Off.World.Photos

Hello and thank you for visiting Off.World.Photos.

Come Fly with me.

First a little bit about myself, my name is Matt Hoyland, I'm 45 years old and a native North-Walian

I've been flying drones for 4 years.

I started doing this as a hobby in 2019 after being inspired by a friend of mine, who reckoned he had a drone with a camera that could fly and take pictures. The stuff of science fiction.

My idea being that as we are blessed with such glorious landscapes around our little corner of Wales, that these must look just as good, if not better, from the sky.

From my very first attempt at shooting drone photos - at Blackrock Sands on the Llyn Peninsula, it became apparent that aerial photography was something that was well worth exploring.

I was using a DJI Mavic Air 1 initially, an "ebay special". It's motors and props were loud, obnoxious even, it had a limited 12 megapixel camera on-board, and was preciously short of battery life.

What it did prove to me was that :-

a) I could fly a quad-copter with no training

b) a flying camera was just what I thought it could be

c) aerial photographs could be amazing

d) through this mad little red drone, I was able to do what I'd always wanted to, capture the outstanding views that i knew were visible - but from the unusual perspective that only a drone can provide.

Black Rock Sands. Drone Experiments - January 2020.

So you've got a drone ?- That don't impress me much

Owning a flying camera is one thing, using it effectively is quite another. Given the aforementioned noise issues with mk1 Mavic Air, I was extremely reluctant to fly it anywhere other than deserted beaches at first light and dusk. The point being that if you're going to learn how to fly a very loud mini helicopter you need wide open spaces and no interruptions. Again, we are most fortunate in North Wales that they are lots of places that match the description. Especially in winter.

So it was to these places I would go, to learn to fly the drone properly, but also learn how to (and more often than not, how not to, take photographs). I'd had a bit of experience taking pictures with a Sony rx 100 point and shoot, but nothing that amounted too much. A steep learning curve then.

After a few months, I decided I would put what I had learnt into action. So i took a day off work and went to Porth Wen Brickworks on the North East coast of Anglesey. I'd seen a few drone exploration videos on YouTube and being familiar with this monument to Victorian manufacturing, I thought i'd have a crack at making one myself. see below.

After a torturous editing process on outdated hardware, I actually managed to produce something that resembled what I had in my head to start with. It could be better, but i thought to myself :- You can do this.

That was February 2020. Then along came March and you-know-what arrived.

Clipped Wings

Covid 19 arrived and suddenly, flying my drone, along with any other non-essential outdoor activities was off the cards. So it sat in it's little bag; and it waited and waited. March turned to April, April to May and the 3 week lockdown suddenly became 10 weeks; then 12. It was around this time that I started to think about upgrading my drone. I'd been listening to a couple of drone podcasts and the way forward seemed to be a DJI Mavic 2 Pro. A significant upgrade on the Mavic Air 1. So it was to eBay again; And I found one, and it didn't break the bank, and soon it was here.

(Re) Learning to Fly

June arrived and with that the 5 mile travel limit was lifted. So I repeated what i'd done with my Mavic Air 1. Off to the Spinnies, or Red Wharf Bay. To see what all the fuss was about.

The difference was marked. This grey wonder was like flying a Rolls Royce compared to the Fiat Panda of the Mavic Air 1. A massively improved camera, greater battery, more sensors. more flight modes. Just more of everything really. The one thing that stood out for me was the Panoramic shot ability. Up until now i'd been doing single shots or Auto Exposure Bracketing. Which was all well and good. To really capture the view you need to be getting all of it.

This is where the panoramic mode built into the Go 4 fly app came into it's own. The drone takes 21 images left - right. It then tries to stitch them together with varying success. To really use this function you've got learn to do it yourself or get some software that will do it for you. So I did. From June 2020 through to the 2nd lockdown in 2020 I was out pretty regular with the drone basically using trial and error to find out what worked and what I could and couldn't do with it.

What was obvious (to me anyway) was that I'd made some progress in what I was doing, and actually captured some worthwhile images.

Now when I say worthwhile, I mean images that are meant to be freed from the tyranny of a life sentence on a hard disk or cloud storage. Images that are meant to be printed large and hung on our wall at home.

So after a bit of trial and error, with the usual domestic printers (supermarkets), I found a company that would actually print what I had submitted to them, exactly as it was sent. So I ordered a canvas print for our living room wall. A big one 100 cm tall and 50cm wide. Sunrise over Penmon, viewed from Benllech beach. It duly arrived in the biggest cardboard box you've ever seen, and when I opened it, it was amazing. It might only have been to be hung in our house, but the feeling of going out and capturing a view, then printing it and getting to hang it up; it's amazing.

So now I had printing sorted, I did a few more for the house. A Llandwyn beach / Llyn peninsula panorama. And then it all came to a halt again. Covid Lockdown December 2020 to March 2021.

Going legit

In 2021 the CAA rules changed regarding drone flights. New slightly complex rules were introduced to improve the flight safety of drones. For me, this meant that if I wanted to continue what I'd been doing, legally, I'd have to obtain an A2 Certificate of Competency.

So in January, I enrolled on the UAV hub A2CoC course and subsequently passed the course and obtained my certification. As well as being certified competent to fly my drone, I was now able to use the drone for paid work, should any come along. But would any ?

As lockdown 2 came to an end at Easter 2021 - I ventured out with my Mavic 2 Pro; and I went to Beaumaris.

Now a word on Social Media. Which is as much a part of this story as the drone equipment or my ability to see a landscape and edit a photo to make it look it's best.

Near the start of all this, I was posting my landscape shots on my own twitter account (@matthoy) - my wife suggested I start an Instagram account and a new twitter account to host these images.

I was reluctant to begin with as I didn't really want to get involved with the hassle of social media. I was doing this for me, and I wasn't bothered about other people seeing my output.

But one day after thinking of a name (i'd been reading a book about Bladerunner and the bit about bloody off-world mutiny stuck with me) I decided that off.world.photos was my moniker on the socials. It seemed apt to me.

So I went to Beaumaris to capture the sunrise over the Great Orme, facing east across the Menai Strait. and I got something worthwhile. But instead of coming straight home and then leaving the content on my hard disk for a week. I got the jpegs off my phone, shared them directly to instagram and tagged as many beaumaris based accounts that I could find that might be interested.

By the time I'd got home I'd had a number of messages from interested parties. I was quite excited. It couldn't be this easy could it ? Take a picture at a God-awful hour of the day that no one else has got. Tag some people who might like it enough to pay for it (or similar images). It couldn't be this easy, could it ?

Well the answer is no. Not really. As with most artistic endeavours, it's time consuming, a lot of work for not a lot of money. But if you love doing it, making a small profit is just a bonus isn't it ?

I did indeed make inroads into the Beaumaris holiday home / Air BnB community throughout 2021. Mostly custom property shots. I even got invited to stock my images in the Mock Turtle craft shop, which was great.

Alongside this I took a particular image of Bangor Pier in April, and this image seemed to take on a life of it's own on twitter. So much so that the people who run Friends of Bangor Garth Pier invited me to submit some of my work to see if I could become a "maker" on their newly minted kiosk on the pier. The committee decided that what I was supplying was of sufficient quality, so they started to stock a selection of pier based images. Again, this was beyond anything I could have dreamed really.

Next, a chance message to Menai Bridge post office, and they were stocking a small selection of my images as well. I was making some real progress.

Going International

In October of 2021 I spotted a competition #shotonmydrone - which was run by the UK Civil Aviation Authority to promote drone photography and also safe flying of drones. I'd taken a decent photograph of a menacing looking thunderstorm above the Menai strait the previous month, so I decided to enter. After overcoming the difficult submission process I forgot all about the competition. Fast forward to April 2022. I received an email from the CAA thanking me for entering. I thought "oh yeah, you didn't win - but thanks - the standard was very high etc etc". But no.

There was another email.

"Congratulations Mr Hoyland. Your entry has won the air traffic controller (NATS) award by some margin"

This is amazing.

I was invited to a presentation at the Royal Aeronautical Society in Mayfair, London. Sadly I had tested positive for Covid-19 the same day - so could not go. I'd won a bag for my drone as well. Which was handy as my existing bag was wearing out.

Couple of days later the CAA announced the winners. And then people started to email me.

A travel blog in Israel wanted to feature the image.

Countrylife Magazine in the UK featured in in the April 12th edition.

My picture appeared alongside the #shotonmydrone competition story in The Times, The Telegraph, The Mail. This was incredible.

I had an email from a company in America who wanted the image for their boardrooms in New York, London and Shanghai. Don't really know what to say about all this. So i'll just say this. I'm continuing to make progress.

I've also recently had some of my Bangor Pier footage broadcast nationwide on S4C's nightly magazine show 'Heno' as part of a feature about the Pier winning 'Pier of the year" and celebrating it's 126th Anniversary.

I hope you enjoy visiting my website, and I hope you liked my story. Check back for regular image updates and be sure to follow me on my socials.

cheers

Matt.

17.5.22