Where there’s smoke, there’s fire – and spooky drone videos

Oh, man: 2020. What a year. Pandemics. Politics. Hurricanes. And now? Wildfires stretching along the US West Coast. Nothing seems to phase us anymore. But at least some drone pilots got out and made some interesting captures.

The smoke caused by these fires reminds us – even at a distance – that fires are underway. Normally, it’s our noses that first detect this. But lately, with so many fires burning, we can actually see the results. Unusual colors in the sky at dawn and dusk…and an overall otherworldly feel to simply looking around. If you’re on social media, you’ve no doubt seen people post snaps of this onto their Instagram or Twitter feeds. But a few people have been going the extra mile, by putting up their drones to capture this phenomenon. And some of the results? Worth watching.

One that caught our attention looks completely otherworldly:

So otherworldly, in fact, that someone added some music from Bladerunner 2049 and posted it on Reddit.

The drone

The drone that captured that was the Mavic Air 2 – which we think is awesome. If you’re looking to buy a great drone for less than $1k, look no further.

This next video was shot by Avery Bazan, a video producer and editor who used to work for DJI. I’ve seen some of Avery’s work before, so was not surprised to see his name attached to this. And, as he points out, there was no post-production alteration to the color. This was shot with an Inspire 2 rocking a 24mm X7 camera.

We asked Avery about the shoot:

My wife and I really just thought we’d never seen anything like this before, and so we cancelled all plans for the day to drive up and film.

Avery Bazan

We’re glad you did:

Where there’s smoke…

There’s fire. Never forget that. And, with the help of satellite imagery…it’s impossible to ignore. This one comes to us via Twitter. And, given that a satellite is unmanned, you might also call this “drone” footage, of a sort:

Fingers crossed

The sheer number of fires that are burning on the west coast is astonishing. Sending thoughts for the safety of those responding to this crisis.