One of my favorite places to explore photographically is the Mancos shale badlands in central Utah in the USA. I usually spend several weeks there every year in the fall, hiking and exploring to take advantage of the cooler weather and colorful fall foliage. This trip was my second with my Mavic 2 Pro, and I knew this region would be rich with new photographic opportunities from this high vantage point. Travel in this area is tricky due to the clay roadbeds, and since it is very remote, the weather is an important planning factor for any exploration here. The roads can easily be impassable for days after a heavy rain, and I will never venture many miles into the backcountry if the weather forecast is stormy.

I was in a very remote part of the region when I saw a vast area of shale ridges stretching away, so I put my drone up for a look. The ridges look very different from those directly above, and the patterns are endless. I flew about a mile into these ridges until I saw patterns that intrigued me enough to stop and start composing. The sun was overhead, so the light was harsh but even, so I thought that this would be best suited to a black and white abstract. When editing this image, I decided to make it dominated by light tones. The most challenging aspect of this type of photography is getting the lines and overall balance to be just right in the composition.