My name is Hedley Thorne, and I am a historic landscape aerial photographer who uses drones to take images of the English countryside. In my “day job” I manage the daily IT operation for Heathrow Airport however I am better known for my photography which I showcase through my “Wessex Airscapes” exhibitions alongside landscape artist Anna Dillon, who also uses my photography for her artwork.
Website: hedleythorne.com
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How did you get started in photography, and what drew you to this art form?
I was oblivious to the lure of photography for a great deal of my life, and it was only in my mid-forties that it “found me”. Essentially I converted my interest from cycling to walking which enabled me to take more photographs.
I started walking The Ridgeway in Oxfordshire and Wiltshire quite often and found myself inspired by local artists and their work relating to the places that I was walking through. I initially used my phone camera to replicate some of the works of landscape artist Anna Dillon, but after buying my son a drone I was immediately converted to aerial photography!
Anna and I now work together and host our “Wessex Airscapes” exhibitions which offer visitors my aerial landscape photos of historic sites, and her amazing paintings based on my photos. More recently I was also the aerial photographer for a Sir David Attenborough short documentary, and so in the short time, I have been humbled to have worked with some amazing people.
What is your preferred style or genre of photography, and why?
It goes without saying that, living in the countryside, landscape photography is top of my list. In fact, I am probably a “one trick pony” in this respect (although I have photographed some building interiors using drones too). I love to focus on historic sites such as hill forts, stone circles, and ancient tracks as well as earthworks and rivers.
Drone photography reveals the meaningful shapes of these subjects from above and has even revealed unknown earthworks in places. I love the way that people can relate to the landscape in a new way – perhaps areas that they have walked, ridden a horse, or cycled in, and can now see the area in context with its surroundings. Drones have become quite common and the aerial view has slowly been normalized somewhat, but it is still a good platform to build a portfolio on.
How do you improve and develop your photography skills?
I was told that we should never compare ourselves directly with others. I absolutely love looking at people’s photography and have indeed drawn inspiration from it, however, I won’t compare what I do to other people, instead, I build on my previous work and compare what I am doing today with what I did last year.
It is quite easy to look at what you produced a few years ago and be very critical (I think we have all been through that, right?). Nowadays I think more about creating an “interactive scene” in my pictures for viewers. To sell your pictures in an exhibition you need to be able to tell people a story about the picture- what happened on the day you took it, what history is there in the picture – draw them into the scene and help them block out the outside world.
Help them to remember the scene so they want to take it home with them. If you can have that exact vision long before you hit the shutter in the first place then that picture will be easier to appreciate than a “point and hope”.
I used to adhere to the accepted “rules of photography” such as two-thirds, leading lines, etc, but now I find myself thinking more about the temperature, the wind, the subtle noises, and what the senses pick up in that scene. You need to convey the truth and maximize the beauty and impact of what is there in front of you; try to replicate your experience rather than aim for that postcard shot.
What equipment do you use, and why?
Over the years drone technology has progressed and with the modern, stable platforms such s DJI’s latest drones, capabilities have been augmented for both photo and video, to the point where it isn’t always just for “B-Roll”.
My current drone is a DJI Mavic 3 and has two lenses- one is a four-thirds Hasselblad sensor and the other is a fixed 162mm “telephoto” lens. I am sure that, in a year’s time, this will seem utterly outdated as drone equipment progresses at a terrifying rate.
At this point in time, the DJI Mavic 3 has incredible stability, portability, and reliability. It has the best camera on a portable drone and incredible signal strength. Alongside the drone itself, I use a dedicated controller with a built-in touchscreen, spare batteries, and a wind gauge.
What is the most important element of a great photograph?
In my opinion, for a “general” landscape photograph the most important element is depth. In a standard aerial view, this is achieved by ensuring that there is something in the distance, separate from the subject and foreground, to add dimension. This can be measured beforehand by moving the drone sideways to ensure layers of parallax movement.
If you are taking a flat, or “top-down” shot then the depth has to be created some other way, and this is through the use of shadows and textures. If you are photographing a hill fort from above, the viewer needs to be drawn into the shape, curvature, and depth of the embankments- without that you have a flat image with nothing to hold their attention for more than a few seconds, looking at the same thing and finding nothing else.
What professional photographers have influenced your work?
100 years ago Major George Allen took aerial photographs from an aircraft of the area around where I live. Indeed recently historians have been comparing his photographs of the Uffington White Horse to my own and using computers to simulate how it has changed over the century!
He had a difficult job; a large, mechanical monochrome camera that needed to be operated independently of the aircraft itself. His angles, use of light, and choice of subjects have heavily influenced me. More recently I like to look at the work of David R Abrams and his aerial photography of historic sites. One or two of my hillfort pictures have been inspired by David’s work.
How do you stay inspired and motivated as a photographer?
I am lucky to have a big group of connections on social media and we all love each other’s work; I find myself most evenings talking to people about landscape photography and this motivates me to charge the drone up and get back out there the next day!
I think we have all had that “YES!” moment when something in the viewfinder appeals to us, and we can’t wait to get started working on the raw file- that is what photography is all about. Being out in beautiful landscapes, experiencing the sensations during the shoot, and seeing the world from the ”red kite’s perspective” will always excite me and inspire me to produce more photographs.
I always love meeting people at my exhibitions as well – they always have interesting stories about the landscape, and how they have fallen in love with it. I recently took part in a day school talk at Oxford University on The Ridgeway and I learned more about the landscape and its history from the other speakers that day than I had in a long time, and the next day I spent the entire day photographing The Ridgeway!
How do you handle photographing difficult shooting conditions or subjects?
With drones, you have many limitations, more so than ground-based cameras. I have an app showing where I am not allowed to fly, I have another app telling me it is too wet or too windy, and I rely on landowner knowledge to know where I can or can’t take off.
I can’t fly near people, animals, cities, airports, prisons, or most nature reserves despite my qualifications. Difficult lighting conditions and subjects add to this list of grievances but don’t usually dominate it if you include them in the planning of the shot beforehand.
Drone cameras struggle with shooting into the sun, and shooting away from the sun on a bright day bleaches away any contrast, and so drone position is everything. Using an app to find out the sun’s direction, and correlating that with Google Earth 3D to simulate the subject or terrain, you can line up a good shot before you even step outside and that is my main method of identifying and circumnavigating difficult photoshoots.
Once I am there, I have the same tools as any other photographer such as ND filters, and variable aperture to mitigate most issues, but as above, on some days (such as rainy days), it is quite simply impossible to continue. That is where a coffee shop comes in useful instead!
What advice would you give to someone starting out in photography?
Firstly, don’t rely on HDR or image stacking if you can help it- you’re not going to impress people with neon images. By contrast, don’t be too dull – you still need to draw people’s attention and admiration. Be realistic- a clean, single image is a joy to process and is less likely to look like a cartoon when you refer back to it in years to come!
All of my original pictures were hideously over-vibrant. Secondly, ensure that the image looks good once scaled right in on your computer- you never know, in 3 years’ time or so somebody may request an A1 print of it! My final piece of advice for drone pilots is don’t fly too high. Nobody is interested in pictures of a flattened landscape, looking as if they were all taken out of an airliner window on your flight out to Tenerife. Use the contours of the landscape to your advantage- fly high enough to create an unusual perspective, but low enough to see the relief and details of the land.
What do you hope your photography communicates to your audience, and why is this important to you?
To me the beautiful natural landscape of England is everything. From the wide, open wilderness of Wiltshire to the North Wessex Downs and Chiltern Hills, I feel that we are all responsible for embracing its past, enjoying its presence, and preserving its future.
Well-loved countryside areas of England will never lose their haunting geometry and I fear we are now at a time where we need to be aware of what is happening around us to protect and preservice this beauty. I want my pictures to remind people of what they have on their front door; to showcase the beauty that is accessible to most people, and to inspire them to look into the layers of history in the landscape. In the stressful world of industry, transport, and construction, the presence of these beautiful landscapes has never been more important than it is right now.
What editing software do you like to use for your finished photos?
I use 2 versions of Adobe Lightroom to process raw images. Ironically, for low-level editing the feature-rich desktop version is perfect however for client or exhibition images I prefer using the more lightly featured Lightroom Mobile on a good tablet with a pen; this is easier to zoom in and use the pen for fine “painting style” editing, much better than using a mouse or trackpad.
