Video: Fire fuels prairie revival

More videos are coming soon, but to hold you over, here is an uncovered relic from Drone Girl’s past:

I didn’t always fly under Drone Girl moniker. When I first got into drones, it was as photographer for the Missouri School of Journalism’s drone journalism program, the first of its kind in the nation, where footage captured from the drone was used for NPR-member station KBIA.

This footage is shot by my former colleague Brendan Gibbons, and produced and edited by yours truly. It goes to show the scope of images that a drone can capture.

in the line of fire: seeing a prairie fire from the sky from KBIA on Vimeo.

Imagine a fire that starts too quickly for a helicopter to deploy, or that is too hot or dangerous to send a helicopter over. In order to capture video of the fire, a drone is a relatively easy and cheap alternative, allowing us to see the direction of the fire and its size from a safe, aerial vantage point.

The fire depicted in this video was a controlled burn — and our team was there from start to finish — but is indicative of what drones can contribute.

Of course, it’s otherwise illegal to fly drones over wildfires (we worked closely with the department in this controlled burn to shoot this video) so don’t try to recreate this video on your own.

Since producing that video, I’ve grown in the drone industry as a writer, speaker, teacher, creator of my own aerial photography business and more. I got my Part 107 drone pilot license, and I’ve met tons of amazing people in this flying community. It’s amazing what possibilities the drone world can open up, as long as you’re open to it!

Please leave a comment below if you have any questions. Enjoy!