Joanna Steidle has become one of the most recognized names in drone photography, with over 35 awards to her name and features in publications like Smithsonian Magazine. Her stunning aerial images of marine life — from cow nose rays to dolphins — showcase not just technical skill, but an intimate understanding of nature, timing and the art of waiting for the perfect shot.
Based on Long Island’s east coast, Steidle has built her reputation photographing the ocean and its wildlife, documenting everything from baitfish migrations to dolphin behavior. Her award-winning photo “Another World,” featuring cow nose rays moving through schools of menhaden, has been displayed at the Natural History Museum in Tuscany and won numerous international awards.
I sat down with Joanna to discuss her creative process, how she built her business, and what it takes to succeed as a fine art drone photographer.
Note: This interview has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
The Drone Girl: For those who don’t know you, who are you and why are you so fabulous?
Joanna Steidle: I’m a drone pilot with a focus on fine art photography and cinematic videography. I love art, I love drones, and I love nature and wildlife. All three of those passions just come together.
DG: Let’s talk about your award-winning photo “Another World.” How did you capture that shot?
JS: First of all, that was on my 50th birthday — the ultimate birthday gift. The water was crystal clear that day. I’m here on the east coast of Long Island, so I fly the ocean for marine life pretty much from May to October, every really good weather day if possible.
At the time of this shot, we had a tremendous amount of baitfish along our coast, which attracts everything else. Those are actually menhaden forage baitfish — they eat plankton and they’re filter feeders. They feed our entire ocean. They’re a major keystone species.
The cow nose rays migrate up here from South America every year, and we’re seeing more and more each year. The rays in the photo don’t actually eat those fish — they’re not predators. But the fish don’t know that. They just know something large is coming towards them.
I was situated high enough that I could see something amazing was about to happen because the rays were right on the surface. I watched that whole school of fish just slowly spread apart, making way, not understanding which way they should go to avoid the rays. It was a peaceful interaction and really one of the wildest moments.
DG: There’s this element of the decisive moment in your work, where you have to be prepared and waiting. Can you talk about the patience that goes into these shots?
JS: I want to quit sometimes, honestly. A lot of times I come up empty. I could fly 30 miles of beach, stop at 12 different beaches, use nine Mavic 3 batteries, and not see one fish. That can go on for days or two weeks.
The dolphin series I call “Motherhood” happened after a four-day stint of not finding anything. It was 4:30 in the afternoon and I was like, I just want to go home. But the conditions were perfect: dead calm water. If it’s dead calm, I’ve got to fly all day looking.
There was this pod of about 20 dolphins, and I just saw this mother and this calf. I have two grown boys, so that whole mother thing comes in. The light perfectly hit the calf so that the shadow of the calf fell on the mother’s belly, where it once resided. The shadow is the forever spot in a parent’s heart.
DG: What would you say to people about this instant gratification culture? About that it really does take time to make beautiful work?
JS: Feed into the gratification, but step away. It was one of the very first lessons I learned. I would go out, take a photo, edit it, put it out there, and the next day I’d be like, “Oh my gosh, this photo is horrible.”
Give yourself the time and space. Step away because sometimes you get too close to the image. I’ll get too far down this rabbit hole and come out and say, “Oh, it’s fantastic.” But the next day I’ll wake up and be like, “Oh no, no.”
And you’re never going to get the shot if you don’t show up. Back your drone up and get out there.
DG: What draws you to marine life photography?
JS: I grew up on a commercial clam boat. My father had a clam transplant business—500,000 clams a day in and out. So I knew what it was like to work firsthand and live from the sea. I’ve always loved the beach, I’ve loved the salt air. It’s a place where I really can feel my smallness in this world.
I have a little routine when I launch my drone. I always ask Mother Nature to take me to what she feels should be captured in that time and moment. You may be on a mission to do marine life, but you may turn around and see this cloud formation that’s just unbelievable and get one of the best time-lapses possible. You have to let go of expectations.
DG: You’ve focused your work on one geographic area—the East Coast. Why?
JS: If I do it long enough, I will have a massive set of documentation. I’m not in a position where I can just afford to travel all around the world wherever I want to go.
I often tell people who say, “Oh, I live in Detroit, it’s not very pretty,” well, you have to really just try to make the best of wherever you are. Whatever your situation is. I could go to Bali, but I have no connection with that land. I’ve developed a connection here where I know the shadow is better in the fall over at the horse farm than it is in the spring. I know that I want to do this at a low tide instead of a high tide.
DG: How has your work evolved over the past five years?
JS: My work from five years ago is very different from my work today. I just got out of a DaVinci course that was fantastic. I’m so excited for some new color grading and masking.
People look at evolution. They can see, okay, where has she gone and what has she accomplished in five years? How different has her work progressed? It’s constantly trying to polish and be more professional. I encourage people to keep learning, keep connecting with more people, because the more people you connect with, the more you learn.
DG: Let’s talk about the business side. How do you get your work in galleries and magazines?
JS: They’re finding me because I’ve been spending an extra two to three hours every day promoting my work for five years now. Nothing was handed to me. I have over 35 awards now, and on my X feed is where a lot of national meteorologists follow me, or news broadcasters. I had 19 viral news videos this year alone, and that’s income. They put my name out there.
The contests and winning — you don’t even necessarily have to win. As long as you place, you get listed, you get published, and sometimes in the book. That’s where all the high-end publications look. I had one of my cranberry harvest photos win an American Photography Award, and a week later Smithsonian Magazine called me for the whole series because one of the judges was a senior editor at Smithsonian.
DG: So contests are really key to getting published elsewhere?
JS: They have been for me. You can’t be just a one-hit wonder. I was really afraid I was going to just have one good photo, but we’re consistently doing better and better.
DG: How are you landing commercial gigs like the ice cream shop shoot?
JS: They’re finding me through the news sources, through the contests, and a little bit through social media. If you Google “Hamptons drone photographer,” you know? There’s also word of mouth. I’ve worked with National Geographic on Shark Fest — they’ve taken footage for years in a row now. Your name gets passed around between producers.
DG: Let’s talk about AI. Are you using it?
JS: I do use AI when I enlarge. There’s just no way I can take a 3,000-pixel photo and enlarge it up to six to 10 feet without AI to help that enlargement process. I use the AI features in Photoshop, Lightroom, DaVinci — anything inside of a program.
I don’t generate any images from AI. I think it can really damage your credibility if you start teetering into that direction without an established foundation. All of my photos, even the ones that are strongly edited, are still a true moment in time. Nothing is moved. I didn’t add a shark or move something. It’s really important for my reputation not to go down that road and confuse people.
DG: What’s the line on editing photos? What won’t you do?
JS: It really depends. I’m looking to be a fine art photographer, not a photojournalist; there is a big difference. A photojournalistic shot has to be very true to the moment. When I gave shots to Smithsonian for the cranberry bogs, I can’t even erase a patch in the grass. It has to be exactly real to that time.
But fine art photography, I can do whatever I want with, though I do keep the integrity of the photo together. Most photography awards allow you a lot of creative freedom.
DG: We’re rolling into contest season. What are your priorities this year?
JS: I entered Wildlife Photographer of the Year for the first time — that’s very strict on editing. We have Sky Pixel coming up in January. American Photography Awards usually happens by February, along with International Photography Awards. Sienna. The Julia Cameron Award for women photographers.
Fun fact about “Another World.” I entered that photo two previous years in the Sienna Awards and it never made it past the first round. I believed in it, and then it won. There was no rule that you couldn’t reenter it.
DG: That’s great advice. Be persistent. What would you tell someone who aspires to be like you?
JS: Pick a focus — what interests you. It took me five years to choose photography. I was flying drones, involved in the legal aspects, learning to fly and crash and rebuild. I spent years doing that before I found that photography was where I wanted to focus.
If you find something you really love to focus on, you’ll probably succeed much quicker if you focus on one thing. If you try to do mapping and real estate and photography—all these different things—that’s where I’ve seen most people fail. I’ve seen at least 10 drone businesses here on Long Island fail in the past 10 years because they tried to do it all.
DG: Where can people find you?
JS: I’m on Instagram at @joannasteidle, YouTube at Hamptons Drone Art, and my website is also JoannaSteidle.com.
Want to watch my full, 40-minute chat with Joanna Steidle? Tune in to my YouTube channel!
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