A bird’s-eye view of Bermuda
A hobby drone photographer with a love of the ocean is amassing a series of aerial shots from around the island.
Rufus Bonnar was out with his camera gear as recently as Saturday when he captured images of the North Rock and Eastern Blue Cut navigational markers.
Last month he focused on photographs of the glistening reefs off the South Shore and the aerials of the Southampton Princess.
Previous projects included capturing video footage of Bermuda’s migrating humpback whales, which attracted more than 400 likes on the Whale Watch Bermuda Facebook page.
Mr Bonnar said: “Of all the places I have photographed so far, Bermuda is by far my favourite mainly because of the water – I’m an avid boater and seeing the water from an aerial perspective is incredible and fascinating.
“It is easier to do it at the south end of the island as there are fewer flying restrictions. It really gives you a perspective of how narrow the island is, you can see both sides of the island clearly from a single shot, which was taken from about 400 feet.
“You can also see how we have big open spaces of golf courses and woodlands, then heavily densely populated areas, especially as you look towards town – suddenly there is a huge collection of houses.”
Mr Bonnar uses a DGI Phantom 4 Pro for the images, which he largely learnt to use by watching YouTube video tutorials. He also had toy drones as a youngster, which gave him some basic skills.
When he completed his A-Levels in 2020-21 at Gordonstoun School in Scotland, he submitted drone-based photography using shots from Bermuda and around Britain for which he achieved an A* grade.
He added: “People were amazed by how different objects, buildings and landscape looked from an aerial perspective.
“I was also asked by the school to do various bits of work for them including photographs of buildings, geography field trips, student displays and sports.”
Need to
Know
2. Please respect the use of this community forum and its users.
3. Any poster that insults, threatens or verbally abuses another member, uses defamatory language, or deliberately disrupts discussions will be banned.
4. Users who violate the Terms of Service or any commenting rules will be banned.
5. Please stay on topic. "Trolling" to incite emotional responses and disrupt conversations will be deleted.
6. To understand further what is and isn't allowed and the actions we may take, please read our Terms of Service