Photographing Cruise Ships From Above with a Drone

My name is Edin Chavez, and I’m a photographer based in Miami, Florida. In my city, I often see giant cruise ships arriving and leaving the port. Having been on a few of them, I’m always impressed with their massive size — I always feel so tiny.

I recently shot a series of aerial photos of the ships from directly above using my camera drone.

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been shooting photos around the ships at the port — the ships docked, people getting on and off, food, drinks, and more. After covering it from different angles, I decided I wanted a new perspective — something different that people don’t usually get to see.

My attention turned to my camera drone, and after I flew it over one of the ships, I found that the photos were exactly what I was searching for. Over the next few weeks, I returned to the port a number of times to shoot aerial photos of as many ships as I could under perfect lighting.

Sometimes rain got in the way, sometimes there weren’t any ships there, and sometimes it was the same ships I had photographed already, but I did end up capturing a collection of images that I’m proud of.

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