Off Road Photography Ideas

I remember when I bought my first real camera (one that wasn’t attached to a phone). I took pictures of everything. The local train-station. The local fire-station. The local milk dairy. Farms. Ponds. I even spent the best part of one afternoon zooming around where I grew up on a bike taking photos of “everyday life”. I had this idea that I could become the town’s unofficial biographer and I’d hoped to snap things like grocery store employees in white overalls taking deliveries of fresh produce and dogs catching frisbees in the park. Alas, what I discovered was that ‘found photography’ isn’t quite that simple. I was up for the challenge, willing to put the pedal power in to see the town in action, but what came to light was the realisation over what daily life really boils down to: very few people on foot, lots of cars, not much happening, and one bus driver who gestured to me using, shall we say, not entirely all of his fingers, indicating that he was not all too pleased about being ‘papped’ as he went about his number 60 route between the town centre and the small village of old people’s homes about a mile or two away.

That’s when I knew that photography is only easy if you put in a little planning first. And I planned to go off road, into deserts and snow-scene tundras. But all I had locally was woods. So that would have to do. Now, as an adult, I still enjoy off-road photography … and technology is here to help (see DJI drone for inspiration).

Eye in the sky
You may have never considered drone photography, believing it to be the pastime of people who are more tech minded than are actually passionate about photography. But you’d be wrong. Drone photography opens up … well … the skies. This means you don’t need a telescopic zoom to get the perfect shot of a cliff-edge bird nest, for example. A drone puts you right in the action. Why is this essential for off-roading? I don’t know about your rock climbing or mountaineering skills, but my days scrambling up and down the banks of dense rocky forests are well and truly in my past. No matter, with a drone, the equipment does all the hard work for you. Once you get involved, you’ll wonder how you ever managed to complete an outdoor photography session without a drone flying high for those masterful finishing shots.