Dawn over Lake Pukaki, the glacier-fed lake that runs up to Aoraki. The wind hadn't arrived yet, so the water held the sky's pastel band in a near-perfect mirror and the whole scene flattened into stripes — water, mountains, light. The kind of frame the drone earns its place in the bag for: there is no hill with this view.

Pukaki at First Light
Lake Pukaki, New Zealand · September 2020
DJI Mavic Air 2, 5 millimetres, f 2.8, 1/15 of a second, ISO 160
The lake was a mirror for about ten minutes. The drone was up for nine of them.
Part of The Southern Alps, a series.