Photographer Craig Parry discovers new angles using his home-built drone

FOR photographer Craig Parry, the drone has opened up all sorts of interesting artistic possibilities.

PEOPLE are just getting to grips with the myriad ways in which drones will transform the way we do things.

The way we police our streets, survey land, gather news, perform search and rescue, wage war, deliver flowers and patrol our borders. For Craig Parry, though, drones are opening up new artistic possibilities. He took this shot – a finalist in the Head On Photo Festival, which opens on May 12 – at Broken Head Nature Reserve near Lennox Head in January, after lightning sparked a big bushfire; his camera was fixed beneath a drone hovering 30m above the ground. Aerial water-bombing had stopped the fire in its tracks, hence the distinct line between burnt and unburnt forest.

Parry, 35, started out five years ago with a remote-controlled helicopter, which was a beast to fly, he says. These days he uses a six-rotor drone which he made himself, at a cost of five grand, after sourcing the airframe from China and the parts locally. It’s 1.2m across, with a lifting capacity of 15kg (although his licence restricts him to a maximum 7kg load), and can fly up to 2km away; it streams live video to his controls so he can see the terrain. When he notices something interesting he activates a GPS which keeps the drone flying in exactly the same spot while he composes his shot. The great advantage of drones over conventional aerial photography, he says, is that you can fly so low; skim the treetops if you like.

Parry, who was born and bred in Lennox Head, also uses it to photograph surfing – his great passion – and whales. The humpbacks will be migrating north again soon and he’ll be out with his dad, launching the drone from their boat. These magnificent animals get a little star-struck, he says. “They see the drone and they start breaching, rolling over, slapping their tails. It’s like they’re putting on a show.”

For more Heart of the Nation picture stories, see The Weekend Australian Magazine every Saturday.