[MrB]

Asking for your thoughts, drone photography is it an extension to our art or just a pain in the back side?

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Both.

They can undoubtedly open up a whole new field of view for the photographer.

However, they can also be environmentally intrusive - partly because as yet there isn't any silent anti-gravity technology to lift the drone and its payload off the ground. Also partly because they can be operated by unregulated individuals, some of whom will inevitably use them carelessly, or even with deliberate irresponsibility and without consideration for others.

Last spring while photographing bluebells, the gentle symphony of the natural woodland sounds was destroyed by the buzz of a large amateur drone, like a giant hornet, flitting and hovering among the trees, filming the bluebell carpet. 

Philip