These Stunning Drone Photos Would Be Completely Illegal Now

Back in the day, before the authorities caught on to what was happening, photographers were free to fly their drones anywhere they pleased. There were no laws limiting how high they could fly, where they could fly, or when they could shoot photos and videos. Those were the glory days. And Amos Chapple made the most of them.

h/t: sobadsogood

The Kiwi photographer took these stunning aerial photos during his two years of travel. He packed his quad-copter in a backpack and started globe trotting. You can hear more about his adventure here in an interview with BBC.

2016 arrived in Yerevan with a flurry. It's easy to shake off the hangover when every street looks like a fairytale! Wishing you all the very best for the year ahead :) #yerevan #genocidememorial

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Jan 3, 2016 at 6:43am PST

A husband & wife team press on after a rogue camel (!!) blundered across their freshly moulded bricks. On assignment for @rolibooks in #rajasthan #bricks #labour #jhalawar #aerial #orderly #igrajasthan #fromwhereidrone #cattlefair #camelfair

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Dec 3, 2015 at 12:50am PST

They hand-paddle out to the lily pads. Wife, husband and uncle, fingering the tendrils beneath for the little nodules which will earn them enough to put "two meals on the table and a little bit". Roasted, these "water chestnuts" will end up as sooty piles in the market. Fingers blacken breaking through to the white flesh within. The flavour is halfway between a peanut and a potato, watery & crisp. "We're a fisherman caste, there's no 'like' or 'dislike' to working in the water. Does a fish like to swim? We do what our people have always done." "If someone told us to do this job we would never agree. The work is never-ending and the business is tiny, but it's ours and that's a joy. Better to be your own slave than someone else's." On assignment for @rolibooks in #rajasthan #igrajasthan #jhalawar #work #vsco #harvest #waterchestnut #singhara #everydayindia #fromwhereidrone #watercaltrop

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Nov 25, 2015 at 2:59pm PST

It’s just tourists up here, gathered at the best place in Pushkar to watch the sun set. “Tourist”, it’s almost a pejorative word. We spoil each other’s pictures, we stifle the adventure. We used to avoid each other, but something changed this week. Somewhere in this photo there’s the young German girl who gave me a Chikoo fruit “it tastes like honey”, out on the right the old French couple who called out their envy at my speed up the path. Paris has painted the world in clearer colours. All the bickering and the problems, the mess of democracy is nothing next to the darkness that threatens all of us. And it is “us”; walk down the streets of Pushkar and you’ll see Israelis and Norwegians, Dutch and Aussies, Americans and Danes… We don’t have religion, we have compassion and education, art and innovation. We’re all far from home but have never known more clearly what “home” means, nor how much we love it. On assignment for @rolibooks in #rajasthan

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Nov 21, 2015 at 8:28am PST

Up with the birds above Jaipur. #jaipur #Rajasthan #india #igrajasthan #fromwhereidrone

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Nov 18, 2015 at 9:11am PST

Stitching the soil with onion seedlings. On assignment for @rolibooks in #Rajasthan #labour #india

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Nov 17, 2015 at 2:10am PST

The maharajah's garden. On assignment for @rolibooks in #rajasthan #landscapegardening #india #udaipur #fromwhereidrone #aerial #spiral #mandala #lillies #diwali @udaipurblog @instaudaipur #crowds

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Nov 10, 2015 at 7:04am PST

Lady in the crowd. #chesme #russia #stpetersburg #baroque #architecture #brutalist

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Oct 5, 2015 at 12:40am PDT

Photography forced me out of bed this morning. Another early, groggy start, haggling in the dark with taxi drivers then scrabbling up a hill littered with thorn branches and loose stones. It all sucked, until suddenly it didn't. Sitting on the summit, sweaty and bleeding, I was in time to watch the sun float up from the horizon. Swallows darted past with their wings flashing in the light and I was glad to be there. Sometimes it's like we need to trick ourselves into doing things worthwhile – meeting a friend for a drink is more about the talking than the beer, going to church seems (from what little I've seen of it) more about fraternity than God. Photographers have editors to please, and a market to survive in; we *have* to go and experience the world. But whether for a job or just for fun, photography pushes you out the door and up hills and I love it for that. On assignment for @rolibooks In #rajasthan #jaipur #everydayrajasthan #india

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Sep 29, 2015 at 5:14am PDT

The path into the dunes ran wide loops around the other tourists. It's only in the quiet after dark you realize you're not alone; laughter from nearby camps scratching the desert silence. My guide spoke English – fluent and reggae-flavored, but was completely illiterate, unable to read even his native Hindi. After dinner he asked me to read him his recent text messages. "Clara French Girl" had sent two, "Ali darling.." It was intensely private stuff. Ali talked me through the romance, prodding at the fire and reliving the night she returned to the desert alone. By the time the story finished his camel had wandered off into the darkness. Ali moved quickly, urgent with fear some farmer's crop would be eaten. I watched his cellphone torch wobble up a dune then disappear. Alone with a stick to protect our food, I strained for the sound of the tourists as two dogs appeared, stalking silent at the edge of the firelight. On assignment for @rolibooks in #Rajasthan #india #jaisalmer #thar #thardesert

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Sep 6, 2015 at 9:21am PDT

Like wiping a steamy window, the monsoon haze is starting to clear from Rajasthan's skies. The mighty Mehrangargh fort glowed in this morning's sunrise. On assignment for @rolibooks in Rajasthan. #mehrangarh #jodhpur #igrajasthan #fromwhereidrone

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Aug 28, 2015 at 11:09pm PDT

Soviet spaceship atop Bulgaria's Central Balkan mountains. #buzludzha #ruins

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Jun 20, 2015 at 11:08pm PDT

Worker & kolkhoz woman striding into the future that was. Built for the soviet pavilion of the 1937 world fair in Paris the steel masterwork now stands in the suburbs of northern Moscow. #dronestagram

A photo posted by @amos.chapple on Dec 22, 2014 at 1:09pm PST