I've read about it a bit on here but today I took my
p4p out for its first proper serious flight in a fairly remote location and had a really bad experience with a foreign tourist.
I was the only one there and had my bird up for about 10 minutes just after sunrise when this hippy looking tourist pops up and comes up to me and says "oh that's such a noisy thing isn't it, it's so peaceful here and you've got that thing flying around"
I knew straight away by his tone and attitude he was being passive aggressive and was annoyed by the drone. I straight away replied "yeah it's nice here isn't it, lucky I'm not gonna be long and I'm not hurting anyone". (This is while I'm flying and filming).
He then circles around me, I look at him and know he wants more to say, like he just couldn't let it go. He then says "oh you do know this is a nature reserve don't you?, it's just a shame to lose that peaceful effect" ... (it's not a nature reserve it's a national park - here in Australia there is a difference).
I looked at him and could see he was annoyed. I could see by his face and throat his heart was racing 100miles an hour and he was pi$$ed off.
I looked him straight in the eye and said "are we going to have a problem mate?". He then says "oh no no, no there is no problem, just people like to have peace and quiet" and starts walking away.
I was furious, I couldn't think straight and subsequently I'm pretty sure my footage is going to be rubbish. The more he spoke the angrier I was getting and I think he definitely sensed it was time to walk away which was probably best for him.
This might sound a little arrogant but for someone to come into my country and question me flying a drone in a national park that MY taxes help maintain, create the roads to these amazing places as well as promote them I find straight up disgusting.
If not for people like us - photographers, film makers etc who provide images for the beautiful brochures etc and the advertisements on tv these hippy tourists wouldn't even know these places exist.
And this was only my first flight ..... [emoji35]