Hasta La Ideas

If you asked me a year ago which famous persons are advocates of drones, homemaking maven Martha Stewart would not have topped that list. But after receiving a camera-outfitted drone for her birthday last year, she became enamored of it while flying it around a New England beach and observing the vantages from her iPad. Pronouncing herself “hooked,” she continued using the drone to capture subsequent parties, nature hikes and outings.

Earlier this year, a member of Stewart’s security team purchased a similar drone, and was given permission to learn to fly the thing over Stewart’s expansive Bedford, New York farm property. Stewart became so enchanted with the subsequent photos that she posted an entry on her blog entitled “Amazing Aerial Photos of My Farm.”

With captions like the following…

This beautiful aerial shot of my home, which I call the Winter house (center), includes the flower room, carport and studio in the one long structure to the left, the Summer house to the far right, one of the horse paddocks and my beautiful peony garden in full bloom below.

…it’s easy to see why media outlets, perhaps unfairly, began to skewer her. Even before the blog entry was released, Vanity Fair caught wind of her new kick and allowed her to explain her drone attraction before giving her a gentle ribbing:

[As Stewart explains,] “You can control the altitude, you can control the speed, you can control where it’s going. It’s easy to use, actually. You can really control it, it’s gentle. It’s lightweight, too; it’s very beautiful.”

Have the neighbors called the authorities, reporting a U.F.O.? “No. I don’t have any neighbors,” she said, laughing.

The latter statement, of course, is in reference to the fact that yeah, a 153-acre farm doesn’t subject you to a lot of Joneses peering over your fence.

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