Drones and their related technology have greatly improved during the last few years. Commercially available drones have increased capabilities and have far more powerful cameras than commercial drones did in the past. However, as they’ve become more accessible, sales of drones have increased, allowing more people to explore their many uses. No longer are Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s) just for the military, making it more and more of a hobbyist item. Thanks to that, people have managed to capture some of the most amazing and curious photos that we wouldn’t have seen in the past.
Follow The Pink Rabbit
Worldlifestyle.com
When thinking about Italy, the first things you picture are probably pizza, pasta, wine, and ancient ruins. What you’re probably not thinking about is giant pink rabbits. However, that’s exactly what was captured in 2005 by a drone flying in the Piedmont area of northern Italy. The rabbit is known as Hase (the German word for rabbit) and is 20 feet high and 200 feet long and has no function other than being a giant piece of art. When it was first built in 2005, the artist responsible for its construction believed that it would last until 2025 but instead of 20 years, the rabbit completely decomposed in only 11 years, ending it in 2016.
Don’t Look Now But…
Simbaly.com
Drones often capture sights that we are unaware of. However, few things are as terrifying as the following example showing some sailors on a boat, entirely unaware of the massive whale that’s right behind them. The video from the drone shows the whale, which is bigger than the boat, following the boat out of pure curiosity for a full 15 minutes. Fortunately, the whale was just curious and not aggressive or this may have ended very differently.
Bear Witness
Florian Ledoux/Skypixel
Florian Ledoux, a photographer, received top honors at the 2017 Skypixel award for this photo of a polar bear struggle to cross the Arctic icecap. It might just seem like a perfectly timed photo but this photo is more than just artistic, it’s also a dire warning. Ledoux’s photo highlights and clearly illustrates the seriousness of climate change. Ledoux hopes that it will help to raise awareness of the issue and prompt people to find a sustainable solution to global warming so that sights like these will not disappear forever.
Big Hole In Guatemala
Atlas Obscura
This striking photo shows the scale of a gigantic sinkhole that appeared in Guatemala City after a massive tropical storm in 2010. Tropical storm Agatha had battered the area for 24 hours before weakening. As a result of the storm’s onslaught, the sinkhole opened up unexpectedly. The hole itself was 300 feet deep, 65 feet wide, and managed to engulf an entire three-story factory. Though there were many factors involved in the formation of the hole, including the Pacaya volcano’s eruption, not all of them were natural. According to experts, the lax rules regarding zoning and building codes in Guatemala City is a factor in the increasing frequency of sinkholes in the area.
Killer Klowns From Outer Space?
Shareably.net
While such sightings weren’t entirely new, there was a huge spike in the number of reports of creepy clowns in both the US and Canada during 2016. No one knows who these harrowing harlequins are or what they want. This photo of a creepy clown standing in a field has caused quite a bit of controversy as many claim it is a staged photo. Whatever the case may be, it is certainly an unsettling image. Theories surrounding these clowns included that they were a marketing tactic for 2017’s film IT, or that they were just pranks. However, the clown sightings became so prevalent that even MacDonald’s decided to not use their famous clown mascot for some time.
Fall Of Pegasus
Simbaly.com
While some may think that this photo has been manipulated through digital wizardry, the sad truth is that it was not. In 2018 Pegasus Airlines Flight 8622 slipped off the runway at Trebizond Airport during it’s landing. I careened over the edge of the embankment and slid down further toward the nearby Black Sea. Miraculously, however, none of the 168 people on board suffered any injuries. The plane itself however was irreparably damaged and as a result, had to be scrapped.
Love Is In The Air
Domesticatedcompanion.com
The increased accessibility to drones has made it easier than ever for the average person to make use of them. Some people have found truly creative ways to put their drones to work. One example of such ingenuity was provided by this bride and groom. Having found love, this couple decided to show off and celebrate by having a drone take this spectacular photo celebrating their wedding day atop a small patch of grass amid the rooftops of the concrete jungle.
That’s No Log
Credits
While flying over the sea near a tourist resort, a drone in Phuket, Thailand managed to snap a photo of a truly terrifying sight. There in the clear blue waters was a massive three-meter long crocodile, swimming toward land. According to reports, the croc had escaped from a nearby crocodile farm. Saltwater and Nile crocodiles are extremely dangerous and are the cause of numerous deaths each year due to their ability to strike without warning or detection.
Morrison’s Quarry
Fromwhereidrone.com
This drone photo shows the waters of Morrison’s Quarry in Chelsea, Quebec. The aircraft isn’t the only thing you’ll find in these waters, however. There are also cars and a variety of other objects in the water. However, these objects did not end up here naturally or by accident. These waters are famous as a diving and bungee jumping spot and the various cars and other items, including the plane, were all placed there to make for a much more interesting environment for divers to explore.
Mine All Mine
Eso ha vuelto
While this may look photoshopped or edited in some way, what you’re looking at is entirely real. This gigantic hole is the Mir mine deep in Siberia. It is the biggest man-made holes in the world and was the first developed mine in the then Soviet Union. When it was at its height the mine produced around 10,000,000,000 carats of diamonds annually. Soviet geologists first discovered diamonds at that location in 1955, after which the full-scale excavation started. The man who discovered the diamonds, Chief Geologist Yuri Khabardin, received the Lenin Prize for his find.
Falling Colors
Calin Stan
To a photographer, the beautiful colors of Fall are an absolute gift. The fiery blast of colors before winter. A photographer caught the full splendor of fall with a drone. You can see how man encroaches on nature by watching the road winding through the blazing forest.
Tree Plane
Worldtravelling.com
You might think that this is the scene of some tragic accident. However, a man named Bruce Campbell (not the actor), bought this plane when it was decommissioned. He bought it for $100,000 and had it taken to his land outside Portland, Oregon. He turned this Boeing 727 into his home.
Fort Fantastic
Worldtravelling.com
This almost three-hundred-year-old fort was built in Holland. It is no longer used in the countries defense and is currently a historical monument. These walls and moat have stood for several hundred years. Something else you might notice in this photo is the wonderfully maintained forest which also belongs to the museum. Interestingly enough, a fort with a similar design in South Africa that was also built by the Dutch around the same time.
Great White Hype
The West Australian
This photo is part of a documentary about the relationship between sharks and humans by Mark Romanov and Forrest Galante. It was taken off the Southern Californian coast. The two girls, called Jessica and Kelly, seem oblivious to the ominous dark shape swimming around under their paddleboards.
Desert Boneyard
Micccp.com
Something you might not think about is where fighter planes are sent once they are decommissioned. The answer is: they get sent to Tucson, Arizona. “The Boneyard” is a disposal and storage facility that was created after the Second World War. There are almost 4,000 planes stored here. The low humidity in the area is what makes it so perfect as a location. The metal doesn’t rust and corrode in that kind of environment. The base sends about $500 million of spare parts back to the government and Congress approved private parties.
Jam Packed
Credits
China is the most populous country in the world with more than 1.4 billion inhabitants. Obviously this also means that China has some horrendous traffic jams ever seen. This photo of a 50 lane road that became a bottlenecked traffic jam was taken on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau highway on the border of Hong Kong. The “Golden Week” is a Chinese holiday week where people travel home to see their families. Each year more and more people take to the roads. In 2010 this traffic jam was so bad that it lasted 12 days and some people were only able to travel a single mile in a day.
Catch Of The Day
Credits
This well-timed photo captured the moment when a fisherman from Panama City Beach, Florida caught a hammerhead shark. The images show how he is battling to pull up the shark. The fisherman not only succeeded but also released the shark back into the ocean.
The Silverdome
DomesticatedCompanion.com
This haunted Silverdome stadium was once home to the Detroit Lions football team before moved to the newer Ford Stadium in 2002. This stadium has hosted the Super Bowl, a pope, the NBA final, an Elvis concert, and many others. It was bought in 2009 with the plan of turning it into a football stadium. This never happened and no one has any idea what the future holds for this stadium.
Christ The Redeemer
Pngtree.eu
This is an example of the amazing angles that people can only capture with a drone. This photo is a top-down view of the Redeeming Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro. It stands 2,329 high atop Mount Corcovado. The statue is 124.7 feet high and took all of 9 years complete. As huge as it is, this is only the 3rd largest statue of Christ in the world. There are larger statues are in Bolivia and Poland. The statue in Rio is routinely struck by lightning, even losing a finger as a result of the storm.
Six Flags
History A2Z
Located in New Orleans is an abandoned Six Flags theme park. The park has been closed since Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. This photo was taken by a flying drone just two weeks after the storm passed, and as you can see, the park is still flooded. A number of different plans have been announced to redevelop the site, but none have been completed. The site remains abandoned and in poor condition. Nevertheless, the park is guarded 24 hours a day by the New Orleans police as thrill-seekers attempt to break into the park to see the ghost town amusement park.
A Nightmare In The Sky
This impressive view shows an aerial photo of a drone overlooking the city of Hong Kong. Hong Kong has the largest number of skyscrapers in the world and, although they are beautiful to look at, they also represent a larger underlying problem in the city’s real estate market. Hong Kong is the fourth-most densely populated region in the world with more than seven million inhabitants living in its very compact perimeter. The real estate market has long struggled to meet the demand for more living space, but unfortunately, this has only resulted in smaller and smaller apartments at extremely high prices.
Gulliver The Gentle Giant
This somewhat disturbing image was taken by a drone seen from the sky over a field in Edinburgh, Scotland. The statue, called Gulliver the Gentle Giant, was created by Jimmy Boyle, a former gangster, and convicted murderer, while he served a sentence at Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow. The statue was unveiled in 1976 and has become the favorite playground for children in the region. Over time, the statue decayed and was finally removed from the site in 2011.
Mont Saint-Michel
Independent.co.uk
This photo was taken as part of the “Dronestagramme” travel photography competition. It is Mont Saint-Michel. It is one of the most recognizable sites in France and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Located in Normandy, this emblematic town attracts more than three million visitors per year. The island has had strategic fortifications since antiquity and has been the seat of the monastery since the 8th century AD. ‘At low tide, the island is accessible to pilgrims who come to visit the abbey. And at high tide, the island is very defensible to potential invaders. Mont Saint-Michel remained undefeated during the Hundred Years’ War, even though the English tried several times to seize the town by force.
Basilica of St. Francis
In what appears to be a castle straight out of the hit Game of Thrones series, this view can be seen in person in Umbria, Italy – but only by drone. And it is not really a castle, but a church known as the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. The construction of the imposing basilica began in 1228. The complex consists of two churches built on the hillside and a crypt where the remains of Saint Francis lie. Saint Francis lived and died in the city of Assisi, one of the most important Christian pilgrimage sites in Italy. The basilica has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000.
Weaving Birds
No, it is not a giant sculpture of a moose head, but rather the most famous bird’s nest in the world. This photo of a drone was taken by a South African photographer in the Kalahari Desert, which covers an area of about 350,000 square miles across much of Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. Such a large nest can support hundreds of weavers. Since the bird species regularly maintains its nests, they can last extremely long, sometimes up to 100 years. Massive nests are made of natural materials such as twigs, grass, and cotton. The weaver’s common nest is a rare phenomenon among birds.
Feeding The Ducks
BaoMoi
This beautiful image of a drone was taken over the Ba River, just downstream of the city of Tuy Hoa, Vietnam. A farmer can be seen feeding the hundreds of beautiful white ducks that surround him. There is a long tradition of duck farming in Vietnam. Some 30 million ducks are raised each year in the country, which provides a significant amount of meat and eggs to its inhabitants. Many ducks are raised seasonally in rice fields at the beginning of crop growth, as ducks help to control insects and weeds, as well as provide manure for rice plants that provide additional nutrients.
Staten Island Boat Cemetery
Did you know that in the middle of one of the world’s largest cities, New York, there is a boat cemetery that hides in plain sight? The place is locally known as Staten Island Boat Cemetery, located just off the north shore of the borough. This cemetery was founded in the 1930s. Originally used as a salvage yard, the boats were dismantled and sold as spare parts, but the project was eventually abandoned. Today, there are still about a hundred ships that are decomposing on the site. The destination has become a popular point of view for photographers and artists, especially drones photographers who are looking to capture this unusual view.
Drones Of Dubai
Domesticatedcompanion.com
Over the last few decades, Dubai has created one of the most spectacular city skylines on the planet. This offers perfect opportunities for drone pilots to get dramatic photographs from interesting viewpoints, as we can see here. The stunning modern architecture on show in Dubai is crying out for photographers to showcase it, and using drones gives us breathtaking new perspectives.
Bubbling Up
Worldtravelling.com
Since drones have come on the scene, photographers have had the opportunity to take pictures of never before seen natural phenomena in areas that were just too hazardous to enter previously. In this photograph, a photographer has used a drone to get a close-up picture of an Icelandic volcano erupting. Any photographer trying to get to this spectacular fire lake on foot would be taking their life in their hands, but with a drone, we get all the beauty but none of the risk.
Drones And Divers
Worldtravelling.com
At 60 years old, most of us are thinking about the rocking chair and slippers, but not this individual, who chose to celebrate his birthday by diving off a waterfall. The Yellow River in China holds many world records for waterfall diving, and for this picture technology, nature, and human courage have combined to produce an amazing image. Using a drone, the photographer gives us an incredible view of the action and at the same time shows us just how small human achievements are against the majesty of nature.
Solitary Living
Worldtravelling.com
For those who really value their privacy and solitude, it’s hard to imagine a better residence than a cottage floating on the surface of the ocean. Clearly whoever built this house was determined to get as far away from the rest of humanity as they could. All we know about this photograph is that the location is somewhere in the Atlantic between Canada and New York; the drone certainly makes it look as though the homeowner will never have trouble with their neighbors.
Frozen Rivers
Worldtravelling.com
This shot of the Delta River in Iceland was taken from 1500 feet up using a drone. The amazing mystical frozen landscapes of Iceland’s winter mountains look here as if they have been created by the most gifted painter – and in a way, they have been, by nature, the most talented painter on Earth. The swirls and curves of ice look quite magical here, don’t they? This picture is part of a series named “Elemental”, devoted to capturing the amazing sights nature blesses us with.
Unlucky For Some
Editorchoice.com
When someone’s having a really bad day, that can make a good day for a photographer. The driver of this truck clearly won’t be happy after jackknifing and spilling his load across the road, but the photographer with his drone must’ve thought it was Christmas! There is a fascinating juxtaposition of the stationary truck and the traffic carrying on to speed by oblivious, showing just how isolated we can be from each other in our busy world.
Country Colors
Anders via pocket-lint com
All we know about this photograph is that the photographer is named Anders – and that he has an eye for a beautiful picture. In this shot, he has used a drone to capture an amazing patchwork of contrasting colors between fields and a river. Before drones came onto the market, pictures like this would require the massive expenditure of hiring helicopters, etc.; now the equipment needed is within the budget of most amateurs.
Hurricane Harvey
Wired
Most of these photographs are about the beauty of nature, but we always have to remember that it can be destructive as well. This photograph shows us the appalling damage caused by Hurricane Harvey as it rampaged across Texas and Louisiana. 30,000 people were driven from their homes by this event, which ranks with Hurricane Katrina as one of the greatest natural disasters in America’s recent history; the final bill came to around $125 billion.
A New York Christmas
Bryan Dumas
Bryan Dumas took this incredible photograph of a winter’s morning in Central Park in New York using a drone-mounted camera. It’s an amazing depiction of the way nature can still keep a foothold even in this richest and most urban of cities. Anyone who has visited New York, or who lives there, knows just how important Central Park is to give relief from the hustle and bustle of the metropolis, and this image captures its stillness and beauty perfectly.
Lombard Street
Bryan Dumas
Lombard Street in San Francisco has long been a photographer’s favorite, but they have always been confined to ground-level before. This drone image gives us a new perspective on the way this famous road snakes its way across the steep slopes of the San Francisco Hills.
Science Fiction?
Domesticatedcompanion.com
Drones have given photographers and scientists the opportunities to penetrate areas that had previously been far too dangerous for humans to visit – they are still pretty dangerous for drones, apparently many were lost in the project to capture these images. Still, we feel it was worth the cost to bring back such amazing pictures, telling us more and more about our planet.
El Nino – Bad Boy
Editorchoice.com
Its name might mean “boy” in Spanish, but the El Nino weather phenomenon is nothing if fully grown. This drone image shows the incredible damage the cyclones it causes bring to the unfortunate countries in its path. We can see here that residents have abandoned their homes on the coast, and that it won’t be long before more of the coastline crumbles into the sea. It’s a sobering reminder of just how fragile our hold on the planet is.
Californian Catastrophe
YouTube/dobsonimages
In October 2017, the Tubbs Fire began in California. Although the state is used to having forest fires virtually every year, this one was different, rampaging across a wide area and doing billions of dollars of damage in the state’s most costly conflagration. More than 5600 buildings were destroyed by the fire, from Hollywood millionaire mansions to humble single-story homes. Nearly 37,000 acres of land were burned, and, tragically, at least 22 people were killed.