Water Falls Dos - Finger Lakes Drone

WATERFALLS

Not every outing with one of my drones is for a paying gig. In fact, the only way to get good at anything is through constant practice and learning. So I figured, the best way to learn to use my drone like a pro and get really good is to practice shooting subject matter I love. Waterfalls are one such subject! Others are old barns and great architecture – churches for example. Please enjoy this gallery. And as always, reach out if your business needs assistance with aerial photography/videography.

REQUEST A QUOTE

HECTOR FALLS

These particular shots of Hector Falls were taken in the summer of 2025 after a spell of a LOT of rain for weeks. It made for some really nice drone shots. The images here were originally 300ppi raw DNG files. If you happen to be a photographer you know those are MASSIVE files; if you happen to do any web work you know those files are way too big to use one a website. The images you’re seeing here have been color graded and cleaned in Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop. Enjoy!

If you’d like to visit Hector Falls yourself, see the map below.

Geek Stuff

DRONE: DJI MAVIC 3 / Hasselblad Camera
ISO: 290
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter: 1/3200

TAUGHANNOCK FALLS

I have only ever taken the drone to Taughannock Falls one time and these images are the result. There are so many things I like about these shots. Everything that could have gone right the morning I took these shots – did! It was BRUTALLY cold and I arrived in the wee hours. Those two factors probably contributed to the fact that there wasn’t a soul around! Not a single body had to be clone stamped out of any of these photos!

I love the fact that there was plenty of light to capture great images but overcast enough to not require any type of ND filter on the drone. It allowed me to really capture a lot of the texture in the rock that you just don’t see with so many pictures of the falls (not a slight on any other photographers out there), I just like the uniqueness of these shots. They almost appear monochromatic in nature and yet, I did absolutely zero saturation or vibrance work in post.

One final thing I love about these shots is that, while drone pictures of Taughannock are NOT rare by any means, I feel I captured really unique shots by positioning the drone as I did. Most drone shots of the falls are very obviously drone shots, meaning they are taken from several hundred feet above. At first glance these particular images could be mistaken for regular ground shots. But, as anyone that has been to Taughannock knows, this would be impossible – unless someone climbed a really tall tree! This is evident once you look at the falls viewing area at the bottom right of the photo AND once you take into account that the falls itself is 215′. My best guess would be that the drone was approximately 60′ in the air (I should have noted this the day of the shoot!)

At any rate, I just love these shots and am so proud of them. I hope you enjoy. Map below if you’d like to visit the falls.

Geek Stuff

DRONE: DJI MAVIC 3 / Hasselblad Camera
ISO: 140
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter: 1/15

SHEQUAGA FALLS

Your content goes here. Edit or remove this text inline or in the module Content settings. You can also style every aspect of this content in the module Design settings and even apply custom CSS to this text in the module Advanced settings.