We love our city of Marseille, but even more than that, we love being out at sea, flying our drones around all kinds of boats, including yachts, sailing boats in regattas, old riggers, cruise ships, oil tankers or semi-submersibles, not forgetting semi-rigid boats and even the houseboats used for river cruises! This page reflects our long experience in this field. You’ll see the diversity and impressive number of drone missions carried out on the water by our teams, who are well versed in marine and aquatic filming!
At first glance, it might seem easy enough for the people of Marseilles, but the exercise can sometimes be perilous, especially if the weather conditions are not optimal.
In the Mediterranean, it’s all about the swell, and therefore the height of the waves. Rough seas can compromise drone filming, because to follow a boat, you either have to be on board or in a following zodiac, as in the photo above. The boat from which the drone will take off and land must therefore be stable when the aircraft is initialized, and completely stationary to take off or catch up with the drone by hand when it returns home.
Over the years, and thanks to the many drone services we have provided for our customers, our remote pilots have learnt to perfectly manage the risks involved in taking drone photos at sea. Our expertise in this field means you can be sure of breathtaking, never-before-seen aerial images, all in complete safety for the people and property on board. The proof is on the images with this selection of maritime operations, as varied as they are exciting!
Yatch Alfa-Nero: one of our very first drone shooting services at sea! The aim was to produce videos and photos for the London agency in charge of chartering the yacht.
The biggest difficulty was getting this monster of the seas (82m!) to stop before taking off and landing, because we were on board, and given its size and the wind that was blowing, it was quite a sport.
Flights carried out with the Inspire 2 in double operator mode, off the coast of La Ciotat in 2017.
Yatch Pursuit: photographed in July 2024 at the same time as the Tree House, just before they left for Greece.
Drone flown: Mavic 3 Pro, with 24mm and 70mm focal lengths.
English TV program: filmed in Saint-Tropez in June 2018. Here, our mission was to follow this yacht around the bay with the show’s two hosts on board. To carry out the service, we were taken on board a small boat with our Inspire 2 in dual control.
For the record, you’ll recognise, in the background, the Sailing Yatch A, the world’s largest sailing yacht (143m!), designed by Philippe Starck, anchored just behind our boat, by pure chance!
Sailing boat Don du Vent: we’ve had the chance to film this magnificent 24m sailing boat moored in Marseille’s Vieux Port on several occasions. But it was in July 2020, for The Explorers Network, that we followed him around Marseille harbour at sunrise with our Inspire 2, following him on board of a motorboat used as a take-off and landing platform. There will be many more opportunities to film him for our customers or ourselves, as recounted in this post and in the video of our 10 years birthday, celebrated on board of this magnificent sailboat!
Yatch Zoé: filmed leaving the port of Estaque and sailing towards the Frioul islands. Here a vertical view once moored, with the last guests arriving on board an inflatable boat.
The drone used is the Mavic 3 Pro, with the remote pilot on board the yacht.
Off-board boat: Mavic 2 Pro drone tracking of this luxury motorboat in the Bay of Cannes for Hyatt Hotels in 2019.
Antisan yacht: filming at sea during a company seminar off Cannes in the Alpes-Maritimes. Drone used: Mavic 3 Pro, with the remote pilot on board the yacht.
Princess Regal ship: for once, we’re going to film a ship leaving the port of Marseille (GPMM), while remaining alongside the quayside. As a result, the Inspire 2 drone will remain within sight of the remote pilot, i.e. 100m, as required by French regulations for all flights in urban or populated areas.
Marseilles fire brigade boat: filming at sea for a TotalEnergies subsidiary, FOST, based in Vitrolles. Here, the drone and pilot are on board the Louis Colet, a response boat belonging to the Marseille marine fire brigade, during an anti-pollution boom deployment exercise off the coast of Port-de-Bouc in the Bouches-du-Rhône region.
The barge handling boat: we also sometimes do interviews at sea on boats that are sailing, and follow them at the same time by drone. Here, in the bay of Marseille in June 2023 for the film we produced for the Marseille-based start-up V20 Marine.
Maersk Pelican oil tanker: probably the most difficult drone filming at sea. Because we had to follow a giant vessel travelling at 20 knots in rough seas (2m waves).
Fortunately, we had arranged for an inflatable boat cut out for these conditions (13m long) and with a good rear deck for the drone. The captain is also a very experienced sailor. The Pilot/ Cameraman duo at the controls of the Inspire 2 had to gather images for Norsepower, the manufacturer of the Sails Rotors (rotating sails) that equip this vessel as it leaves the port of Fos-sur-Mer.
Watch the making-of clip from this extraordinary shoot, and get a glimpse of our images in the final video on Youtube.
Find out more about this incredible Mission Pelican!
Silversea’s fleet of cruise ships: at a complete standstill due to the Covid-19 in spring 2020. The ships remain docked for lack of passengers and the American company finds itself with seven of its ships moored side by side at the GPMM, the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille. Silversea asked us to film the arrival of the last ship – the Silver Moon (photo opposite) – at dawn, and to immortalise the unique situation by filming and photographing the 7 ships present using a drone (see this image).
Drone used: Inspire 2 with Zenmuse X7
EOLFI : Coverage at sea during the recovery of the BLIDAR buoy (high seas precision wind measurement) from the Planier lighthouse off Marseille. We were on board the Phares et Balises boat with the Phantom 4 pro drone and GH4 camera.
Costa Croisières ships at the GPMM : Here is an example of a shot made for this filming with the Inspire 2 drone and the 45mm focal length around the four Costa Croisières ships docked at the GPMM – Port Terminal Croisières – Marseille – on 14/04/2018. Read more.
The MV Sunrise, a semi-submersible vessel that arrived from Poland just off Marseille’s GPMM, lowered into the water, ready to release the Bouygues case maker.
As it is often the case, the Drone-Pictures team operated an Inspire 2 as a duo, on board the towboat. Other shots and interviews were taken on board the vessel for the final video from our customer Central Oceans.
Video produced for Quiet-Oceans, which is collaborating on the European PIAQUO project and has developed the SmartPAM buoy equipped with hydrophones (submersible microphones) capable of recording underwater sounds. Most of the film of this wonderful assignment was shot at sea on board the IXBlue boat between La Ciotat and the Gulf of Fos, when the buoy was submerged for three months.
Clip presenting the fleet of Eden Boat, a rental company based in La Ciotat. Produced in half a day, using only a drone, we filmed each of the five inflatable boats available in summer 2022, complete with skipper.
Video report for CMA-CGM and TotalEnergies on the LNG bunkering operation of the CC Bali on 22/01/2022 in the port of Fos-sur-mer.
Cruise Terminal, Port of Marseille (GPMM), 04/09/2016, 6:45 am: the Carnival Vista cruise ship arrives in Marseille with its 4,000 American passengers.
The US TV channel NBC entrusts us with the drone filming of the sequences of the arrival at the port of Marseille and the “beauty shots of the city” that will be used in the episode “Marseille” of the new documentary series The Voyager.
Marseille bay: filming at sea for an American series on ABC, between the Château d’IF and the Old Port, in September 2019. The drone team is inside the boat while keeping a permanent eye on the Inspire 2 drone circling around the boat while moving.
Photo and video shooting by drone at sea, near Port d’Alon, around an inflatable boat from the Eden Boat fleet, completely renovated with fabrics from Dickson-Constant
The Teliri Cable Ship in Marseille: drone filming at sea in late 2022 during the deployment of the submarine cable in Marseille, France.
To take all the aerial images of this large-scale operation, we were on board a boat serving as a departure and arrival base for the Mavic 3 drone. A ground team was present on board the ship and on the beach.
M/S Arosa barge: water is not just at sea. Sometimes we sail on rivers like here, for 5 days, we followed by drone a cruise on the Rhone between Chalons-sur-Saône and Arles for a German documentary series produced by Doclight for the ARD television channel. The Pilot/Cameraman team was sometimes on board, sometimes on land, on the banks.
Four sailboats passing the Catalans buoy, during the Neptunium Sailing Regatta based on the Frioul Islands in Marseille, in October 2019.
The drone’s remote pilot is on board the zodiac that follows the 18 crews participating in the event.
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With Drone Pictures, you call upon a civilian drone operator, established since 2011 in Marseille, guaranteeing a high quality creative work.
Our video productions and audiovisual services by drone, as well as our numerous clients, attest to our seriousness and our enthusiasm to always serve you better!