Caleb Kenna’s Bird’s Eye Views

Warren, Vermont (2025), detail, photography.

Weybridge, Vermont (2020)

Sudbury, Vermont (2019)

Middlebury, Vermont (2020)

Starksboro, Vermont (2020), all photography.

“Liberating” is how award-winning photographer Caleb Kenna remembers the feeling he had the first time he used a drone to photograph the gorgeous landscapes—the rolling farmlands, the lush forests, the meandering mountains—near his home in Middlebury, Vermont, almost a decade ago. “Suddenly, I felt free as a bird,” says Kenna. “Thanks to my high-flying drone, I was making new discoveries as I soared above the same landscape I’d covered many times on the ground. I saw beauty everywhere. I was hooked.”

While Kenna still uses his tried and tested Nikon DSLR to shoot a wide range of assignments for clients ranging from The New York Times to The Boston Globe to
commercial customers, he notes that he’s become so fond of his drone that he shoots images with it almost every day.

As I watch him launch his craft—a compact DJI Mavic 3—over picturesque Brandon, Vermont, he explains that it’s the “chance discoveries” he makes with the drone that continue to excite him. “Often when I’m planning to shoot one thing, I’ll look into my digital screen and discover a scene, an image, that is a complete surprise. That’s part of the magic of this aerial work.”

For example, his 2022 book, Art From Above Vermont (Schiffer), features page after page of breathtaking landscapes but also surprisingly beautiful aerial images of such unlikely scenes as a farmer’s silage pile covered with used tires and a scrap metal lot. “Who knew?” says Kenna. “Some of my images might be of hay bales or solar panels or even discarded tires, but I hope they become something more, a metaphor of sorts.”

Like many other photographers, Kenna’s favorite time for shooting outdoors is during the “golden hours,” at dawn when the air is light and soft and at twilight, just after sunset. “About ten minutes after sunset the balance between ambient daylight and artificial lights creates a magical atmosphere,” he explains.

As he uses his handheld remote control to guide his drone back down to the lawn in front of us, he offers one last tip to aspiring aerial photographers. “Drone photography is all about composition. You can use your drone to move in countless directions to frame and fine-tune your composition. You need to think like a painter, not just a pilot.”

Editor’s note: Caleb Kenna is represented by Frog Hollow Vermont Craft Gallery, Burlington, Vt., froghollow.org. His photography is also on exhibit at Billings Farm & Museum through June 14, 2026, Woodstock, Vt., billingsfarm.org. To see more of his work, visit calebkenna.com.

Photography courtesy of the artist