How Tourism Australia's Campaign Reached Perth
The "Say G'day" campaign was one of Tourism Australia's most ambitious pushes to attract international visitors. The concept was simple. Showcase the diversity of Australian experiences through the lens of local stories and real places. When the campaign reached Perth, we were brought in to capture the city's landmarks from the air, lit in signature blue to mark the occasion.
Working on a Tourism Australia-affiliated project changes the dynamic. The production standards are high. The brand guidelines are strict. The deliverables need to work across billboards, social media, broadcast, and print. There is no room for "good enough." Every frame needs to be exceptional.
Capturing Perth in Blue
The brief centred on Perth's iconic landmarks illuminated in blue light. Elizabeth Quay, the Bell Tower, and key CBD buildings participated in the lighting event. Our job was to capture these from the air in a way that communicated both the beauty of the city and the spirit of the campaign.
Night aerial photography in Perth's CBD presents serious challenges. The area falls within Perth Airport's controlled airspace. Altitude restrictions are tight. Light pollution from the city creates exposure challenges. And blue lighting, while visually striking, is one of the most difficult colours to capture accurately on camera due to how sensors handle short-wavelength light.
We worked with Airservices Australia to secure the necessary airspace approvals well in advance. Our flight windows were narrow, typically 30 to 45 minutes during the optimal lighting conditions between twilight and full darkness. That window gives you the blue sky gradient behind the city while the artificial lighting is at full intensity. Miss it, and you either get a bright sky that washes out the blue lights or a black sky that loses the skyline context.
Technical Approach and Equipment
For this project, we used the DJI Mavic 3 Pro with its Hasselblad sensor. The larger sensor was essential for low-light performance. We shot in D-Log M colour profile to preserve maximum dynamic range, allowing us to recover detail in both the bright city lights and the darker sky and water areas during post-production.
Multiple exposures at each position gave us the latitude to blend frames for optimal dynamic range. This technique, commonly used in ground-based architecture photography, works equally well from a drone as long as the aircraft is stable. The Mavic 3 Pro's positioning system held rock-solid in the light winds we had on the night.
The Bigger Picture: Collaborative Tourism Content
Projects like Say G'day demonstrate how aerial content fits into larger campaign ecosystems. Our footage did not exist in isolation. It integrated with ground-level video, portrait photography, written content, and social media activation. The aerial perspective provided the establishing shots and the visual scale that grounded the campaign in place.
Tourism content benefits enormously from aerial perspectives. A street-level photo of Perth shows buildings and people. An aerial photo shows a city set between the Indian Ocean and the Darling Scarp, wrapped around the Swan River, glowing under a West Australian sunset. That perspective sells the destination, not just the hotel or the restaurant.
For tourism operators, destination marketers, and event organisers looking to create aerial content that integrates into broader campaigns, get in touch. Browse our case studies to see how aerial storytelling has supported campaigns across tourism, maritime, and corporate sectors.
