In Mark Addy’s hands, a drone is his paintbrush.

The owner of Maximum Exposure Photography in Coeur d’Alene has loved art since he was a youngster. As a professional photographer, however, he’s now creating his own aerial masterpieces with two tools of his trade, capturing fleeting images in permanent frames.

“It’s gratifying to fly a drone, operate land camera equipment and make art simultaneously,” he said.

Addy, who began his career in photography more than two decades ago, said his passion for creating drone art is something of a natural progression.

“Owning Maximum Exposure Photography gave me opportunities to photograph original works of many artists,” he said. “That enhanced my love of art, especially in the abstracts. That’s how I began to create what I envision through paint and photography.”

Like all artists, Addy has learned some lessons the hard way. (Example of a failure here.)

Along the way, he said he developed specialized drone equipment, making his “paintbrush” something of an original.

*How old are you, and where did you grow up? I was born in 1956 in Northern California. Moved to Coeur D’Alene in 1996 for work with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Retired in 2011 as the District Conservationist of Kootenia and Shoshone counties. Began building my photography business in the late 90’s, Maximum Exposure Photography, part time then moved to full time upon retirement with the NRCS.

*When you say ‘development of specialized drone equipment,’ can you be more specific? I’ve been keeping that under my wings, other than the obvious of mounting lights on a drone.

*Can you give me an example of one of the failures, and what you learned from it? Stability issues of the equipment, but I didn’t give up. I had to redesign several times to get where I felt it safe to maneuver the drone to achieve the effects I had envisioned.