The Rise of Online Drone Photography Communities and Where They’re At
Over the years, drones have become extremely popular. Currently, there is a small group of commercial drone operators. However, drone technology is becoming more efficient. Drones could be used for different purposes from shipping to storm tracking. The most revolutionary characteristic of drones is the bird’s eye view it offers. Due to this reason, most people are captivated by the extraordinary images and videos a drone is capable of.
Available Social Media Community
From Where I Drone is an online Twitter page where drone photographers can share their photos, share tips, news, or books. The page has 3,064 followers. This is the only Twitter page that has the highest number of followers and focuses on drone photography. It features drone photos, drone photo book launches, some tips for drone photographers of how to capture drone-eye images, and as well as interviews with photographers. This is a centralized community that can be found on this platform as well as a blog (but do not discuss on blog).
The community is not very active on twitter since it’s last post was in 2020 and is missing the core objective of drone photography. I feel that Twitter is a very effective social media platform that engages people in discussions and we can gain new knowledge. However, this page does not feature many drone images or tips like, “Tips for what the best drone photo looks like”. I think the most common term they use is #aerialphotography. It also uses phrases like “eye-view” and ‘eyes over the world” which was linked to a drone photography book.
Popular Online Forum Communities
Skypixel is an online community centered around aerial drone photography. Members can up vote each other’s photos, and experts are ranked based on votes. SkyPixel holds an annual photo contest for its members, which is a unique feature for an online forum. This platform partnered with DJI and has around 18 million registered users. The platform is centralized, you could think of it as another combination of Instagram and Tik Tok, where you can browse, follow, like, and share other images. It’s certainly lacking the interaction that other platforms offer, such as Instagram would provide, as it seems like a more formal platform.
Drone Photography on PhotographyTalk platform is a centralized community, this platform is not very active on its own page. It seems to lack comments or involvement from other users. When I scroll through this page, I notice that there are more questions about brands, drone lens, and or videos. Users do not seem to be following guidelines of this sub-forum. Although, PhotographyTalk on Facebook has 762,390 followers.
DJI Drone Photography is a group on Facebook for people to upload and share photos you have captured. This group is a centralized private group that consists of 41.5K members and group rules. If private communities are your bread and butter, this may be a good option.
Chosen Online Forum Community
r/drone_photography is a centralized subreddit community on Reddit to share and discuss anything drone photography related with 12.5K members. Reddit is a great platform to create and share content presented visually and is an incredible discussion tool for redditors.
There are forums out there that are similar to Reddit, however, I believe this is the most user-friendly platform specially for people to share their drone photography, ask questions, and comment. You can spend a chunk of your time on this platform by browsing through photos for ideas, tips, humor, or simply gaining more information on a drone or a drone photo. For example, I found an amazing image on the forum from Emeryville, CA where a user asked a question, “Is this a panoramic” he instantly gets a response from the poster. I noticed that the forum has photos and users from different parts of the world. I don’t think we can find a more perfect platform like Reddit to share images, ask questions or have normal conversations on a forum. A unique term used on this forum is “Excellent Hues!” Most responses are usually one word responses: ‘Nice’, ‘Fantastic’, or ‘Beautiful’. This platform is surely the best place to escape our current, boring indoor lives and fly over some beautiful destinations.
One of the main objectives of using drones is aerial surveying. Most online communities I found consisted of many aerial drone photographs. This feature could also bring aerial mapping to an entirely different level. On that note, I recently purchased a DJI Mavic Pro 2 that has an amazing 12-megapixel sensor with up to 2x optical zoom camera and has omnidirectional obstacle sensing. While trying to find my proper online home for my drone endeavors, Reddit seems like the perfect balance to fit my needs.
