California Baptist University

What is your favorite shot you’ve taken from a drone? It’s a shot of me looking over a surfer and it’s one of my favorite shots because it’s an early shot that I took with a GoPro that you couldn’t control from the ground. I had to have it in time-lapse mode, so it would take pictures every five seconds. I remember seeing the surfer way out, hoping I’m perfectly over him and counting in my head 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 because that’s when it would take a picture. When I (arrived home) and opened up the photo I was like “Oh my gosh, he’s in the perfect position” That was really special, and it really showed me that this (style of photography) could be something magic. You recently came out with a photography book Eyes Over the World : the Most Spectacular Drone Photography. How did you decide you wanted to create a book? I’ve been approached two times to do a book, but I felt like (those publishing companies) were just trying to make a book with anyone. Eventually, this company called Rizzoli reached out to me. They sounded really professional, and when I looked them up I saw they do tons of photo books and art books. They’re a legit big publisher in the art world. I was like ‘Ah man, these guys might be the one,’ so we had a meeting and it went really well. Overall, the (people I worked with) were really collaborative. They really wanted to make the best book possible and they cared about things paper quality and page size — things that I really care about as a designer … I thought a book would be a really cool way to also to feature people from the drone community, and show this collective book of the different aspects of the world. It’s like a worship book of God’s glory, even if the 100+ photographers don’t realize it.

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WORDS Kia Harlan Elijah Martinez

PHOTOS Kia Harlan Courtesy of Dirk Dallas

DESIGN Kia Harlan

89 Dirk Dallas