Bird's eye view: Six beautiful destinations filmed using drones

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/apr/30/six-best-travel-videos-filmed-using-drones

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For many, unmanned drones are still most strongly associated with the military. Or publicity stunts by Amazon. But as the small, silent flying machines become increasingly available on the commercial market, amateur and professional filmmakers are adopting them to create footage that would previously have been impossible without a big budget and a helicopter. With the potential to produce mesmerising bird's-eye-view films – usually by attaching a GoPro camera to the device – drones are making it possible to see the world from new angles.

Last week filmmaker Honey Worth posted a dreamy video of east London filmed using a quadcopter, which quickly picked up more than 50,000 views, while earlier this month Randy Scott Slavin released a equally popular film of New York City, in which he flies a drone through the Washington Square Arch. These are just the latest additions to a growing number gravity defying new films.

So whether it’s an aerial shot of surfers riding giant waves off the coast of Oahu, Hawaii, an eerie journey through ice caves in Alaska, or a dreamlike flight through your favourite city, we’ve rounded up six of the best videos filmed by drones around the world.

Bird's-eye safari in the Serengeti

Created by photographer Will Burrard-Lucas using his “BeetleCopter”, this stunning film takes a drone on safari in the Serengeti. With footage including wallowing hippos, galloping herds of antelope and lunching hyenas, it really shows the potential of drones in wildlife filmmaking.

East London from the air

The melancholy electronic music may make this film a tad cheesy (it is East London, after all), but with views over Clissold Park, London Fields and Regents Canal, and slow-mo shots of people cycling, skateboarding and playing basketball beneath the setting sun, this film does manage to capture the area in a particularly lovely light.

Looking down at big wave surfers

One of the most stunning pieces of surf film we’ve seen in a while, this video by photographer Eric Sterman shows surfers taking on huge winter swells on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii. By using a drone, Sterman gives you a rare look at the shape of the waves coming in, the flow of the surfers around the bay and the motion of the barrels as they break. Exhilarating stuff.

Zooming through New York City

Flying through the streets of the Big Apple, this drone film of New York by Randy Scott Slavin gives a true sense of the shapes, angles and shadows of the skyscrapers and landmarks of the city.

Journey through the ice caves of Alaska

Posted only last month, the filmmakers behind this ambitious film call it the first documented drone flight through ice caves. Set in Alaska, the footage has a dreamy feel as the drone floats around harsh yet spectacular white, blue and grey landscapes.

Sunset on the Cornish Coast

One of the most recent drone videos to go viral, this footage of a sunset over the Cornish coast, which was posted three weeks ago, picked up over half a million views on YouTube in a matter of days. The film, which was barely edited, shows the waves rolling into the rugged cliffs as the sea is bathed in an orange light.