The “Elin-drone” - photographer uses a drone-mounted Elinchrom flash to light extreme sports

 

 

Putting cameras onto drones to capture a unique vantage point is now so common you can buy a drone off the shelf to do just that. But drones still offer photographers new possibilities beyond just the vantage point, as evidenced in photographer David Robinson's latest shoot of extreme sports, using a drone-mounted Elinchrom EB400 strobe to get light onto a cyclist who is literally flying through the air.

As you can see in the video we've embedded below, the octocopter is a great platform for attaching the strobe: the strobe itself is relatively lightweight, and the battery pack can be attached to the other side of the drone to distribute the weight. David imagined the concept for the drone as he found himself limited for lighting when photographing extreme bike sports, as he couldn't get his lights close enough to provide the intensity he was looking for.

We can't imagine that drones will put lightstands out of business just yet, though - an unencumbered octocopter with a sizeable battery still only has an average flight time of around thirty minutes, meaning David and his crew probably took several breaks to swap batteries during this shoot.

(Seen at ISO 1200)