What Is This Place
Glancing down, it’s a vertiginous 500-foot sheer drop to the badlands below. Ahead, the lunar-like Blue Valley with gray, black, and brown dunes stretch all the way to the horizon and the Henry Mountains to the South.
You’re at Moonscape Overlook looking East from the edge of Factory Bench Mesa near Hanksville, Utah. It’s a mind-blowing scene. At dawn, pinks, yellows, and oranges paint the landscape.
The website Photographers Trail Notes sums it up well: “Utah is one of the most photographically fertile areas in the American southwest - with ever ending abstracts, buttes, formations, striations, and jaw-dropping vistas. And this location, overlooking the astonishing badlands near Hanksville, Utah is just another example of the amazing natural beauty this area has to offer.”
Multitasking
It was a two-camera morning. I set up my big camera on a tripod in the pre-dawn darkness. After a few test shots, I felt good about my composition.
Getting my drone ready to fly was my next task. Because there were other drone pilots nearby, I moved about a hundred feet away to avoid radio interference.
The plan was to wait for the sky to light up just before sunrise and take several pictures with my camera. Then without any delay, I would run to my drone, launch, and fly over a mile into the photogenic badlands. The drone had to be on station ASAP to take advantage of the beautiful light just after sunrise.
The Shot
Everything went according to plan! Nothing seemed to go wrong with my camera in those few precious pre-dawn moments.
My drone paired with the controller, quickly acquired enough GPS satellites to safely launch, and I started flying to my distant location. After twenty minutes of drone photography, I pressed the “return to home” button due to a low battery warning.
Here’s a quick snap of what the drone saw on the return flight. The small red circle is me and the larger red circle is our cars near the edge of the mesa.
During the 10-minute return flight, I gathered my camera from the edge of the mesa. Scrolling through the images, I was relieved to come across this pleasing image. And while I was reviewing, the “return to home” function effortlessly landed my drone by itself about six inches from where it took off.
Thanks for looking,
Chuck Derus