Photographer Drones Forbidden City-Beautiful & Yet Predictable Results
THE VIDEO - BEIJING FROM ABOVE
Before I tell you the story of being detained by the Chinese (and, like Taborlin the Great, I similarly did not have key, coin, or candle), I’ll share the video I made! I would have gotten even more footage had the quadcopter not been, ahem, confiscated… BTW, I recommend running the video in HD mode with earphones!
This was made with a really awesome quadcopter — the New DJI Phantom 2 with Zenmuse H3-3d 3-axis Gimbal and Gopro Hero 3+ Black Edition. All the footage was shot with that GoPro. I did a mixture of wide angle and narrow shots. I also had it in a mode that automatically took a photo every 5 seconds, and I put some of my favorite photos at the bottom of this blog post!
THE DETENTION FACILITY AND QUADCOPTER CONFISCATION
So, I went into this not knowing what was legal and what was not legal. Okay, I had a sinking feeling that flying a quadcopter over the Forbidden City might be more black than grey, but my intentions were pure and artistic, so I figured that gave me some sort of leeway. At least, this is how I justified everything in my head beforehand. You’re starting to see how I make bad decisions.
More: Beijing From Above, Aka the Story of How I Was Detained by the Police Because of My DJI Quadcopter
Tough but fair the Chinese confiscated the drone but gave it back to him on the way out of the country. I would just not have the nerve to play “easier to get forgiveness than permission” in another country. But I can’t argue with the result now can I?
Ironically related
Page by Randall-Drones chased From National Parks
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