Our 2021 summarised in 50 projects
2021, our fourth year in business, was nothing short of life-changing. Our small family company of drone specialists, filmmakers, photographers, surveyors, and marketers scored some huge projects, growing our profile, our geographic reach, our fleet of equipment, and, perhaps most importantly, our confidence and our vision for the future.
It’s hard to sum up just how fantastic 2021 was for us but we’ve done our best here with a list of 50 projects that defined our year, including work for Burberry, Praga, the Royal Navy, Associated British Ports, and many local businesses, too.
1. Portsmouth Cathedral’s golden ship
Our first flight of 2021 was on January 1st! We kicked off the new year shooting photos of the golden barque atop Portsmouth Cathedral’s weather vane. The misty air felt crisp, fresh, and full of new possibilities. We couldn’t wait to get started.
2. Castle Road’s historic clocktower
We captured aerial imagery of another historic Portsmouth building for our second shoot of 2021: the iconic clocktower in Castle Road, Southsea. Owner Tony Wood — founder and former owner of the hairdressing salon on the century-old structure’s ground floor — crowdfunded a restoration for the property early in 2020. Donators had their initials engraved into the hundreds of zinc tiles forming the new roof.
It was an honour to photograph this milestone moment in the clocktower’s history.
3. Drone experience days
We also organised a crowdfunder campaign in 2020, to support the production of our documentary — A Different Perspective of Portsmouth — and to help our company survive a bottleneck of incoming business caused by COVID.
As we got busier and found ourselves on firmer footing again, we started arranging the rewards we’d promised our supporters: drone experience days! Giving people the chance to (safely and responsibly) pilot our drones themselves.
People’s faces when they saw their first aerial photos were a delight! It was great to meet some of our long-time followers and make new friends.
4. Our first heavy-lifting drone, Megatron
The first new addition to our ever-expanding fleet of drones and aerial photography gear in 2021 was Megatron, a heavy-lifting FPV UAV capable of high-speed chases and acrobatic flying while carrying hefty broadcast-standard 4K and 6K cameras!
5. Car park drone inspection in Havant
We launched into February with an aerial survey for a multi-storey car park in Havant, and as golden hour struck and the light softened, we recorded the below bird’s-eye view of The Parish of St. Faith. I always recommend shooting some stock footage when you have the chance. You never know when you or somebody else might need it.
6. Aerial drone survey in Farncombe
Towards the end of February, we headed to Farncombe for another aerial property survey, and took a few hours in the evening to take to the skies and capture the beauty of the area from above. This boathouse was especially photogenic.
7. Southsea’s ongoing coastal defence regeneration
Also in late February, we caught up on the latest progress from the Southsea Coastal Defence Scheme team, whose strengthening of Portsmouth’s coastline and sea defences are a key part of the future of our city.
They’d just recommenced hydro-demolition around the Spur Redoubt to remove old concrete from the west side of the existing walls, to make way for newer, firmer foundations.
They’ve made some incredible progress in the months since, and we can’t wait to continue documenting it from above for years to come.
8. Positive messages set in stone
A stone’s throw away (pun intended) at the Hotwalls in Old Portsmouth, fellow creative-minded fella Graham Culton (@grayinpompey on Instagram) had started making a name for himself by leaving life-affirming, heart-warming messages for people on the pier, written with pebbles. They’re always a welcome surprise to see from atop the Hotwalls, and they look great from a drone’s-eye angle!
9. Cruising overhead with Associated British Ports
We closed out February 2021 with a shoot at ABP Southampton — one of the UK’s busiest vehicle handling ports. Very thankful to the ABP team for signing off on our flight plans quickly and efficiently.
10. Flying in the capital
Then March was upon us, and we were bound for London for a drone survey in Primrose Hill. Stunning aerial views of the city skyline from up there.
This was a real turning point for us.
We’d worked on projects in London before, but this relatively simple inspection job became the first domino in a year-long chain of commissions from the capital!
11. National and international reach
By the middle of March 2021, we were seeing some very exciting jobs land in our inbox from all over the UK!
Our next roadtrip took us to Cornwall, where the vibrant blues of the sea and rocky textures of the shoreline made for some gorgeous aerial shots.
Working in London felt like a turning point, but so did working anywhere in the UK beyond the Solent region we’d primarily focused on for the first couple years since our incorporation! Seeing web traffic, followers, and enquiries coming in from all over the nation — and the globe! — was an exciting thread through our 2021.
12. Praga at Anglesey Circuit
In April, we took on two of our biggest projects to date! The first saw us driving to Wales, to the Anglesey Circuit on an island jutting off from the north-west corner of the country. We were once again working much further afield than usual, but this job also sparked another common trend weaved into our year: the astronomical rise in the popularity of FPV drone videos.
We’d been called upon by racing car manufacturer Praga to capture the test day of their Guest Driver programme. They’d invited several high-profile racers to compete in the Britcar Endurance Championship behind the wheel of their R1 sportscar!
Watch the video below and read more about the Praga job on our blog →
We also made another type of FPV video on the day. When everyone started wrapping up, there was a perfect opportunity to capture a one-shot take! There are no hidden cuts here — just a flawlessly-executed FPV flight.
13. Flying FPV with Burberry
Our second big project in April took us back to London to work with none other than iconic British fashion house Burberry! We joined a crew of hundreds in the renowned brand’s Regent Street flagship store, which had been transformed into a beige catwalk paradise.
We were all there to capture a showcase for Burberry Chief Creative Officer Riccardo Tisci’s 2021 Autumn/Winter womenswear collection! Our duty: shooting some stylish footage for a video lookbook using our FPV drones.
If you follow Burberry on social media, you might have seen our still photos set as their header images! Read more about this Burberry project on our blog →
14. Working with the Royal Navy for the third year running
Back in the Solent region of England, we had the privilege of capturing the journeys of ten individuals taking their first steps towards becoming physical trainers in the Royal Navy.
We’d previously documented Leading Physical Training Qualifying Course #65 in 2019, and were asked to return for LPTQC66 — with more agile FPV angles this time around!
And that’s exactly what’s so exciting about working with the same clients from year to year: you can see how you’ve evolved your craft. Our LPTQC65 video was brilliant, but seeing our LPTQC66 footage come out even better is inspiring.
15. A returning visit to Go Create Care
Go Create Care are a unique vocational work-based skills service provider for adults with autism, mental health issues, and learning disabilities. If you’ve seen our documentary, you might recognise the name. We spent a few days with them in the middle of June, recording new promotional materials to help them shout about their incredible work. Here’s a little behind-the-scenes snap of our shoot:
16. Light gear for heavy lifting
A couple of days later, we drove to Swanick, at the other end of the Solent region. The heavy-lifting experts at AR Banks had seen our work with the likes of Solent Stevedores, Portico Shipping, and Boats.co.uk, and requested our skills for a video showcasing their services. We’re very thankful to Premier Marinas for making the shoot a breeze!
We filmed using a Blackmagic CC6K, a DJI Mini 2, and a GoPro Hero 9.
17. Frankensteining our GoPros
The AR Banks project was the last time we used our GoPro 9s, however, as not long after, GoPro released the Hero 10, and we snapped up a couple in a heartbeat. Look away now if you can’t handle tech gore! We decased one of our GoPro Hero 10s to maximise the nimbleness of our bespoke-built tiny ‘whoop’ drones. 2021 was the year we went all-in on building bespoke equipment. Scary, but rewarding!
18. Back on the ground
From a bustling port to a cozy home office for our next job, working with the lovely Olivia from Brand You Magazine to create a short promotional video which she’d won through a competition with Startup Disruptors. Helping small businesses tell their stories is absolutely the best perk of this job!
This is the perfect time to reiterate that, yes, while we specialise in drone photography, we’re also passionate and professional about ground visuals! Non-aerial photos and films are, after all, a whole half of the story. See some of our ‘traditional’ cameras over on our equipment page →
19. Northney Marina tiny planet
And then it was back to the sky and back to the seaside to shoot aerial photos of Northney Marina after a drone roof inspection on Hayling Island. Harbours always really lend themselves to fantastic drone pictures! Here’s a tiny planet:
20. On the Thames with Burberry
June ended on an all-time high for us, as we headed back to London to conduct our first flights on the River Thames! The PLA, Metropolitan Police, and London City Airport couldn’t have been more helpful in clearing our plans. We were back on it with Burberry, and they did an awesome job of organising everything.
This job perhaps summarises our 2021 better than anything. Sara wrote up all of the flight plans as she continued working with our small-but-mighty family business more and more; we hand-launched our drones and had competent observers (formerly known as ‘spotters’) on board our boat, further strengthening our adaptability to every situation; and we were once again working in London with a huge globally-renowned brand! All things indicative of our growth and direction.
We were guided up and down the Thames in pursuit of a giant Burberry bag. Read more about the job on our blog →
21. Plantitecture: aerial videos of living walls in Manchester
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about Biodiversity Net Gain — an architectural and ecological school of thought that leaves areas more biodiverse when new properties are built, so nature thrives because of them, not in spite of them.
One of the worldwide leaders in this space is ANS Global, who asked Solent Sky Services to capture a drone’s-eye view of some of their ‘living walls’ — beautiful plant-covered façades! Watch the video below, and read more on our blog →
22. 3D model of Southsea’s Kings Theatre
Having been recommended our drone surveying expertise, heritage construction and conservation design firm Pritchard Architecture — who also knew us for our aerial photos of their D-Day Story LCT 7074 project in Southsea — hired us to shoot detailed overhead images of the roof of Portsmouth’s Kings Theatre.
We drew the perimeter of the Kings Theatre on a map in our specialist drone software, then sent the Mini 2 off to capture full high-res coverage of the beautiful 1907 structure. Mere hours later, we’d uploaded the photos to our client server and shared them with the talent at Pritchard Architecture — 3D model included!
See the 3D model below, and read more about this project on our blog →
23. Drone surveys for historic buildings
It makes sense that 2021 brought a rise in the number of developers and surveyors booking drone inspections for older properties. Typically busy streets were quieter, so the paperwork was a little less heavy! We kept to our usual meticulous standards, though, photographing the entire façade of a building in London — our second clocktower of the year! — with the help of two competent observers.
Our imagery was key in helping the client ascertain the condition of the property, and our in-house qualified surveyors helped produce a report on where to install safety netting to mitigate the risk of falling debris.
24. Photographing the Southsea dinosaur
On 1st October, Portsmouth News called us up and asked whether we could make it down the unveiling of ‘Luna Park 2021’ to capture photos and videos of the event — the unveiling of a dinosaur sculpture built in honour of the large installation that burned down on Southsea Common a decade prior. We were there within the hour — drones always charged, media disks always cleared, our team always ready.
The original Luna Park artists, Heather Peak and Ivan Morison, had returned to create the scaled-down bronze recreation in honour of their 2010 installation. Here’s our interview with Heather:
25. Orthomosaic drone mapping for Victorious Festival
We’re halfway through our list, so here’s one of the most exciting projects we delivered in 2021: a full orthomosaic map of the Victorious Festival site and camping grounds! Victorious Festival organisers can use the orthomosaic maps we captured of their sites — the main area, the Park & Ride facility, the camping ground, etc. — to plan event layouts more accurately and efficiently for years to come.
We’ve conducted hundreds of aerial surveys over the past few years, but this is likely the grandest in scale and most significant in terms of historic documentation. Below is a glance at the 3D map of Southsea Common. Read more on our blog →
26. Cinelifter drone video for a London festival
Hospitality, the events arm of UK drum and bass label Hospital Records, hired us to shoot establishing drone footage of their Weekend In The Woods festival in London’s Beckenham Place Park.
They asked us to shoot in the Apple ProRes 422 LQ codec, which balances sharp visuals with efficient file compression — easy to work with, and matched the quality of their ground cameras. I prepped ‘Megatron’, our trusty cinelifter, and hit the road.
We could have also recorded at 6K in BRAW (Blackmagic RAW) for this project, or even strapped on a Komodo Dragon if we wanted to push for even sharper quality!
27. FPV one-shot for Spacemade in Leeds
Commissions for FPV drone one-shots just kept coming! We headed up to Leeds to film with the team at the co-working office spot Spacemade. It was a really fun few hours in the midst of an incredibly busy week — the first week we’d been booked every day since before the pandemic began. High emotions all round!
28. Flying over Spitfires at Lee Victory Festival
At the end of September, we spent three days covering Lee Victory Festival, an event commemorating the 76th anniversary — and the COVID-delayed 75th anniversary — of VE Day. We captured photos and videos of the celebrations, edited on-site each day and uploaded live to the festival’s social media feeds.
Our core team worked alongside members from community creator space MAKE Gosport, including a 15-year-old volunteer who started the weekend unfamiliar with camera settings, but who was soon darting around on the main stage capturing the action!
It was such a feel-good event full of friendly people. Just look at this top-down shot we snapped of a Spitfire!
29. All snakes, no ladders with WS Planning & Architecture
By no means our first FPV drone tour of the year, but definitely our first where there were snakes on the set! WS Planning & Architecture, a design studio based in Reigate, hired us to capture aerial photos and video of one of their properties. We’ve worked with the Surrey-sited architects a number of times as their preferred drone partner — perhaps because our quieter, lighter drones are snake-friendly!
30, 31, 32, 33, and 34. Five jobs, one day
2021 saw the geographic range and frequency of our work grow at breakneck speed, and no day represented that expansion better than November 9th.
In the hours after midnight, we finished up a batch of edits for a client in the construction industry. When we woke up, they’d fed back with a stellar review, saying that the imagery we’d provided exceeded all their expectations. Later the same day, we received a referral from them for new business!
I went to the University of Portsmouth to film a promotional video for their 12-week ‘Help To Grow’ course — a programme designed to help small business owners boost their venture’s performance and success
We had a drone pilot in Derby surveying a church roof…
…and another pilot conducting a roof inspection for a repeat client in London, communicating with a number of airspace authorities to safely operate within Heathrow Airport’s restriction zone
All the while, Sara was back at SSS HQ supporting our existing clients, planning new upcoming projects, and writing up safety audits and flight plans
Quite a busy day, all in all! Made possible by the extensive network of professional pilots we’ve built over the past four years.
35. A protest in pictures
Having seen our work with similar campaigns like Stop AQUIND and Final Straw Solent (our first time appearing on national TV back in 2018!), Stop the Sewage — a grassroots group of people coordinating a response to Southern Water’s discharge of raw sewage into our seas — reached out and asked us to capture some aerial shots of their protest.
We happily did so, and shared the files in their Facebook group for free use!
36. Shooting for the moon
It’s not quite the same as taking photos with a satellite, but it’s close! We flew over a seven-metre, 1:500,000-scale replica of the moon that was suspended in the nave of Chichester Cathedral for artist Luke Jerram’s ‘Museum of the Moon’ exhibit, which featured highly-detailed NASA imagery mapped across the surface.
Flying FPV through Chichester Cathedral would produce striking footage any time, but with an internally-lit moon added in? Truly spectacular!
37. Pale blue dot
We also photographed another of Luke Jerram’s touring artworks: a replica of Earth titled Gaia (named after the Greek goddess of Earth), which was produced using the same pin-sharp internally-illuminated NASA imagery. We had a great time using our DJI Mini 2 and fleet of FPV drones to document Luke’s celestial installations!
38. That’s a rap!
We were back at Go Create Care in late 2021, recording a music video to go along with musician Eric Maffettone’s rap for the organisation! Eric lives in Pennsylvania, so this was something of an (incredibly fun!) international collaboration. The video really showcases what a fun place and incredible organisation Go Create Care is.
39. Updated intro video for Solent Stevedores
The reactions we got to our first videos for specialist port operator Solent Stevedores in 2020 were overwhelmingly kind, with stakeholders saying things like: “this gave me goosebumps,” “visually stunning work,” and “you’ve exceeded our expectations.” So we were both very excited to work together again in 2021, shooting additional footage and editing new cuts of their promotional films.
This year’s shoots took us all over the UK, from Southampton to Immingham to London Gateway and beyond. The refreshed edits are just as bombastic and exhilarating as the first! Watch the main one below, and read more on our blog →
40. Filming a superyacht on the Thames
Back on the Thames! Once again releasing our Inspire 2 drone to the capital’s skies — this time for superyacht designers Bannenberg & Rowell.
Clear communication was absolutely critical for this job, as it was undertaken just as the UK’s national terrorism threat level was raised from ‘Substantial’ to ‘Severe’. We’re very adept at — and well-known for — our meticulous comms and contingencies.
To operate drones from a waterborne craft, you need to be able to hand-catch, and to be able to hand-catch, you need the Civil Aviation Authority’s approval to do so. It’s a highly-skilled ability that calls for specific training and safety chops!
41. Raising the roof with Gable
Commercial and industrial roofing specialists Gable Projects Ltd. put out a post on LinkedIn seeking a professional drone crew to capture aerial footage of some of their recent builds and developments, and the comments tagging Solent Sky Services came flooding in! Before long, we were on site with them in two locations: College Park in Portsmouth and RSPCA Mount Noddy Animal Centre in Chichester.
We used our DJI Mini 2 and a tiny whoop FPV drone with a decased GoPro Hero 10 affixed for these shoots. The Gable crew were exceptionally pleased with the results, and have returned to us for more work in the new year!
42. Where there’s a will, there‘s a Waylands
When Waylands, a new Volvo showroom in Bristol, phoned us to commission a one-shot FPV video with a twist, we jumped into first gear. We started the promotional film with a fun added touch: a first-person view from a remote-controlled car! Before cutting to the main FPV drone footage, which takes the viewer on a tour of the facility that’s filled with natural situational beats.
43. Terminal velocity with Associated British Ports
Associated British Ports, who manage a network of more than 20 ports across the UK, grew increasingly familiar with our work throughout 2021 — we contacted them every time we wanted to conduct flights for Solent Stevedores, after all!
They later decided to hire us themselves, initially for the aforementioned Horizon Cruise Terminal shoot, then for a series of filmmaking jobs at other ABP facilities across the nation.
44. Eyes on the ice
As 2021 edged to a close, that good ol’ British weather really took a turn for the freezing! Around this time of the year, I stress the importance of checking drone operating temperatures to fellow pilots. Most models today have onboard heating systems to prevent major malfunctions, but there’s always the risk of props icing up in the most bitter of blizzards. Nobody wants drones dropping out of the sky!
Oh, and keep your hands warm too. Dropping your iPad isn’t the best feeling…
45. Back to No Man’s Fort
We’ve spent a fair amount of time working on the Solent Forts, whether it was filming with Eric Cantona and Paddy Power on Spitbank or shooting a promotional video for two of the forts’ hotel facilities. 2021 saw us returning to No Man’s Fort for the first time since 2018, to complete a private commission! Always a fun day out on the Solent.
46. Five-star services
As we wound down for the holiday season, we took a quick glance at where our online reviews stood at the end of our fourth year in business. After hundreds of projects of all scales across the UK, I’m pleased to say that we still have nothing but five-star feedback, with nearly 100 perfect ratings across Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn — that‘s quite an achievement!
No matter how confident you can sometimes feel in your abilities, professionalism, and meticulousness, self-doubt always finds a way to sneak in occasionally, so, to everyone who shared kind words about our work this year: thank you, so much.
Here’s to aiming for five-stars all round by the end of our fifth year!
47. Shooting for the stars
Having already shot the moon and the Earth, we figured: why not shoot the stars next? Last time we were at St. Mary’s Church, we were filming a segment for our feature-length documentary. This time around, we’d been hired to capture Where There is Light, an audio-visual installation by Squid Soap. Shoutout to Portsmouth Creates and Journeys Festival International for organising these awesome events.
48. Another client who was well pleased with our work
Event production company Wellpleased contacted us in early December 2021 to commission a one-shot FPV drone fly-through of an extravagant 70th birthday party they’d been hired to organise in Hull. Their client had requested it — what a great way to document a special occasion!
49. Inspire 2 two
Our fleet of high-end drones is impressive, but they’d be nothing without the vast range of backup equipment we’ve built up behind the scenes, from various lenses for different cinematographic aesthetics to portable generators that recharge our batteries on the go and keep us airborne for the entire day. In 2021, our biggest purchase was a second Inspire 2!
This empowers us to operate two cutting-edge aerial workhorses on a single shoot should the scale require it, and also gives us the freedom to capture the absolute highest-quality visuals in different places as our team expands and demand grows.
50. Running 10 miles without shoes
I left one of this year’s best stories ‘til last. When we heard Portsmouth’s own bare-footed runner Jason West was planning to take on the 10-mile Great South Run in October, we jumped at the chance to document his efforts. Jason, who raised more than £1,000 in support of Doctors Without Borders, said: “It wasn’t until the fifth mile that I started to struggle slightly where my quads began to lock!”
Filming and photographing with Jason on the day of the Great South Run almost felt like a natural continuation of the mission we set for ourselves when creating our A Different Perspective of Portsmouth feature: to always be dedicating at least some of our resources to documenting and sharing the good in the world.
And that’s a belief we’re carrying into 2022 and beyond. I feel so privileged to be able to call all of this work my day job, and so lucky to be meeting so many fascinating and resilient people along the way.
Thank you to everyone — my family, our clients, our followers, and all the fellow drone experts out there making this such an exciting industry to be a part of — for making 2021 our best year yet. Here’s to 2022!