.  However, there was one slight problem.  Despite it being April, there was still a lot of snow on the upper slopes of the higher mountains.  Unfortunately, my skills as a hill walker don't include snow so we had to revisit our plan.

Almost directly opposite to where I was staying is a hill called Beinn Duirinnis.  At only 550 m this was much more likely to be snow free.  However, it would deliver magnificent views of north up Loch Etive towards Glen Etive.  This was highlighted in Jager Scot's video and I thought a trip up this mountain might mean another chance for some landscape photography.

 

Unfortunately for me, Mother Nature hadn't finished delivering snow to Scotland, and an unexpected overnight dumping of snow meant that even Beinn Duirinnis became out of reach.  Another plan was needed!

Landscape Photography from Your Back Garden

With almost every local mountain out with my skill set, I decided I would try something a little different.  I had been playing with the drone a few days taking some panoramic images of the surrounding landscape.  This got me thinking.  Perhaps I could do some landscape photography without even leaving home and maybe produce a video to go with it!

With all the extra snow on the hills, I decided to send the drone up and see what I could capture.  Here is how I got on:

As you saw, a drone can really open up some new creative options.  It would have been impossible to capture those images without a drone.  While I haven't used the drone that much for stills photography, this really did open my eyes again to the possibilities that this amazing bit of technology can offer.

Do you have an amazing view from your garden?  Do you use a drone for stills photography?  Let me know in the comments below.

Those Images

Here are those panoramic images you saw in the video.  Enjoy!

This is the image I shot the evening I made the video. DJI Mavic Pro, 1/125th sec at f/2.2, ISO 100, 26mm (35mm equiv'), stitched from 11 DNG files.

I took this image a few days before I shot the video. I much prefer the light in this one. DJI Mavic Pro, 1/125th sec at f/2.2, ISO 100, 26mm (35mm equiv'), stitched from 9 DNG files.