Dronies Are the Only Way to Be Photographed This Winter

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By Jenni Ryall2014-07-23 23:13:11 UTC

SYDNEY — Selfies just weren't cutting it in 2014.

Once you hit 5,000 Facebook 'Likes' for your phone-in-mirror shot, nothing fulfills you. How does one become more impressive to their friends? You up the ante with a dronie, of course. That's using a drone to take a photo of the subject while it hovers in the sky. If you can master this technique, you are owning social media.

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Up until now drones have been used in war zones, to smuggle phones into prisons and to get a meatlovers pizza delivered. Now in a world first, New Zealand Tourism is using them to push the 'dronie' movement at the skifields. Forget shoving your GoPro on a ski pole, look up to the sky and give your best pout.

The drone travelling around the slopes on the South Island of New Zealand is a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ drone. Its integrated camera shoots in full HD video at 1080p/30fps with photos shot in 14 megapixels. The drone flies at around 55km/h and can hit heights of more than 275 metres. It used to need a GoPro attached to it, but now it is all built in to one specialised photographic flying machine.

General Manager of Tourism New Zealand Australia, Tony Saunders said: “We are excited to be the first country to launch the new NZdronie service for consumers and hope it will add another dimension to the way people share their holiday memories.

"New Zealand’s scenery is unparalleled so we wanted to give visitors the opportunity to show their spectacular surrounding to friends via social media, blowing a traditional selfie out of the water. If a picture says a thousand words imagine what a dronie can do.”

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Topics: Australia, dronie, Gadgets, US & World