Arts

The Most Incredible Pictures Of South Australia From Above

By Glam Adelaide

Posted on May 24, 2016

Since December last year Bo Le has been learning to fly his drone to capture some of the most incredible new vantage points of Adelaide for social media.

Drone photography sounds like something out of science fiction or US surveillance, which does utterly no justice to the burgeoning number of hobbyists who enjoy nothing more than capturing the world around them from unique vantage points. Previously, only when you were flying into Adelaide Airport could you look out the window and glance through a birds eye view at our incredible city. But now there are people flying their drones into fireworks, across the top of sporting matches and bringing to our social media platforms perspectives of this city which we could only have imagined just a couple of years ago.

Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens

North Haven Marina.

Seppeltsfield Road, Barossa Valley.

One of the leading lights in Adelaide is the humble Bo Le, who spends his days as a consultant. He’s better known to Instagram and Facebook as SA From Above. Since December last year Bo has been spending his spare time learning to fly his drone for pleasure, while also traveling to capture incredible new vantage points of Adelaide and our surrounds.

“I’ve always been interested in drones,” he explains. “It all started from seeing some local guys fly their racing quads down at the local park. It wasn’t interesting until I saw some Youtube videos of some amazing drone footage posted by others, which made me really wanted to buy one. It’s heaps of fun to fly but is also an excellent camera platform.”

“I love landscapes and in the past I have tried to get into some photography but it really never caught on. In addition to doing drone photography, I also love to collect and photograph hats you can see my collection over on another Instagram. That said thought I’ve networked with a couple of the local instagram photographers from Adelaide (travel_in_pixel & jfturko) so expect heaps of collaborations in the future!”

Unfortunately, with drone regulations as they are, Bo is unable to monetise his photography but hopes that will change at some stage. “I do wish to travel more to take drone photos around South Australia but that opportunity hasn’t come along yet due to work commitments. However, whenever I plan a weekend trip these days the first thing I think of is ‘can I fly here?’

“It took me awhile to find a style I liked. When I first started flying to take photos every one looked very so so, so I’ve done heaps of reading and gotten a lot of inspirations from famous drone photographers. The trick is to basically make the photo look like it was taken from a drone rather from from a helicopter/airplane.”

Bo will usually fill a 16GB SD Card per trip, but says he is fairly picky with the images he takes. From 10-20 shots, he might get 1 or 2 photos he likes. Chasing those shots is part of the challenge and attraction.

“There are some great places I want to fly at but can’t due to it being a no fly zone or too close to an airport. For example I would LOVE to get some shots of the Glenelg Jetty and beaches but can’t fly there due to it being too close to the Adelaide Airport,” he says.

Regardless if the limitations, Bo has garnered an incredible fan base for his work and is happy to continue it as a hobby leading into the future, which is something we’re incredibly happy to hear!