[1200x]Amos Chapple
Photographer Amos Chapple captures the world’s most famous landmarks, from the Taj Mahal to the Kremlin, using a drone.
He soared over the Church of Spilt Blood in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
The Church on Spilt Blood on an autumn morning. The church marks the spot where the reformist Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by a bomb-rolling revolutionary.
Here's another view of the church at sunset.
The church was built only as an epitaph to the murdered Tsar and wasn’t intended for public worship. A patch of the cobbled street on which the Tsar lay mortally wounded is preserved within the old church, now open to the public as a museum.
Chapple's drone also floated over the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey.
In the early days, Chapple flew the drone in busy areas, but he quickly realized that could be dangerous.
Known to the locals as "Hill 3," this knoll jutting above Mumbai's northern slums is no more valuable than the land below. Access to running water, which the hill lacks, is far more valuable than any view.
His first drone had a design flaw which caused a propeller to fly off mid-flight.
He crashed a second one during a commercial shoot in which he was forced to use an unfamiliar model of drone. At 100 feet up, he lost control and the drone disappeared. After chasing it down, he found it smashed to bits. He suspects Wi-Fi signals scrambled the drone's radio communication.
Even though he’s flown his drone more than 1,000 times now, Chapple always runs the risk that something will go wrong.
The Lotus Temple, dotted with pigeons at sunrise. Designed by an Iranian exile, the building serves as the center of the Bahai'i faith in New Delhi, India.
And frankly, the drones freaked people out. “It’s a nuisance now that it’s no longer a novelty,” Chapple says.
Now, Chapple avoids people as best he can. “I'm just using it at dawn, or in isolated places where I’m not annoying people trying to enjoy a stroll,” he says.
The angel atop the Alexander column in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Built after Russia’s victory over Napoleon, the column's 600-ton granite trunk was tipped into place by 2,000 soldiers. It balances without any attachment to its base.
Sometimes, the best pictures don't require much altitude. Here, two wrestlers practice the ancient Indian sport of Kushti in a pit they dug.
Two wrestlers practicing the ancient Indian sport of Kushti in a pit they hacked into the ground two hours before.
During a typical shoot, he maintains a flight path just above his head, never veering off into the distance.
The drone doesn’t allow Chapple to see what he’s photographing. While it may snap 100 photos, only 10 to 20 images will be framed in a pleasing way.
Worker and Kolkhoz Woman striding into the future that was. Built for the Soviet pavilion at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris, the steel masterwork now stands in the suburbs of northern Moscow.
Here's one view of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, on the banks of the Moskva River.
And here's a slightly different shot, showing more of the church's architectural detail.
The surprise doesn't bother Chapple. “There’s a magic to not knowing what you have until you have the camera back in your hands,” he says.
The Katskhi Pillar in Georgia, where a hermit has lived for the past twenty years to be "closer to god."
Drones also offer a huge advantage over manned aircrafts: You can afford to take risks with the weather.
The Peter and Paul Cathedral in Peterhof, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the palace and gardens in the background. Beyond, the Finnish Gulf is obscured by fog. During WWII, Nazi armies occupied Peterhof, destroying it almost completely during their retreat.
“When you’re paying $1,000 an hour for a helicopter flight, you make absolutely sure you’re going to get some sunlight,” Chapple says.
The star fort at Bourtange, Netherlands. Three centuries after the last cannonball was fired in anger at the fort, it now serves as a museum and the center of a sleepy farming village in eastern Holland. The low, thick walls were designed to offset the pounding force of cannon fire.