Years ago Evelyn let me have my first drone. It was fun to fly, but I was very new at it, and the flight electronics were adequate at best. I crashed that poor drone a few times on the Ecuadorian coast, and many other times in Cuenca, including one time it nearly hit a parade I was trying to photograph from the air, but instead crashed inside a sealed off construction site (back when Plaza San Francisco was being remodeled). It was also huge — and difficult to take on a photography trip. I finally decided to sell it to a photographer on Easter Island, Chile, in 2019, when it was 3 years old.

Drones have come a long way since then. My new DJI Mini 3 Pro drone only weighs half a pound, folds down to just a little larger than the body of my Sony A1 camera, and has massively improved electronics. I bought it in Honolulu, and flew it for a few months there, before taking it on this trip. Not a single crash yet! And, it’s so quiet that you can’t hear it if it is more than about 10′ away.

Wanting to see what Cuenca looks from the air, my first target was to recreate my most successful image from my prior drone. I therefore headed to Parque Calderon in the afternoon, positioned the drone above the center of the park, and created a 360 degree “Little Planet” image, seen above. I do like this one better than my first such image from 5 years ago.

I went back to the park later that night for some more images. Above is one of my favorites, the iconic lit blue domes at the New Cathedral of Cuenca and the adjacent courtyard that is filled with food vendors.

Parque Calderon has a giant neon sign with the word “Navidad” during the Christmas season. I tried several shots of it, but was most pleased with this image, where I turn the linear sign and distorted it into a circle.

Just across the street from Parque Calderon is the Church of the Immaculate Conception, commonly referred to as “The New Cathedral.” This Catholic Church is able to seat 9,000 people, almost the entire population of the city when construction began in 1885. By the time it was completed, 90 years later in 1975, the city had grown much larger, but this remains the largest church in town.

I flew the drone level with the front of the church, and created the same “Little Planet” effect I made for above the park in the first image of this post. I then shot the same image again at night. I couldn’t decide which I liked better, so I present them both here…

I had to wait a couple weeks for good weather that would make a pleasing image from Mirador de Turi, the church and observation platform with the best view overlooking the city. After several attempts, I think I like this one best, flying above the amphitheater, using the Turi church as the visual focal point.