Aerial photography
I had been looking forward to this week for a long time, in 2017 I filmed the Household Cavalry on their annual summer ride-out on Holkham Beach here in Norfolk from the drone. I missed the ride last year but managed to organise access to the two regiments (Life Guards and the Blues & Royals) this year and went through the necessary permissions to be allowed to fly at Holkham again.
As you will see below we were blessed with incredible weather on Thursday & yesterday (today it is raining!) so we got some stunning stills & video footage. My partner Leanne (currently setting up her own independent film company – Samphire Films) came along on both days to film some ground-based footage to add to the aerial footage and since I wasn’t able to get clearance to fly both days (to minimise disturbance to the wildlife) I shot stills on a long lens yesterday. I’m very grateful to the Holkham Estate and Norfolk Locations for allowing me to fly on the Thursday, there is a rare nesting colony of little terns at the west end of the bay so I had to make sure I avoided flying too close.
A huge thank you to the lads & ladies of the Household Cavalry for allowing us such amazing access, particularly Major Chambers and Captain Perera who even drove us to & from the beach to save our little legs! It was a huge privilege to meet them all, a real credit to the the British Army.
Thank you to Jason & Graham from Norfolk Constabulary who came down on the Thursday to police the beach for any rogue drone users and keep an eye on things. And finally thank you to our friends Leigh & Steve who came down to assist us – Steve was my drone-spotter for the day and didn’t take his eye off the drone once, while Leigh assisted Leanne as she filmed some incredible footage – including filming from the army truck as they sped alongside the horses at full gallop. What an incredible opportunity!
Below are some of the shots and at the bottom of this post you will find the finished video by myself and Leanne and a link to the full gallery of the photos. As per 2017 the shots & video this year have proved very popular with the front cover & pages 2 & 3 in the Eastern Daily Press (see bottom of this post), a shot being used in today’s Guardian newspaper in their ‘pics of the week’ spread, the Daily Mail Online (here), and on the BBC. Enjoy!
Your eyes don’t deceive you, there is actually a naked man in the below photo – the west end of Holkham is a nudist beach, bet they didn’t expect 26 army horses & soldiers to ride towards them that day!
In today’s Guardian…
The full gallery of my still images can be seen here.
Our film of the two mornings on the beach is here:
So yesterday I decided to have a little count up of the number of views my aerial videos have had across the various online & social media platforms and was amazed to find it came to over 9 million!
Most of my aerial work tends to be based around our beautiful North Norfolk coastline so when it comes to producing captivating imagery I have it pretty easy. Especially when some of my subjects last year included the Household Cavalry on Holkham beach, Cromer & Sheringham RNLI lifeboats and some good stormy weather. Also I was lucky enough to make films for the Lotus Driving Academy at the Lotus test track in Hethell and of the Wildcats Aerobatic Display Team while flying upside down over Southwold Pier!
It was an amazing year with my work being featured on the BBC Saving Lives at Sea series, Nadia’s British Food Adventure (again on the BBC), BBC News, ITN News, Sky News, Channel 4 and Channel 5’s Wildest Weather program.
Some of my favourite Norfolk aerial videos of last year were…
• Warnings of gales – a film showing the two sides of the Autumn weather at Sheringham & Cromer, featuring a soundtrack composed specially by talented local composer Reg Length
• Cromer and Sheringham Lifeboats on exercise – a fair few clips from this were used in the Saving Lives at Sea series
• The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment annual ride-out on Holkham beach – this one alone had 2.4M view on the BBC News East FB page
• Storm Surge – the storm surge and resulting destruction at Cromer in January last year, footage of this was used on new channels all around the world (so I’m told!)
• Wildcat Aerobatics Team – this was a new one for me – flying the drone above two aeroplanes while they take off (with full permission from the pilots obviously!) plus getting to ride in the planes after for a flight with rolls & turns!
For more information about my aerial photography & video in Norfolk please have a look at my aerial imaging site – Aerovisuals. I have some very interesting plans & trips ahead in 2018 so watch this space for some serious nautical aerial goodness!
• Aerial photographers in Norfolk • Commercial drone operators in Norfolk • Drone video Norfolk • Drone photo Norfolk • Aerial video Norfolk •
Last week I was down at the RNLI Lifeboat College in Poole for a course (a refresh on the methods of commanding a lifeboat & the various anchor/towing/navigation/search & rescue drills). While down there I had a meeting scheduled with the Film & Stills team to discuss working with them on RNLI drone film projects in the future.
A few months back I was pleased to be successful in applying to be an approved RNLI drone operator but while at the meeting I discovered I was the first accredited RNLI drone operator in the world which I thought was pretty cool!
Between the course modules I was able to put the drone up for some shots of the amazing Lifeboat College and the adjacent All Weather Lifeboat Centre where the all weather boats are built and maintained, below are a few shots showing the buildings and Poole harbour in the background.
• Aerial photographers in Norfolk • Drone operators in Norfolk • RNLI drone operators • Norfolk drone company – Aerovisuals •
