URBEX on Soar — drone mapping abandoned places with Luminar winner, Nathalie!
Hi Nathalie, thanks for joining us and congratulations on winning our Luminar 3 giveaway! Your image received the most views on our platform during the competition.
Can you tell us what you did to get more exposure for your image on Soar?
Hi and thanks so much! I shared the Soar link with the picture on my Facebook page where I got a lot of interactions from friends, and others who are interested in drone photography and urbex, urban exploration. I think my picture has many views because it’s quite different, making people curious to click on it. Also, I photograph nature that’s taking back what belongs to her, and I believe that’s what made the difference as well.
Great job sharing that photo far and wide! Tell us about yourself. Who are you, what do you do?
I am Nathalie from Belgium, living in The Netherlands. I’m a full-time composite technician in the aircraft industry. In my free time, I love urbex and traveling! I’m always packed with my camera and drone to explore abandoned buildings and places, near home and abroad. I love the apocalyptic look of abandoned things.
That’s a unique career Nathalie, very cool that it overlaps with your drone hobby! Tell us the story of your first drone-flight experience? What made you want to stick with it and find your style?
It was always my dream to go to Chernobyl which I eventually did just 4 months ago, together with a Ukrainian friend. I decided to buy my first drone and brought it with me on the trip. While in Ukraine I decided to practice at a BBQ with friends because I wanted to learn how to fly with it before going to my favourite destinations. At the BBQ I was flying through a silent back street where some kids were playing in their garden. They noticed my drone and started yelling with excitement to their friends. They came out of their garden and I could see the excitement on their faces through my phone screen. They were jumping, smiling and waving to the camera. I flew my drone back to where I was and the kids were following it. With much excitement, they asked questions and together we all waved to the camera while I was filming, which allowed me to capture my favourite drone moment to this day on my first flight! Their excitement about drones inspired me and that’s why I want to keep going with it.
What an awesome experience on your first flight! I know that for a lot of people, the first flight often involves a crash and much disappointment. So now that you’re back home, where do you like to fly your drone and why?
The Chernobyl trip really cemented my love to fly at abandoned places and inside their buildings. Any abandoned place I go, I will always bring my drone with me. I want to capture the abandoned beauty as much as possible from all angles before construction workers might demolish and clean up the place. Also, a drone can see things you can’t see from the ground. An example of this is our holiday in Denmark, where we found abandoned trains thanks to a tip. Next to the trains there were a bunch of undercarriages lying on the ground. I tried taking pictures with my regular camera but none of them turned out how I wanted, I was curious how the undercarriages looked from above. I flew my drone right above it with my camera pointed straight down, took a few pictures and I was astonished at what I saw. I took so many pictures of the undercarriages from ground-level with not a single good picture, but from above my favorite drone shot so far was made with just 1 single click.
Drones can capture videos and pictures a regular camera or human can never see. — Nathalie from Belgium
We certainly agree that drones capture a unique point of view, and they offer a high level of detail in such a small package that is really valuable. How do you think a platform like Soar can aid you with your drone photography?
I think Soar is an amazing platform where I’m able to share my favorite drone shots with the world and even explore potential new projects and ideas. Thanks to Soar I can reach people who are interested in my work and maybe even find people who I can collaborate with or learn from! I hope that I can reach people who love my work and want to support me by buying my pictures so that I can earn enough to keep traveling around the world for urbex photography! Abandoned places are so beautiful in my eyes and drone shots definitely give me the best pictures. In the end, those pictures will keep on living while the actual location might be erased from this planet.
Tell us a bit about the drones you’re using, their best features and how they’re suited to the work that you create.
For my Urbex adventures I wanted a quality drone that is small enough to fly through abandoned buildings and to easily take with me while traveling, yet has a long battery life and a nice camera. The DJI Spark was a nice small drone that would be perfect for the sometimes narrow spaces in abandoned buildings, but the camera and battery life didn’t fit my needs. That’s how I decided to buy the DJI Mavic Air which is slightly larger but with the specs I was looking for. I also chose the white one which is easier to spot if it happens to crash, which isn’t a bad idea since I’m new to drones and still learning.
What’s your next bit of gear?
Extra batteries because you can never have too many batteries when flying a drone! The DJI goggles do look like a fun thing to play around with as well. I can see myself lying down somewhere in the fields with the goggles on, and just have a relaxing time flying around the area like a bird.
What do you love most about drones?
What I like the most about drones is the excitement and enjoyment they can bring to people, just like the kids I met in Ukraine. The interest people give me when talking about drones or my drone photographs motivates me to keep on going with it!
Thanks for the interview Nathalie and best of luck with many fun-filled URBEX adventures! We really do love hearing about how people are using Soar’s satellite and drone imagery to conduct amazing projects and promote their work. If you have a cool story you want to be shared, you’re always welcome to reach out to skysponsor@soar.earth for a feature on our blog.
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