Aerial photography of Norwich Cathedral and the amazing work of artist Brian Lewis
Back in January I headed to Norwich with well-known Norfolk artist, Brian Lewis, to get some aerial shots of the cathedral. Brian had been asked by the Dean of Norwich Cathedral, Jane Hedges, to do a painting of the cathedral and grounds.Brian decided that an aerial angle might be interesting, Brian says "Having met Jane, the Dean of Norwich Cathedral, I asked if it would be possible to fly a drone within the Cathedral grounds with the idea that I could make a painting. Knowing Chris, his great photography, and that he’s a qualified drone pilot, we got permission and Chris took amazing shots of all the angles I needed"It was a real honour to be able to fly at the cathedral, especially considering how tightly controlled any drone flying is within the cathedral grounds (for very good reasons). I prepared all the paperwork including flight plans, a risk assessment, a pre-flight checklist and had the flight cleared with Norwich Airport air traffic control, the Cathedral Estate Management and the Hawk & Owl Trust and we were good to go.On the day we got a selection of shots for Brian, taking care not to fly too close to the spire where the resident peregrines were hanging out. Brian has been working on the painting for over a month now and it's looking incredible as you can see although it is still a work in progress. Brian aims for the painting to be one of a series of the cathedral and the grounds.
The original painting, in all it's glory, will be exhibited at his next Open Studio which runs from Saturday 4th May - Sunday 12th May, 10:30am-5:30pm daily at Bees Hall, 64 The Avenue South, Sheringham, Norfolk, NR26 8DH. There will also be a huge range of other Brian Lewis originals plus hundreds of prints and postcards. Well worth a visit to see the beautiful work and meet the great man himself!Brian's website is here.
As a result of the successful first flight (and getting on well with Jane and the estates manager Phil) I suggested maybe heading back for an evening flight to capture the cathedral in a different light. The suggestion was well received and a date planned.On the evening (a month after we had originally arranged the date) thankfully the weather forecast was good so I headed back to the cathedral and we were blessed with a most amazing sunset. I love it when a plan comes together!The below shots are a couple from that series. These have been well received by the local media with the Norwich Evening News sharing the shot in their instagram feed and BBC News East of England featuring the aerial photo and using it for their Facebook page cover image. It's all great publicity!Many thanks to Jane & Phil for being kind enough to let me fly there twice, I feel very lucky. 
• Aerial photographers in Norfolk • Norfolk drone photography • Norwich cathedral aerial photos • Brian Lewis artist •