Photography aims to document what we may forget, what we may not be able to see, and what we may not reach. Drone photography does exactly that.
Drones are able to capture what we cannot see from our worm’s eye view of the world and offers a new perspective on points of the world that we as humans simply cannot get to. Drones have increased in popularity over the years and bird’s eye view images continue to intrigue. U.S. sales of drones more than doubled in the 12 months ending in February 2017, with a 117% increase year-over-year, according to the NPD Group. In the 2016 holiday season, drone sales soared capping at a record high for the industry where it was the gift that 1 in 5 people said they’d like to receive and that 1.2 million of them would find under the tree.
Instagram is one of the many platforms to showcase drone photography. As of Dec. 21, there are nearly 5.5 million posts with the hashtag #drones and nearly 1.9 million posts using the hashtag #dronestagram. Swedish photographer Tobias Hägg from @airpixels with 377,000 followers captures aerial landscapes from black sand beaches to pine filled forests.
In honor of the first day of winter on Dec. 21, check out the gallery above of wintery photographs taken with drones.