Images That Defy Imagination: On the Road with Dimitri Weber

Sunset at the monadnock Shiprock in the Navajo Nation, San Juan County, New Mexico. Dimitri Weber took this and many other stunning images while on a road trip across the western United States. © Amazing Aerial Agency / Dimitri Weber

By Rebecca Duras

Rich colors, undulating shapes, and small details that provide an unfamiliar twist to a familiar destination are some of Dimitri Weber’s calling cards. From the bright colors of Antelope Canyon in Arizona, to the toy-like appearance of the bustling port of Long Beach from above, photos from his road trip to the United States make the viewer stop and think again, familiar landscapes shown with a new twist.

The United States is not the only country Dimitri has captured using his drone, lens, and a set of wheels. Besides his beautiful photos, the photographer has made a name for himself with meandering yet carefully planned road trips through some of the world’s most beautiful landscapes that always yield a crop of stunning photos and videos.

Inspired by his photos and by the recent workshop he held for Amazing Aerial community members, “From Empty Maps to Captivating Images,” Amazing Aerial Magazine profiled Dimitri and his work.

A Drive for the Road and for the Air 

Dimitri Weber has been a drone pilot and photographer since 2018. The Frenchman is currently based in Paris, but his roving eye and imagination brought him to landscapes as far-flung as Australia and Japan.

Dimitri’s photos and videos are guided by his unique sensibilities. When describing his artistic style to the audience of his workshop, he explained that his photography usually focuses on textures, shapes, and roads, and capturing the contrast between human infrastructure and nature. In many of his best photos, there is an element of surprise: an unconventional angle on a familiar site, the beautiful curve of what from the ground is just a simple curve, patterns in a landscape that are only visible from above.

Dimitri’s love of the air is combined with his love for another element—the open road. Ever since his first road trip, a trip through Australia from Darwin to Sydney in 2018, driving along the open road has been his preferred way to travel. “I like the sense of freedom and liberty and being able to get up close with nature, compared to traveling in a more touristy way,” he explains in a chat with Amazing Aerial Magazine.

Besides the feeling of traveling along an open road, he prefers road trips for practical reasons. For photographers, road trips offer the ultimate freedom to go off-grid, explore the landscape, and adapt to changing conditions in the weather and light patterns. Road trips are also cost-efficient if photographers decide to camp in their vans, a benefit as traveling professionally can get expensive.

Just as road trips are the perfect companion for photography, Dimitri sees aerial photography as the perfect companion for road trips. Aerial photography is one of the only ways to show landscapes at scale, capturing elements such as abstract compositions and contrasts. As he explained in his exclusive workshop for Amazing Aerial community members, road trips reveal the unseen of landscapes.

How to Make a Road Trip Work for Photography

While road trips are ideal for photography because they allow for spontaneity, Dimitri explains that these trips actually require lots of additional structure and planning.

This is particularly true for the kinds of road trips that he embarks on, that involve several hundred kilometers of driving per day, covering many different destinations for several weeks. “I did a round trip to and from Los Angeles with a small modified minivan, across California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada, across the National Parks, and all kinds of places where I could find aerial textures and scenic routes,” he says, giving an example of one of his endurance road trips. “I spent around 8,000 kilometers on the road for 13 days.”

Before planning the details of a road trip, it’s important to think about the big picture—such as deciding where exactly you will go. Dimitri recommends considering a few different factors when picking a road trip destination. Some are artistic in nature, such as looking for places with landscape diversity, and combinations of famous spots and opportunities to go off the beaten path. Dimitri also advises thinking about practical considerations, such as legal considerations and the quality of the roads available.

It’s also important to ensure that you have the resources at your disposal to embark on a road trip, such as the time and energy to do one in the first place. Dimitri recommends being honest with yourself about how many kilometers you can drive per day and to plan for breaks to avoid exhausting yourself. Having the right vehicle to drive is also key. “I have a modified wagon car that I turned into a kind of campervan with my dad, spending just a few dollars on wood planks. Outside of Europe, I rent campervans,” he says, adding that it’s important the vehicle contains plenty of storage for necessities as well as bulky photography equipment.

An example of one of Dimitri’s maps. He has built his map of Japan through several trips over many years, now giving him a comprehensive resource of important photo spots and attractions in the country.

Once the big-picture planning is done, you can start planning out your route for your photography road trip. Dimitri recommends using Google My Maps to plot a route and research stops. Google My Maps is a free resource from Google that allows you to personalize a map, adding points of interest and other important information.

Dimitri builds out his maps by creating different layers for different types of interesting points along the way. He starts building out his map by selecting anchor points, which are important places that he must visit on his trip, such as popular national parks and viewpoints. This gives him an idea of the main stops he has to make on his road trip.

Then, Dimitri is able to build out the rest of his map around his anchor points. He adds other interesting spots along the way, making sure to include a mix of popular images and off-the-beaten-path destinations. He uses social media and tourism board websites as research tools to get ideas for where to go. Google My Maps allows for lots of personalization, so you can even link inspiration images, just in case you forget exactly why you added a spot to your map.

Besides plotting out places to see, Dimitri uses his map to include more practical concerns. Google My Maps allows users to add different layers, so he adds layers that help him plan out the logistics of the trip, such as campsites, rest stops, and potential detours if he encounters problems on the road. He also uses layers to help him track different types of attractions, such as cultural spots, and information relevant to his photography, such as sunrise and sunset times, golden hour times, and the best times to fly his drone.

While Google My Maps is a useful tool for any road trip, it is particularly helpful for places where photographers plan on returning as it allows you to plot all the information and plans that you have all in one place. Dimitri’s map of Japan is densely packed with icons and points of interest, with different layers generated after each trip. He’s spent years working on this comprehensive document over several trips to Japan, allowing him to track multiple routes, plan subsequent trips easily, and also have a record of all the places he’s been to or wants to see.

The Road Back Home

Maximizing the results of your road trip doesn’t just end when you return your rented camper van and fly back home. Knowing how to sell your images and present your journey throughout beautiful landscapes allows your photos to stand out as more than just a list of places you’ve been.

In his workshop, Dimitri advised Amazing Aerial community members to make plans, but to also allow for spontaneous shots. Sometimes, spontaneous shots offer the most potential for storytelling. Look out for interesting landscapes and don’t be afraid to explore with your drone. “If it has an interesting subject and it is not planned, I feel that I have to shoot it,” Dimitri says.

It’s also important to learn how to present your photos from your road trip when you come home, something that many photographers still struggle with. Pairing photographs together on your social media, sharing anecdotes from your road trip in your captions to make the trips more personable, and other techniques can help your road trip get more attention, in turn generating revenue. Amazing Aerial offers resources to help photographers develop their storytelling abilities.

One last important factor when evaluating a road trip is to budget time away from photography. Dimitri repeatedly advises photographers to plan for breaks, and to add activities such as cultural sites in their plans to give them a break from the road. He shares that one of his favorite memories of Japan is not a certain landscape, but that of a perfect bowl of ramen. “I got a bit too tired during some of my road trips (both physically and mentally) because I made my itinerary solely based on the photography I wanted to take, and not also the experiences around them,” Dimitri shared.

With this advice and another warning to avoid his mistakes, Dimitri seeks to help photographers return to one of his favorite aspects of road trips—the spontaneity and freedom, which is beneficial not just for the quality of photographs, but also for the creative spirit of the person taking the trip.