Touch the sky
Photographer Chris Gorman uses his experience as a picture editor to capture topselling drone photographs, as he explains here
You may not realise it, but there’s a good chance you’ve already seen one of Chris Gorman’s drone photographs. Appearing under the name ‘The Big Ladder’, Chris Gorman’s drone photography has appeared in an illustrious set of publications which includes The
DailyTelegraph,TheGuardian,TheTimes and the LondonEveningStandard. Not only that, but he also holds a contract with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) with his video and stills work on display at gardens across the UK.
‘I try to give my images a news hook to hang the image on, be that weather, a link to current a airs, or a famous landmark’
It’s perhaps not surprising that his work has been such a hit with a number of news publications, given his background working as a picture editor for both TheNewZealandHerald and The LondonEveningStandard – he has vital insight into what a newspaper will publish. He explains, ‘I try to give all my images a news hook to hang the image on, be that weather, a link to current aairs or a famous landmark that everyone knows. It helps the image massively when pushing it to a picture desk. A great example of this is my image of the Glenfinnan Viaduct in Scotland as it was used in the Harry Potter films, giving it a great hook.’
A fully qualified PfCO pilot, Chris uses the DJI Mavic 2 Pro (of which he has two). He says, ‘The jump from the first Mavic Pro was quite significant for me – the ability to shoot in low light is vital for about 50% of my images and the one-inch sensor on the Hasselblad camera is fantastic. I could never use a larger drone for my work as often I have to hike to a location. I also don’t want a drone that is too intrusive.’
Planning the perfect drone shoot can require a high level of meticulous planning. Chris says, ‘It takes a lot of brainstorming and geeky attention to weather forecasts to come up with ideas and make them work. A shot of London’s Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park took four days of delicate negotiations with The Royal Parks, [air trac body] NATS and Winter Wonderland themselves. Hyde Park is a restricted area with the airspace controlled by the Met Police.’ He was commissioned by TheLondon
EveningStandard, which stipulated that the image had to run on a certain date. That meant that all permissions had to be lined up at the right time for the feature to run
at all. ‘Thankfully all went to plan (even the weather), and the resulting image went on to appear in the Standard,TheDailyTelegraph,and
TheDailyMirror. The image also went viral on social media,’ he says.
One of Chris’ most successful images is of the Glenfinnan Viaduct in the Scottish Highlands. ‘A sharp eye on the weather forecast in January this year told me that Scotland was about to get its first major snow of 2020,’ he explains. ‘ Though the forecast indicated that it would likely only last one day, I decided to gamble on this and www.amateurphotographer.co.uk jumped on a plane to Glasgow (from London).
‘Upon arrival I made a lastminute decision to hire a 4x4 vehicle. This decision saved the entire assignment as the snow became so thick, only a 4x4 would have got through. Driving though Glencoe in a blizzard was an experience I’ll never forget. However once I got to Fort William the snow had turned to sheet rain. I also had just 35 minutes of daylight left. I decided I would carry on to Glenfinnan nonetheless as it was just 15 minutes outside the town.
‘ This decision proved vital. I arrived in Glenfinnan to snow once again and miraculously the weather had cleared to reveal a Narnia-like scene. I sent the drone out and took four frames and it then began to hail so it was a race to get the drone back. I knew that if I didn’t take the image there and then in the failing light the snow would very likely be gone in the morning – and it was. The resulting image made two double-page spreads in TheGuardian and The
DailyMail as well as a half page in TheDailyTelegraph.’
Many of Chris’s images stem from his love of landscape photography (and Ansel Adams). ‘The drone allows me to take a camera (almost) anywhere, it’s not all about height but just being able to skim the drone over water for example, taking it where I can’t physically go,’ he says. ‘I remember seeing Ansel Adams work and instantly understanding it so he has been a major inspiration.’
One of Chris’s most popular images is the mist swirling around Shipley Windmill (home of fictional TV character Jonathan Creek) in West Sussex. ‘This is a great example of going out on a limb. I’d seen this windmill while passing by and knew it would be a great point for a picture at some stage. That time came when I was looking for a weather image for the newspapers. I’d seen the weather forecast for the next day predicted very thick fog so I decided to head to the windmill at 6am – the sun rose at 7.30. When I arrived I thought I’d wasted my time as the fog seemed too thick for the sunrise. However, around 30 minutes later, it started to burn o. I raised the drone and it was one of those shots I knew instantly was going to be pretty epic. Suddenly a flock of birds appeared and almost in a panic I pressed the shutter.’
The resulting image appeared over half a page in TheDailyTelegraph,
‘ The success of this image pretty much convinced me that drone photography was my future’
and has been exhibited in the Press Photography of The Year Exhibition on London’s South Bank.
Another image published widely is Stonehenge at the Summer Solstice. ‘ The success of this image pretty much convinced me that drone photography was my future,’ says Chris. ‘The idea came from my experience as a picture editor. Events such as this are attended by probably about 20 Fleet Street photographers who are all vying for the same images – think silhouettes of people around the stones and so on. We tend to see the same images every year, but crucially I knew it had never been seen from the sky.
‘A 3am start paid o quite handsomely as the resulting image appeared in every single national newspaper the next day. The solstice image consists of over seven manually bracketed exposures from four stops under to three stops over. The resulting images were then pulled together in Lightroom or Photoshop using the Nik Efex
Plugins. This gives an image as the eye saw it at the time, and is something one exposure simply couldn’t do.’
Chris is a fan of using his drone to give a new angle – quite literally – to old concepts. A great example of this is a shot of sunbathers on Bournemouth Beach. ‘I was tired of the usual “Phew what a scorcher” images seen in the papers on the hottest day of the year and knew the drone could give it a more classy feel. The resulting image was published on the front of TheDaily
Telegraph and also appeared in The Times, so clearly, their picture editors also agreed.’