May 27, 2025
Houston Brown
Drone Photography & Video Advantages
Audience take away
What I hope to bring to light for the audience is the advantages that a drone can bring to the art of both photography and video. There are really only 2 main key points here which are quite significant to traditional ground-based photography.
They are:
- Perspective
- Convenience, mostly in the area of saving time.
I have been shooting photography for over 15 years and video for eight years. My photography career started off quite accidentally and I pretty much fell into it by way of needing images for a website I created for my boating hobby back in the light 90s from there. From there, I was trying to find out what kind of photography I wanted to do so of course, dabbled in portraiture, wedding, and even newborn photography, but quickly found out that was not for me. I did really enjoy shooting models in the studio as that allowed me a little more artistic latitude in that I could, play with the light, but even that was not enough so I ventured more into combining photography and compositing which I really enjoyed as I very much like crating art from various photographs with an end vision of the composite representing something that would either be difficult or impossible to achieve otherwise.
I now shoot mainly video for clients in the Ranch Real Estate business. I travel mainly around Texas shooting ranches for various clients and occasionally traveling out of state and country. I have shot tracts of land as small as a few acres that is nothing but dirt to unbelievable ranches with mansions, beautiful equestrian centers, cattle ranches, vineyards, and hunting ranches with exotic game.
With Technology constantly changing we can be difficult to keep up with, but every once in a while, a technology comes along that can help us if not improve, but at least diversify the tools that help us with our craft. I believe that the drones that are available today due just that. I hope that you will come out, and hear what I have to say about drone photography, and video and that it may inspire you to push the limits of your craft just a little bit further.
June 24, 2025
Ian McVea
BIO:
Ian McVea is an Irish-born, Texas-based photojournalist, editorial photographer, and photography educator. Growing up in Ireland, India, South Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Ethiopia, and Algeria, he developed a fascination for the world and people around him, and learned to channel that into photography.
After graduation from UT Arlington School of Business, Ian joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1989 as a staff photographer, later becoming a senior staff photographer and photo editor before leaving the paper during layoffs in 2012.
During that time he photographed everything from building fires to celebrities, city council members to presidents, pee wee football to national championships, along with countless Friday night football games, ribbon-cuttings, and restaurant reviews. Ian covered the Oklahoma City bombing, the Shuttle Columbia disaster, and hurricanes Katrina and Rita for international wire services.
While on staff at the Star-Telegram, Ian was invited to teach a junior level photojournalism class as an adjunct professor at TCU’s Schieffer School of Journalism, a stint that gave him the bug to teach. On leaving the paper, Ian began teaching high school Commercial Photography and Adobe Photoshop certification classes in the Arlington ISD. He retired from the high school classroom in May but is continuing to teach workshops with UT Arlington and the Association of Texas Photography Instructors.
Ian’s images have been published by Time, Newsweek, Life, NY Times Magazine, USA Today, and Sports Illustrated, among others. Much of his work is archived at Getty Images. Several mages have been part of recent exhibits at Texas galleries and art museums, and have received honors from the Dallas Press Club, National Headliners, Houston Press Club, The Texas APME, the Texas Photographic Society, the Fort Worth Professional Photographers Association, and the Society for Newspaper Design. He is a frequent judge for local, state, and national photography competitions.
Ian is an Associate in the Royal Photographic Society, an active member of the Texas Photographic Society, the American Society of Media Photographers, Fort Worth Professional Photographers Association, the Association of Texas Photography Instructors, and a retired member of the National Press Photographers Association.
These days he shoots some editorial work, but happiest shooting black-&-white film with medium- and large-format cameras. Most of his commercial work is shot with Canon DSLRs - he’s not ready for mirrorless yet.
Ian has two married daughters and a lovely fiancée all of whom share his passion for photography. His three grandkids know him best with a camera covering one eye.
Where to see more of Ian’s work.
Instagram, Threads, and Foto: @cloakndaguerre
Website: Ian McVea Photography
ianmcveaphotography.com
2025 Programs
January - Member Showcase
February - Janice Goetz: My Journey Inside and Around our Nation’s State Parks
March - Smiley Pool - Getting Ahead of Your Subject (Instead of Yourself)
April - Marilyn Henrion - Cross Pollination: Escape from the Dark Room
May - Houston Brown: Drone Photography
June - Ian McVea: Optics for the Thinking Photographer
July - Dennis Fritsche: Portals
August
September
October
November - Rob Hull: The Quality of Light
December - No Program
2024 Programs
January - Members Show
February - Janet Cunningham Enhance Your Creativity With LENSBABY
March - Grahan Hobart - Visualization
April - Rebecca Flores - Making the Move to Moving Images
May - 90th Anniversary Celebration - cancelled due to storms
June - 90th Anniversary Celebration
July - Anita Oakley - Travel and Photographing the World
August - Tom Fox - Sports Photography Tips and Tricks
September - Richard Sharum: Spina Americana
October - Zach Warner
November - Clinton Kemp: My Eye for Color
December - No Program
2023 Programs
January 2023 - Members Showcase "The Elements"
February 2023 - Dennis Fritsche: Themes and Projects
March 2023 - Norm Diamond: Photography from the Heart and Soul
April 2023 - Jeremy Lock: Outside Your Front Door
May 2023 - Ximena Peryea
June 2023 - Ian McVea
July 2023
August 2023 - Russell Graves
September 2023 - Night Shoot at Reunion Tower
October 2023 - Bird
November - Susan Kindley - How Photography Changed My LIfe
December - No Program
2022 Programs
January - Member Show "My Favorite Photographs"
February - Sean Fitzgerald
March - Kaye Hargis
April - Jim Hamel: Night Photography: Big City Lights
May - Richard Sharum: Campesino Cuba
June - Steve Reeves: Contest Judging Confidential
July - Richard Klein: Finding Inspiration & Permission, The Contemporary Photographers’ Paradox
August - Jarrod Oram: Journey, Not Destination and Shooting with Intention
September - Chris Rusanowsky:
October - Michael McLean: Environmental Portraits and Building Visual Narratives
VIDEO
November - Frank Richards: (sometime in the last half of 2022)
December - No program
2022 Programs
January - Members Photos of the DFW Metroplex
February - Lisa Langell An artistic photographer lies in ALL of us
March - Smiley Pool DMN Photographer
April - Robert Moore - My Life on the Street
May - Jim Walsh
June - Carla Golden
July - Lisa Langell
August - Jeff Parker
September - Larry Petterborg
October - No Program - DCC Hosts the Bird
November - Steve Hawiszczak & Dalis Foglia
December - No Program
History of prior programs HERE