Photographer Reuben Wu makes use of drones to shed new mild on Stonehenge for the Nationwide Geographic August cowl: Digital Pictures Overview

Photographer and visible artist Reuben Wu, whose shot campaigns for the likes of Audi, Google and Samsung, was tasked with capturing a widely known prehistoric monument for the August cowl of Nationwide Geographic journal. Wu all the time takes an unconventional method in his work, so it is hardly shocking that he showcases Stonehenge in a manner by no means seen earlier than with the assistance of drones.

Positioned in Wiltshire, England, about 90 miles Southwest of London, Stonehenge has stood in place for greater than 4,500 years. Thousands and thousands of vacationers go to this pure surprise, yearly, so it is hardly unfamiliar. Wu, who grew up in England earlier than calling Chicago, Illinois, dwelling used to go to on faculty area journeys.

As a result of Wu’s intention is to get folks to consider locations differently, he determined to make use of a set of drones to mild up the stones throughout nightfall and at evening. Flying on this space introduced a collection of challenges. Drones usually aren’t allowed close to Stonehenge. Additionally, drones can not fly immediately over the stones.

Wu and his assistant, Zac Henderson, additionally a drone pilot, needed to cross the U.Ok. drone examination, get permission to fly from the English Heritage, which maintains the realm, and name forward to tell the Royal Air Power base each single time they launched. The shoot took about 3 hours whole to finish.

That is Reuben Wu’s first cowl picture for Nationwide Geographic.

Whilst you can see a Phantom 4 collection drone within the foreground of the main video in Nationwide Geographic’s ‘Behind the Cowl‘ piece, there’s one other one within the shadows. Wu confirmed that he additionally used a DJI Mavic Enterprise as a result of he wanted a strong built-in mild that might tilt ahead.

‘By subverting the thought of a drone as a flying digicam and utilizing it as a flying mild beam, I’ve been capable of reveal new meanings in previous topics,’ he tells DPReview. ‘New know-how (drones aren’t new anymore however they had been form of had been in 2014) provides me the chance to discover the planet we inhabit in sudden methods, particularly when occupied with it as instruments that we are able to experiment, modify and hack for our particular wants.’

‘Whereas I don’t depend on drones solely for lighting (I additionally used a 40ft pole with lights connected for contained in the stone circle), they’ve been transformative to my inventive follow and have grow to be a signature ingredient in my artwork,’ Wu concludes.

Extra behind-the-scenes footage from this shoot may be discovered on the Nationwide Geographic TikTok channel. Subscribers can learn the total story on the journal’s web site or decide up a difficulty on newsstands.