A Photographer Captures Drones As Aerial Light Source Illuminating Mountainous Landscapes

Photographer Reuben Wu creates pictures that show an alien splendor in natural and human-made landscapes across the world. Before he has photographed the bright blue rivers of molten sulfur in Indonesian volcanoes and snapped the thousands of glistening mirrors that make Nevada’s SolarReserve. For his continuing series Lux Noctis, the Chicago-based photographer utilizes modified drones as aerial lighting resources, illuminating vague landscapes in a means which makes every appear new and unexplored.

Recently Wu has developed his process of working with the drones to form light paths over topographical peaks from the mountainous terrain. “I view it as a sort of zero traces’ version of property art where the surroundings remain untouched by the artist, and in precisely the same time is introduced in a sublime way which speaks to 19th-century Romantic painting and science and literary imagery,” said Wu to Colossal.

The light from his GPS-enabled drones makes a halo effect around some of the introduced cliffs and crests when photographed using a prolonged exposure. An elegant circle of light traces the flight of this drone, leaving a mark only perceptible in the resulting photograph. You can see more of Wu’s landscape photography on his Instagram and Facebook.