With vistas as wide as the skies, the latest show at the Parkside Art Gallery is all about perspective.
The images of Robert Brunet will be on display at the gallery for the next month.
Brunet is an aerial photographer, meaning he takes his images from the skies. Using a drone, a "quadcopter" to be more precise, Brunet captures landscapes from the air.
The results are stunning. Cloud formations pattern reflections in water and mist rising from the lake shores in Brunet's photographs creating perspectives infrequently seen from the ground.
"Most of my pictures I take between 200 and 300 feet in the air. It gives you an opportunity to see something you can't see from the ground," he says.
However, it's "strictly a hobby" for Brunet.
Brunet's interest in the skies started when he got his pilot licence in the eighties. He flew ultralight planes, as well as power parachutes and power paragliders. Due to an ear problem, Brunet had to give up flying, but that didn't keep him out of the skies.
"The next best thing was to go to a quad copter with a camera attached, so I could fly, but do it from the ground," he says.
Brunet always had an interest in photography, so, with a GoPro camera mounted on the drone, he started taking photos.
"It took me about a year [before] I could produce some good pictures," he says. "My early pictures were kind of off tilt and out of focus — the regular stuff you learn as you are doing photography."
The trick was learning how to concentrate on the composition of the shot, he says
Brunet is based in Canim Lake. Most of his photographs feature the lake and the surrounding area.
Brunet calls his photos "fine art aerial photography." He adds different elements during editing to "make it more of an art photo rather than a photograph."
Some of the photographs are designed to look like oil paintings. In others, Brunet adds elements to the sky to make the scene more dramatic or colourful.
Brunet also gives his photography away for free, partially due to a restriction on the use of drones for commercial purposes, but also because he says it really is just a hobby for him.
"Once you are up a little, it gives you a totally different perspective. That's what I like about doing aerial photography. It just gives you a different perspective altogether."
The show will run from Feb. 10 to March 11 at the Parkside Art Gallery in 100 Mile House.