The Lighthouse at Turkey Point was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2002, which I think raises its significance as a landmark quite a bit. You can hear from Clint Eastwood fans that one of the scenes for his movie Absolute Power (1997) was filmed at the location:

To get to the lighthouse and the tip of the Peninsula you need to park your car at the trail head and hike for about 20 minutes. The first time I went to Turkey Point was for a casual trip with my girlfriend Blonnie who in turn knew about the location for a long time. She once before walked there in the middle of the night to take photos of the milky way:

Now back to the opening photo of this post! When we decided to visit the lighthouse today it was already late in the day. After introducing ourselves to three park rangers and having a friendly conversation with them it turned out they had nothing against a drone flight in the area. They seemed well aware of the current legal situation and the fact that it’s simply not enforceable to remove anyone trying to fly a drone from a State Park at the moment. When the new regulations are finally introduced (hopefully this summer) the situation may change but we don’t know anything for sure yet.

When I got the Phantom 4 in the air the light and color in the sky were just about perfect. It’s that elusive moment of the evening when the sun has just hidden behind the horizon but it’s still illuminating the clouds from below making the colors in the sky really saturated. It doesn’t last long but it’s very much worth waiting for. I picked my angle and took 12 auto bracketed exposures (a total of 60 images) that I later stitched together in Lightroom. The final shot is a 15mpx image that can easily be printed in 16×20 size or even slightly beyond. For the detailed description of my entire workflow please take a look at my Aerial Imaging Guide.

As always please make SAFETY your main priority when flying drones. Have respect for wildlife and other human beings in the area. Thanks for reading and happy flying!