New Year’s light paintings using Lumecube and Mavic 2

Drone photography can always be fun to look at because of the unique perspective it offers. But what if the drone could be used as a paintbrush to make light paintings instead of capturing the image?

For the past two years, Martin Sanchez (@zekedrone) has been creating a New Year’s series using his Mavic 2 Pro and Lumecubes. By setting up a camera on a tripod to capture a long exposure shot, he attaches lights to his drone to draw patterns in the sky.

After painting unique lines, shapes, and even numbers, Sanchez then composites the image in Photoshop to produce the final result. In the end, we are left with a surreal image illuminated by lights shining on a drone.

Light Paintings with Lumecube

It all started with the idea. If you don’t know much about drones or long exposure photography, it may be hard to envision what I mentioned above. However, Sanchez drew this simple diagram last year to show me what he was planning on doing. After seeing the rough sketch, I knew this was going to be an intense, yet fun project to work on. I had never tried a light painting but knew from shooting long exposures before that this was going to be awesome.

For me personally, I think it is really cool to witness this type of creativity. Being there to help out with the shoot, it is fun to watch how Sanchez puts all the pieces together. This year, we decided to shoot at an open field so we had some space to maneuver the drone. Instead of creating a single image, Sanchez wanted to produce more of a “light show.” By animating different lines in the composite, this image had a whole new feel over last year’s.

Conclusion

I’m looking forward to working on this series in the years to come. It pushes the boundaries of the creative mind, allowing us to use our drones as tools to paint. With unlimited locations to explore and infinite patterns to draw, the Lumecube has become another part of our drone kit.

It is also fun to see how other people use their cubes to create their own unique images. On the Lumecube Instagram page, you can check out some more creative work. This page has also become a personal inspiration since I began helping Sanchez create these visuals.

What would you do if you could put lights on your drone? Would you become a light painter like @zekedrone?