From Saturday 16th March to Tuesday 19th March, the Coverdrone team attended for the first time The Photography & Video Show at the NEC in Birmingham. The event celebrated all things photography, featuring the latest kit by leading brands to inspiring talks and demos from some of the best names in the industry. For the seventh year running, the event offered everything any photographer, enthusiast or pro, could possibly dream of.
As always, we enjoyed putting names to faces and receiving feedback from our current clients whilst also getting the opportunity to meet new clients. Exhibitions such as the Photography Show are always a great way to reconnect with the well-established training centres that we are connected with within the industry such as Aerial Motion Pictures and Drone Pilot Academy!
Over the four days, a variety of seminars were held across the differing stages and theatres across the exhibition hall. The stages and theatres offered something for absolutely every type of photographer, from the Wedding & Portrait Stage to The Great Outdoors Stage. Our stand was conveniently situated next to the Drone Zone stage in which visitors could learn from and watch experts in their field, enabling pilots to improve their skills by the useful insights being provided.
One of the first sessions held was by Matt Williams and Adam Georgiou, aerial experts from ICARUS and Aerial Motion Pictures regarding ‘how to make the most of your drone’. Matt began by introducing Aerial Motion Pictures and the reason behind why the organisation provides training courses. He then went onto explaining the drone code and the regulations that are in place to protect not just members of the public, but also the industry. Adam then took over to share his knowledge to advise how to take better stills and video with drones, recommending that pilots should fly both low and slowly and use multiple angles of motion in order to create a more professional image.
Drone Pilot Academy also took to the stage alongside pro photographer and filmmaker David Lund to reveal the secret to indoor cinematic drone shoots. Many commercial drone operators get asked to capture footage indoors and David demonstrated how this can be simpler than it sounds. David explained that whilst flying indoors is one challenge, the real skill is shooting stills or film in a cinematic style. With assistance from Jim Ixer, Managing Director at Drone Pilot Academy, David demonstrated how to do this safely, helping pilots to raise their skills above the average!
Market leading drone manufacturer, DJI, were also present at the event, showcasing the latest in drone technology on the ‘Drone Zone’ stage – specifically the recent advancements of their Mavic 2 Pro. Their impressive stand also enabled the drone supplier to provide visitors with smaller demonstrations of their expansive product range and the opportunity to purchase a variety of both drones and accessories.
The drone seminars were not just restricted to the ‘Drone Zone’ however, as Carys Kaiser (also known as the ‘Drone Lass’) took to the ‘Video Live’ stage to explain what a difference a drone has made to her career. Carys shared her favourite techniques for using drones to help tell a story, and how you can seamlessly create aerial footage with sequences from ‘normal’ cameras. She also explained the ‘drone version’ of well-known sequence shots which pilots should aim to take to showcase that they can capture a variety of images as an operator.
Over the four-day event, it was fantastic for us to see the way in which drones can be utilised to create such beautiful imagery/videography. The exhibition also gave us the opportunity to demonstrate our Coverdrone FlySafe App to a number of visitors which was highly received. Our app is now free of charge to all drone pilots and is available to download via the App Store or Google Play.
We are now looking forward to our next exhibition, the Commercial UAV Expo Europe at the RAI Amsterdam, which is taking place in a couple of weeks time!