For anyone who’s ever lived in the UK, you’ll have noticed that we don’t always get those perfect conditions! In the spring and summer, we tend to get up at 4 or 5 a.m to get ourselves to the location, in good time to do our flight checks and site survey.
At this time of the day, you have the world to yourself. The light at sunrise is often favourable, and winds can often be lighter around dawn. Light winds, good light, clear blue skies with a little fluffy cloud and wind speeds below 10mph are ideal. When I get up at this time and look out the window at the world waking up it fills me with excitement.
This video for Sutton Harbour Plymouth made the most of the best conditions to capture the TRANSAT 2016 boats currently residing there. Transat is a single-handed race across the Atlantic from Plymouth to New York.
Best Conditions Aerial Video – Safety
Being up with the lark also means there tend to be fewer people around which can help improve safety on the shoot. We have to film a visual line of sight, in the hours of daylight, and conditions need to be dry, combine that with a big dose of high pressure over the UK and you’ve got yourself great conditions for shooting perfect drone video. Sometimes though no matter how many weather charts you study, the forecasters don’t always get it right.
If a weather system moves through an hour on either side of your scheduled shoot time, it can scupper your plans. On these occasions – you just have to enjoy the early morning ambience, drink some coffee, go back to the forecasts and plan another day for filming.
Although this can be disappointing, we’re usually in a stunning location on the coast of Devon or Cornwall or around Plymouth, so we get a rare opportunity to sit back, sip our coffee and drink in the view. Cheers!
