Overcoming challenges as an Albuquerque drone pilot
This luxury real estate property in Sandia Crest, New Mexico, which is in the east mountains of the greater Albuquerque metro area, was a particular challenge to make both drone video and drone aerial photos of because of the tall trees surrounding the house on all sides. Add to that the very high winds (see trees bending in the video), the cold temperature, and the sun facing the property casting a drone shadow on any low shots, this all made for a drone flight that needed an experienced (and certified) drone pilot like myself to produce a video that was still cinematic and representative of what the property looks like. I wanted to highlight the mountains in multiple directions as the setting for the property, while getting what views of the actual house I could. Especially given the conditions, I am very glad with how the drone video came out!
Out on assignment for Hemingway Land in Las Cruces, New Mexico, miles of dirt road took me to an isolated, but beautiful rural desert real estate property with great views of the Organ Mountains. In fact mountains highlighted the views to the west and the north as well. I was actually right in this same remote section of desert in May for another even harder to reach property. I was relieved to discover the washed out road with deep ruts was now mostly filled in with chalky dirt that covered myself and my Jeep nearly entirely. I had to be extra careful to keep my cameras and my drone clean!
On my fourth trip to Navajo Dam New Mexicojust this year, I was treated to both a great sunset for this rural land real estate drone video, but also a chorus of what sounded like marbles being clanked around in a bag! This cicada looking insect was out in mass singing away not caring I needed to concentrate on flying! At least the stuck to hiding on bush and tree branches and were no threat to the drone in the air!
Almost every real estate photo and drone shoot in New Mexico has its challenges. And then sometimes a property has pretty much every challenge possible! That is the case with this home in Placitas, New Mexico being listed by Mark & Susan Ryerson. The first challenge as you can see from the above photo is that the front of the house is largely blocked by trees and it is up on a hill, so getting a direct front view shot was not really possible, not even with the drone. The interior had unique architecture, but somewhat small rooms with large furniture in them. Even using a 15mm lens I had to really search for angles I liked for the living room in particular. Then flying the drone itself, I never had a signal issue between the remote control and the drone until this flight, likely due to the massive power lines right behind the house, which also prevented flying from that direction. Then there was wind from being so close to the mountains and the aforementioned trees all around the house! Overall, this was one of the most challenging real estate shoots and drone flights I have ever done in the Albuquerque area. Thank you to Mark & Susan for their great help as they always provide on this shoot and flight!
Out in rural Rio Rancho on assignment for a new local real estate client, Mike Mellos, flying my DJI Mavic Pro drone over a large rural land property with great views of the Sandia Mountains. Mike wanted me to show the large road frontage of the property as well as the sloping of the land beyond the property to indicate nothing could be built that will block those wonderful mountain views.
In the past few months I have made several trips to rural Belen, New Mexico for rural land real estate photo shoots, but only photos. This time the client, Hemingway Land Company, also wanted drone video of this 5-acre property. This area does not have a lot of interest topographically, so the challenge was to fly cinematically over mostly desolate land. At the end I found an arroyo to fly over in one of my most complex flights yet. Then I finished with finding a few trees before the final sunset shot.
Just outside of Silver City, New Mexico sits this expansive rural land real estate property that I was sent to make a 4K drone video of, as well as aerial and still photos for Hemingway Land. This was one of the easiest rural land properties to access by vehicle, but one of the hardest to traverse by foot due to abundance of tall grass and the rolling topography of the property. I did so much up and down walking that it closed the exercise ring on my Apple Watch! This drone video ends with one of my favorite sunset shots of its kind. The light was soft and I slowly flew to the right just letting the setting sun linger in the frame.
