How Drones Can Help The Environment Whilst Capturing Stunning Aerial Imagery

Aerial wedding photography and video is one of the biggest applications of drones in the country, with thousands of requests a year for aerial wedding photographers. Aerial wedding photography has changed the way weddings are captured on camera, but one thing hasn’t changed about weddings - the potential cost to the environment.

As you may know, everything we throw away that can't be recycled has a negative impact on the environment. The sheer amount of waste generated by the weddings industry is astounding - research suggests that  4,910 tonnes of unrecyclable plastic were used up and left behind at British weddings last year. That’s the equivalent of 47 Blue Whales.

The Environmental Damage of Weddings:

You may be thinking - “huh, a wedding isn’t wasteful, it's a celebration of love and companionship, a few plastic cups won’t do any harm”. 

Now, take a minute to think about how much single-use material could be present at a wedding… plates, cups, cutlery, straws… the list goes on. A single wedding can generate up to 20 kg of plastic garbage. Furthermore, the black rubbish bags used to gather the waste are possibly hazardous. Under the ground, they can take up to 90 years to decompose.

However, it’s not just plastic waste which is present at weddings, food wastage is a massive issue across the issue, with £488 wasted on food at every wedding. Elsewhere on the spectrum, there is a waste of balloons, confetti and other decorations. 

Then there is the cost of CO2 contributions. Over 14.5 tonnes of gas will be emitted from the average wedding ceremony. When this is multiplied with the actual amount of weddings there are in a year, the actual figure is shocking. 

Now, we’re not saying that you shouldn’t have a wedding, that’s the last thing we’d want. However, we’re working with ‘77 Diamonds’ to help promote more sustainable weddings and showcase the environmental benefits of eco-friendly weddings and how your wedding can still be as special, even with some eco-adaptations.

Drones & Weddings:

Drones only have a fairly modern relationship with weddings, with them generally being used for more traditional aerial photography and video purposes.

With the stunning results drone use has had, this isn’t a surprise. Our network of pilots are delighted to be able to offer drone operations for weddings and have satisfied hundreds of happy customers.

But what role do drones play in helping make the wedding industry far more environmentally friendly - they certainly can’t help with the food waste! 

Drones For Wedding Photography & Video

As we’ve established, drones do an excellent job at capturing aerial imagery at weddings, but what knock-on effect does drone photography have when compared to traditional filming techniques? 

Well, drone operations are generally a small person job, with an operator only needing a spotter to operate safely and effectively. When compared to a traditional filming setup, a modicum of content producers can be needed to capture the same experience. This would add to the emissions of travel and set-up and would require a significant amount of power to run for the entire day. 

As for the lighting set-up of a traditional camera crew, the cost varies depending on a number of factors. However, drones can take full advantage of natural, organic light and with the quality of the lens on 4K camera drones in 2021, capture stunning images. 

Drones are perfect to showcase sustainable weddings as they are able to capture the surreal beauty of nature in a way nothing else can. Flowers, trees, and sunshine can all flourish further through the lens of a camera drone. 

When it comes to the editing and production process, pooling data and content from a multitude of sources and cameras would waste more energy than the production of one drone. 

Overall, drones not only take your wedding photos and videos to the next level, but they can also save on carbon emission waste and showcase the true beauty of nature whilst taking advantage of emission-free natural lighting. 

Drones In Food Production:

As we mentioned before, food wastage is a big issue at weddings - which in many ways is down to individual wedding organisers (don’t order more than you can eat!). The average family home will throw away £700 worth of food in one year, meaning that one wedding can account for 65% of a home’s wastage across an entire year. So how can drones make a dent in this statistic?

It all starts at the beginning,  in the process of food production. Drones like the DJI Phantom 4 Multispectral are custom built to aid the agriculture industry in optimising food production processes. Drones in the agriculture industry help farmers increase a plants yield, check and inspect growth, improve efficiency and maximise outputs.

The P4 Multispectral is able to fly in many different environmental conditions. For example data collection would be hard without the P4 Multispectral due to the soil being wet and damp. The P4 Multispectral drone will collect data that you cannot see with just the human eye. The data it collects can be used in Vegetation Indexes such as NDRE or NDVI. This means farmers can lower their costs, maximise yields and save time on data collection. 

Drones can also be utilised in health and safety practices. Some drones can be equipped with UV (ultra-violet) lighting, which can pick up lingering messes and bacteria on potentially dirty surfaces. 

Other Ways Drones Help The Environment:

🌍 Track Climate & Humidity Data

🐆 Monitor Animal Population & Deter Poachers

🌊 Track Ocean Migrations & Monitor Marine Ecosystems

🚜 Keep Track of Farmland & Crops

📦 Deliveries To Out Of Reach Locations

Using drones across the wedding industry won’t save the planet - but these are little changes that we all can make which will help save the planet.

We all live on this world together, so let’s look after it.