Ignacio Palacios is a freelance travel and nature photographer. Originally from Spain, he currently calls Sydney, Australia, home.
My Phantom 3 pro died in the West MacDonnell ranges a few days ago.. it's just a piece of plastic but I actually feel pretty emotional about it. I knew that one day this would happen but it was quite a shock still and losing it is definitely nothing like breaking a camera or smashing a lens.
This drone was more of a “living thing” that has captured some amazing images and footage in my last trips.
I think it was a technical failure and it somehow got the wrong signals in the narrow gorge and it went straight and smashed onto the wall tumbling into the dark waters below.
I quickly stripped down to my jocks (whilst my beloved workshop participants were taking images of me naked) and swam in the icy water but I could not save it as it was too deep and too dark.
I bought the Phantom in January and it has been a lot of fun. I loved it. Since then, it has been to Iceland, Norway, Patagonia, the Atacama Desert, The Bolivian Altiplano and Lake Eyre but it finally died at Serpentine Gorge in the Red Centre of Australia.
Luckily I had saved all footage or images the day before. The video shows the final flight of my beloved drone and the image below is the last one taken at Glen Helen, the day before.
Ignacio Palacios and Australian photography legend Ken Duncan have joined forces to lead a photographic trip to Chile and Bolivia in March 2017. Find out more here.