Meet the team
The Drone Girl® was created with the intent of exploring drones and how they can assist the world via the imagery they produce.
Drones have many positive uses — they’ve been used by park rangers to spot poachers and save rhinos , they can be used for news purposes to show the scope of droughts, and they can even deliver sushi at restaurants.
The Drone Girl® is an outlet to publish aerial photos, videos and stories about the evolution of drones.

Note that The Drone Girl team does not, however, fly drones for commercial purposes or operate any type of aerial photography service. Email Sally here to get in touch!
Sally French, Founder of the Drone Girl
The Drone Girl ® is the web, drone-flying persona of Sally French. Sally is a journalist and “geek girl” who loves drones.
She was born and raised in southern California native, though she now lives in downtown San Francisco.
She is a world-renowned expert in drones. She has been quoted as an expert in publications including The New York Times and Consumer Reports. She is also a public speaker and has appeared at South by Southwest (SXSW), Harvard Business School’s Making Robotics Fly” event, and has led multiple seminars at conferences including InterDrone and the Commercial UAV Expo.
Sally was also named one of Fortune Magazine’s “4 top women shaping the drone industry.”
Sally first got interested in drones when she served as a photographer and producer at the Missouri School of Journalism’s drone journalism program in its inaugural year.The first “drone journalism” she did was produce a video for Harvest Public Media in which footage from a drone documents a prairie fire.
In her free time, Sally also loves going to Disneyland and lifting heavy weights. In fact, she is a competitive (and decorated) powerlifter and weightlifter. Her powerlifting titles include 2x USAPL Nationals medalist (2018 and 2019), current USPA Raw Drug-Tested Bench Press National Record holder and former USPA Raw Drug-Tested Squat and Total National Record holder. In weightlifting, she was the 2022 North American Open Series II Champion and won bronze at the 2023 Nike USA Weightlifting National Championships.
You can reach Sally directly at sally@thedronegirl.com.
Hamilton Nguyen, Creative Director




Hamilton is the official photographer and videographer for The Drone Girl. He’s responsible for most of the product photographer featuring Sally, as well as many of the video reviews on The Drone Girl YouTube channel. He also contributes to the management of The Drone Girl website.
Hamilton is a photographer in his own right, specializing in street photography. More of his work can be seen on his personal website. And follow him on Instagram, too!
Hamilton graduated from UC Berkeley in 2013 and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.




Caroline Dobrez, Content Writer
Caroline is a frequent contributor for The Drone Girl. She also contributes to the management of The Drone Girl website. Caroline was born and raised in Chicago but she currently lives in New Orleans. Caroline has been an educator and elementary school principal in New Orleans for 10 years.
She graduated from Mizzou School of Journalism, alongside the Drone Girl herself. With a knack for storytelling and a love for technology, Caroline blends her writing skills with an understanding of the drone industry.
When she isn’t researching all things drones, you can probably find her crafting a costume for the next New Orleans festival.
She loves building connections, find her on LinkedIn here!
Drone Girl is a proud partner of Women and Drones:
Hey Drone Girl,
I went to Mizzou too. But, probably much earlier than you. Mizzou was a blast and I was a bartender at Harpos, lived at the KA house, and played on the Rugby team. Anyway, you missed one type of drone user, the Adventurer. This is the person who wants to explore wild areas in more depth and see things that are too inaccessable for them to get to. This person would use a 4 wheeler to get to remote areas and then a drone to get to the even more remote areas. I don’t own one yet, but you have inspired me to get one. Then I am off to the west Texas areas to look down from high rocks using my drone. I would very much appreciate your input on the best models to do this with. I am not interested in anything that carries cargo, just a camera.
Thanks.
Ah, another Tiger! M-I-Z! Definitely, you could hugely benefit from using a drone out in nature. This drone is my favorite for action photography: http://wp.me/p3CW0M-d8
Sally, I have an application for drones which could save lives. I would like to talk to you
to see if you are interested in working on my project. I need a drone that can carry
a two pound load. Please call me at 714-6245350.
I explain more when I talk to you.
thanks Rich
Great reading! Thanks for being out there and sharing your happenings and perspectives.
Very interesting blog on drones, a great read :). I have my own drone website too… http://www.buy-drones.co.uk
[…] Behind Drone Girl: a bio […]
[…] Behind Drone Girl: a bio […]
[…] property and doing surveillance,” said Sally French, a journalist for MarketWatch and founder of Drone Girl, a website that follows the most recent developments in drone technology and usage. “Yet that’s […]
[…] property and doing surveillance,” said Sally French, a journalist for MarketWatch and founder of Drone Girl, a website that follows the current developments in drone technology and usage. “However that’s […]
[…] property and doing surveillance,” said Sally French, a journalist for MarketWatch and founder of Drone Girl, a website that follows the most recent developments in drone technology and usage. “Yet that’s […]
[…] property and doing surveillance,” said Sally French, a journalist for MarketWatch and founder of Drone Girl, a website that follows the most recent developments in drone technology and usage. “Yet that’s […]
[…] property and doing surveillance,” said Sally French, a journalist for MarketWatch and founder of Drone Girl, a website that follows the most up to date developments in drone technology and usage. “However […]
[…] skill and doing surveillance,” pronounced Sally French, a publisher for MarketWatch and owner of Drone Girl, a website that follows a latest developments in worker record and usage. “But that’s not […]
[…] property and doing surveillance,” said Sally French, a journalist for MarketWatch and founder of Drone Girl, a website that follows the latest developments in drone technology and usage. “But that’s not […]
[…] property and doing surveillance,” said Sally French, a journalist for MarketWatch and founder of Drone Girl, a website that follows the latest developments in drone technology and usage. “But that’s not […]
Great site, very insperational, keep up the good work.
Steve from AerialShoot
http://Www.aerialshoot.co.uk
I often come back here for info and for several reasons…
* Good (no GREAT) help for me in staying current on this technology.
* I have a bad memory and when about tho load my drone the little voice in my head says, “Now what did she say about….”
* My father taught WASPs during WW2 when he was an Advanced Instruments Flight Instructor and when I was a young kid taking flying lessons with him (in a Beechcraft Twin Bonanza Excalibur) he said the “gals were among the best of the best of anyone he ever taught” and that sticks with me today, and one of the reasons when I (as an Old Drone Dude now) need info, I come to this source.
I also have bad typing skills, please ignore the typos… Bullet point #1 should read … “when I’m about to load my drone in my pickup to go flying somewhere, a little voice in my head says…”
Loved your blog posts, Drone Girl! Will stay tuned for more!
Regards,
Emily from http://www.bestconstructiondrones.com
Great Website Drone Girl.
I have my CAA permission to fly in the UK, fifteen years as a pro Photographer and Cinematographer.
I’m now airborne as well! Gives a whole different level to my work.
Love reading blogs like this as it’s another learning Curve to my work!
All the best.
Regards Scott
https://drone.sdimaging.co.uk/
Like your blog. Best regards from Ivor from http://www.amazing-drones.com
Sally,
Thanks to publishing this great resourcefull post,
Its a very helpful article for drones world.
Best Regards,
Bruce Stein
Owner of https://www.dronesquery.com/
very interesting content! I want to share with you a little of what we are doing in South America with drone and nature observation. Regards!!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_MY5VjGVDE&w=560&h=315%5D
Hi Sally!
I just ran a test on the Mavic 2 witha Xyla chart for Dynamic range. I found the results a little surprising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt03LzBCbPQ
Just wondering if this is similar photo vs video dynamic range to what you’ve found with other drones? Thanks!
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Continue the good work.
cheers,
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