So I opened a maps website with 360 panoramic images and saw views like this:
Sunrise, shadows and fog. Just some aerostat took a photo and it’s beautiful. But I very rarely see aerial photos! There are so many landscape photographers, but they all shoot from their perspective. So why isn’t aerial photography as popular?
People like seeing things at eye level, it feels unnerving seeing something from an angle we would never see ourselves so we can’t relate to it.
45 degree drone shots are somewhat in the middle where you could imagine there being a mountain from where the picture was taken from but even then you’d feel like… ‘i could never see this vantage point in real life’ so your mind kind of blocks the fantasy a photo at eye level can give you. Eye level photos give you that feeling that you too could one day see that shot in real life and unconsciously that gives people comfort.
Top down drone shots look awesome, for a minute or two, but then the illusion fades away and you’re left with the same feeling you have when looking at a Google Maps image.
It’s all about what people feel when viewing a photo and how a photo tries to continuously grab your attention or in this case lacks.