PWP Nature Photography

As much as we love our DJI Mavic Pro drone and the beautiful wedding, engagement, nature and travel photos it allows us to take, it has been a little frustrating owning one in the Washington, DC area. Unfortunately, security regulations in the Nation’s Capital prohibit the flying of drone within a 15-mile radius of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, meaning we only get to use our drone on out-of-town trips.

As a result of this, the first time we really got to use our Mavic Pro was a couple of months after we purchased it. In early April 2017, we traveled to the Minneapolis, MN area to attend my mom’s 70th birthday party. Because the drone flight laws are looser there, we figured it would be the perfect opportunity to take ours, get some practice flying it and take some cool nature pictures.

Fortunately for us, the house I grew up in is located on the shores of Lake Minnetonka, a beautiful body of water in suburban Minneapolis that is the largest lake in the Twin Cities metro area and a favorite destination for boaters in the summer. It also played a critical role in a key scene in Purple Rain, a movie starring one of Minnesota’s most famous native sons.

My mom’s house faces west, meaning we get to see some beautiful sunsets, especially as the days get longer in the late spring and early summer. On our first night there, we saw the sky starting to turn pink and orange as the sun went down, so we grabbed our drone, got it set up and put it up in the air for some pictures. As one can see from the photo above, we were not disappointed by the images we were able to get!

From a height of about a hundred feet above the water, we were able to get a clear view of the entire sky turning pink, orange and yellow, and at the same time, see those same colors reflected in the waters of the lake. What was even better was that this vantage point allowed us to include significant features of Lake Minnetonka’s geography in the image. Near the horizon in the center of the picture is the bridge traversing the narrows that separate the main Lower Lake from Crystal Bay. Just in front of that to the left is Big Island, one of the lake’s most famous landmarks and the home to the Arthur Allen Wildlife Sanctuary and the Big Island Nature Park.