We were contacted in early November by a private customer whom wanted to have a morning aerial shot of Hamilton’s Devil’s punchbowl (Devil’s Punchbowl Conservation Area) – also known as Horseshoe Falls. As we were informed, the picture was going to be in memory of our customer’s father whom loved visiting the site regularly, and lived nearby.

Scope of the project

The customer was hoping for some specific features in the footage. They wanted an aerial shot facing the cross from out in front of it; for the lights of the cross to be noticeable; for the shot to be at early morning dawn, and for the rising sun to be noticeably in the background. They also required the clouds and sky to be nicely hued in light purple, blue and pink.

Getting a specific shot like this was a challenge and we took it.

Getting the right shot – especially for an aerial image that’s going to be framed and hung on the wall – is always a challenge. The customer has their vision, and we as drone services, need to find that right shot, take it, touch the image up, and present it to the customer. Will they like it? Not always, and understandably so! When you’re paying for something, you expect it to be exactly as you hoped it would. This is the essence of drone services.

In order to obtain the perfect shot, we arrived on the scene a half hour before sunrise. We did this for 3 days and took approximately 30 to 40 aerial shots in total. It wasn’t easy getting the picture according to the customer’s exact specifications but after 3 days of trying we succeeded.

For privacy reasons we’re not going to post the exact photo the customer selected but instead we’ll post one of the many photos that were taken as an example:

For those of you that know Hamilton and the Devil’s Punch Bowl well, you’ll know that in the above shot the drone was out in front of the cross where there’s a drop of at least 100 to 200 feet. That was the essence of the position of the drone when taking this photo, including having the right backdrop at just the right time.

As a general rule of thumb, and of course with some exceptions, taking photos facing the sun directly doesn’t always result in an optimal image, but with the right touch-ups, photos of this nature can actually look good, especially depending on the situation.

After the third day the customer was delighted with quite a few of the shots we took, and the effort we put into the project. We were determined to get it right and we were also delighted by the outcome.