Drone photography is so fun! In some ways, almost anything is interesting from a top-down perspective. One of my challenges with this is to choose the MOST interesting things. I like to try to find simple patterns or interesting colors that are a bit confusing. Like, what kind of court is that on the top of the photo? I’m really not sure… is it badminton? I always thought that was such a silly sport, but what do I know? I mean, why not play Tennis or Ping Pong, each of which seems to be a lot more fun to me.

Colorful Courts

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-13 17:20:37
• CameraFC220
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/270
• Aperture2.2
• ISO100
• Focal Length4.7 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

…with a 1% chance it is Tokyo. I have a ton of photos like this from Tokyo, and I don’t exactly remember taking this photo. I mean, I know I took it because it ended up on my camera. It might have been after one of those long nights out with the guys, taking photos and then having a long dinner with a lot of wine. I usually like to take a long walk back to the hotel and take photos along the way, and maybe this is how this photo came to be!

I’m 99% Sure this is Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-13 23:55:57
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time30
• Aperture14
• ISO100
• Focal Length26.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias+2

I feel like this Blade Runner trope is getting old. I wish I had another comparison to make. Fifth Element, maybe? Yeah, either way, even though I am a total introvert, I do enjoy spending a bit of time in these crazy cities. Maybe because I live in a tiny town of less than 50,000, I get overly excited with my camera when hitting these megacities in China.

Blade Runner in Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-16 00:16:35
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time8
• Aperture6.3
• ISO200
• Focal Length141.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias+2

Check out this hallway in the Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong. This hallway leads to some absolutely amazing restaurants where I ended up eating way too much food! Also, this hallway seemed to be very popular among Instagrammers. I had to be pretty patient to wait for all of them to get out of their egoic selfie zones so I could set up with my tripod.

Beautiful Hallway in Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-15 04:20:37
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time2.5
• Aperture10
• ISO400
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias+2

This was taken on our first night in Hong Kong when they threw a big party for us at the Ritz-Carlton there. It was the beginning of our Asia-Pacific leg and all the wonderful ladies from that location put together a really nice soiree there in the bar on top of the hotel. The funny thing was, they did it right at sunset, so I kept leaving the party for 5-10 minute stints to go take photos!

Hong Kong Party

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-12 23:47:37
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time5
• Aperture7.1
• ISO100
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Every night in Hong Kong they do a light show here at the waterfront. Note: this post-processing effect here is not the light show, lest you be confused. Anyway, I got all in position ready for a crazy light show, and I thought it was actually kinda lame. It didn’t seem very coordinated and I think it would have been better with some kind of music. You know, like when the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas are timed to music. It would also be cool if all the buildings were like some kind of a giant equalizer that showed bass, mid tones, and treble bouncing up and down to the music. Anyway, I’ve got all these great ideas for these megacities… maybe in some of these Chinese cities where the government has a lot of control, they can force this to happen… It would be cool if China appointed a Minister of EDM.

Light Projections in Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-13 03:06:14
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time0.6
• Aperture4
• ISO100
• Focal Length105.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

There’s a fun boat you can get on that goes back and forth across the harbor. It’s really inexpensive and it leaves like every 15 minutes. In fact, you can just stay on it and ping pong back and forth between the Hong Kong and Kowloon side. We did this about three times and that seemed to be enough to see all the sites! Now, I was not actually on that Chinese junk boat… I decided to get on a different one so I could actually take photos of it.

Chinese Junk Boat in Hong Kong Harbor

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-14 02:00:17
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/80
• Aperture4
• ISO5000
• Focal Length36.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

How beautiful is Hong Kong? I took this from the bar atop the Ritz-Carlton there on the other side of the bay. I tried to not just get the obvious wide-angle shots, but instead to zoom in and get some interesting details here and there. Naturally, there are all sorts of different apartments for different income levels. These are some of the nicer ones over on the Hong Kong side.

The Complexity of Hong Kong

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-13 00:01:59
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time2.5
• Aperture4
• ISO250
• Focal Length105.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

How amazing is this place in Hong Kong? It took me forever to find it. I almost gave up, in fact. In desperation, I found another photo of the place and started showing random Chinese people in the neighborhood. Finally, one very nice woman took me to this nondescript parking lot I would have never found! After getting to the top, I finally saw it… Thank goodness I had that idea to find this place. Otherwise I never would have found it!

The Rainbow Apartments

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-03-13 17:22:10
• CameraFC220
• Camera MakeDJI
• Exposure Time1/580
• Aperture2.2
• ISO100
• Focal Length4.7 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

Oh how I wish I could have taken my quadcopter to Antarctica! They gave me the big no-no on that one, unfortunately. That’s a real bummer because I could have gotten so many more shots. Anyway, I was more than lucky enough to take quite a few helicopter flights, and I went photo-crazy on all of them. I negotiated for the best seat (often having to offer bottles of wine) so that I could see as much as possible. One time, I had my camera out the window and the shutter area inside the Sony broke apart. I have no idea how that happened because I thought it was air-sealed in there. Anyway, who knows… but I got this shot right before it broke apart.

Layers of Ice and Water in Antarctica

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2015-01-20 16:09:50
• CameraILCE-7S
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/320
• Aperture11
• ISO125
• Focal Length27.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias