Pilot's Story: Joanna Steidle

11 December 2023

By Joanna Steidle

I'm a professional drone pilot and artist based in the Hamptons on Long Island, New York, flying commercially since 2017. As owner of Hamptons Drone Art, LLC, I specializing in fine art drone photography, videography and FPV flights. I have done everything from real estate to content creation for major corporations, private lessons, and even have my photography works on exhibit in Italy and England. I’ve had the pleasure of working with numerous organizations, including National Geographic, Discovery, Hulu, BBC, Disney, and most major news outlets.

I started off flying small non automated drones and fell in love with flight immediately. I quickly graduated to a camera drone and found the new perspective of my home vicinity captivating. I try very hard not to put out "cookie cutter" images. When I began to capture the marine life off the coast of New York, I hit my sweet spot. I invest a tremendous amount of time in editing. Sometimes, one piece will take me months of work to make it just perfect in my eyes.

I’ve been through many crashes and malfunctions over the years—all of which were learning experiences. I now have a DJI fleet including Mavic 3 Pro, Mavic 3 Cine, Mini 4 Pro, Avata, FPV and the Phantom 4 ProV2; these pretty much cover all my needs.

2023 has been my most successful year to date and began with being honored as a Global Woman to Watch 2022 by Women and Drones, then published in Reporters without Borders: 100 Photos from Around the World. In the summer months, both me and my shark footage was featured on National Geographic and the BBC. I received three Siena Drone Photography Awards this year. I also was the photography winner at the California Drone Film Festival 2023 and Arizona Drone Film Festival 2023. To top it off, I had two magazine covers, Dan’s Papers and Hamptons Social.

I was also invited and accepted to be a DJI Creator. It was a huge dream come true! It gave me a bit of confidence, but I also found it terrifying. I quickly realized being included to fly and create with the top pilots in the world would only help excel me to improve my skills and content further. After only eight weeks in the program, I received the "Top Creator" of the month.

My passion is capturing the beauty of our oceans, earth, it's landscape, and wildlife from the sky. I use drones to offer a unique perspective of marine life, farms, and waterways providing visual stories of the Hamptons and the Atlantic Ocean most people have never seen before. I hope my photography and videos inspire others to appreciate, respect and conserve our natural resources.

Giving back is very important to me and I spend a fair amount of time mentoring other women just entering the drone community. Being able to shorten the learning curve for them with accurate information and flying and purchasing tips is a blessing I enjoy. There are countless people that have helped me along my journey, and I am honored to do the same.

In my drone career as in life, I am always seeking to learn more and do better. I have maintained a strict safety regime and privacy ethic which I am extremely proud of. Ultimately, I’d love to travel the world, bringing the joys of drone life with me to distant lands or oceans, while sharing beautiful images with the masses.