this has been bugging me for a while. i'll go out, get what feels like a really solid session, come home excited to edit and then look at everything on the big screen and just feel kind of disappointed. the shots are technically fine but something is off compositionally and i cant always put my finger on it

i think part of the problem is im so focused on not crashing and keeping track of where the drone is that im not really thinking about things like leading lines or foreground interest or whatever. its like my brain only has enough space for one thing at a time up there

does this get better with experience or is there something specific people do to think about composition while theyre actually flying? ive tried planning shots on google earth beforehand which helps a little but not always

honestly yes, 100% this. the thing that helped me was slowing way down and just hovering for longer before i take anything. like i used to fly to a spot and shoot almost immediately and now i'll just sit there for a minute rotating slowly and changing altitude in small increments before i commit to anything. you start to notice how much a 5 meter altitude change completely transforms the framing

also the google earth thing is great but i started also looking at other photographers shots of the same locations on instagram before i go, not to copy them but just to understand what the spot actually looks like from above and what tends to work. helps me go in with an intention rather than just kinda wandering

the distraction of flying itself definitely gets less over time, like now i barely think about the sticks and most of my mental energy goes to the shot. just takes hours in the air

grid lines on the screen made a big differecne for me, sounds basic but i never used them before and now i at least have something to line the horizon up against while im flying. still mess up the interesting stuff like leading lines but at least my horizons are straight now which was embarassing me in a lot of shots lol