You'll discover a wide range of photographs that capture everything from unique views of Storm King in upstate New York and the cityscapes of New York City to the green fields of Tuscany, Italy, and the spiky mountains in the Valle de la Luna, Chile. Each image lists the latitude and longitude of the locations Diego flew his drone from to capture the view. The photographs in this zine are printed on high-quality paper, making it perfect for display.

Whether you're a photography enthusiast, a traveler, or simply someone who appreciates the beauty of the world around us, this zine from Diego Rioja is a must-have!

Dimensions: 5.25"x8"
Color print on natural 60lb satin paper

32 total pages of awesome drone photographs

Corner Bodega Publishers: Well, first question, question. Tell us about your background.

Diego: My background? Yeah, my background as a designer comes from going back to school and picking up design basics in undergrad. I actually studied sculpture and graphic design. From then, I think one of my projects was the very booklets and posters and stuff like that. I always like print, but obviously, I think at the time, we were switching to digital, so I definitely played around with flash back in the day as well as Adobe is the Adobe Sweet illustrator was I think one of my biggest passions. And I actually tried illustration for a while.

I think in general, I started design early on right after the dot com bubble. But I came back around to it for grad school and I wanted to mix design with technology and music. I think a lot of my background comes from all those three sides of the creative thinking. I think a lot of this stuff is like means to an end. And through technology, I think I found a pretty big creative space with creative coding. And for a while, I played around with a lot of that stuff. And later on, I would say fast forward to 2010, 2013 when I started traveling a lot and I figured that I'm missing a perspective from all my travels and drones came out and that changed things a lot because I travel a lot in life in general. Diego But then when I lived in New York, definitely travel a little bit more. And looking down from the plane was always interesting. And I figured that through a little bit of this drone technology, you could capture easier shots of Earth.

CPB: Where did you go to school and then grad school?

Diego: I went to George Mason for undergrad in Virginia. And for grad school, I went to New York University, the ITP, Interactive Telecommunications program. 2010, I think. That was when I graduated. So it's been a while.

Above: Artist Diego R.

CPB: Tell me a little bit about the cover and the name of the zinev-

Diego: Since you inspired me to do it, I realized the image format worked best. I had a vast collection of images, and the challenge was finding a thread or idea to tie them together. We settled on showcasing the contrast between different parts of the world, adding latitude for context. The title 'From Above' emerged after experimenting with various names and logos, trying to visually represent drones. Other contenders included 'In Flight,' 'Float,' 'Sky,' 'Bird's Eye View,' 'The World,' 'The Inspiration,' and 'Above,' but 'From Above' felt short, sweet, and fitting for a collection that spans about a decade.

CBP: Oh, wow.

Diego: And yeah, I wanted to get an airy vibe on the font and do... I think the From Above title is on cursive. It's like a cursive font.

CBP: Yeah, cursive. It's script.

Diego: It's very scripty font, like flowy.

Diego: Like a little retro. Actually, that shot is from a place in Chile, which felt like a "wish you were here" postcard. Very retro from like, maybe I guess retro for me would be 80s, but it definitely could be 50s. If it was like Because it is from a beach and it felt like a travel guy, like a retro travel guy.

CBP: Yeah, what you guys came up with turned out fantastic.

Above: From Above - Greenpoint Brookyln drone shot

CPB: Would you ever consider merging the zine's visuals with music?

Diego: Yes, I'm definitely considering it. The video's speed often sets the tempo, and I'm thinking of an ambient vibe. The choice might also depend on the landscape; for example, I associate green and orange with deserts and gray and blue with cities or oceans. I'm loosely connecting colors with moods and music. Some locations might have a beat, like representing Brooklyn or New York with their hustle and bustle. But overall, I lean towards ambient music – slow-paced with wind chimes and electronic elements. However, I'm still exploring how to connect music to natural landscapes. In places like Chile, Andean music with its organic, wind-chime-like sounds could influence my electronic music. Additionally, cultural aspects might shape the music, especially in locations like Italy and Japan.

Above: From Above - Tuscany, Italy and Big Sur, California

CPB: So you got into a little bit about traveling and flying and that plays in with the concept of your zine. Did you want to expand on that with some of the choices of shots and locations and things like that?

Diego: Yeah, my girlfriend and I wanted to escape New York. Initially, I didn't enjoy traveling and got homesick, but it grew on me. In 2014-2015, I bought my first drone for aerial photography. I wanted mementos from our trips. Our first trip was to Southeast Asia, we spent a good month out there, but all of our shots were from one perspective. I think from then on, I think just to do it for fun, just see the Earth from above was super interesting..

Every time I come back, I took more and more and more and how it has changed. And there's an interesting progression that you can show as a yearly time lapse of how things change. And I think Google satellite had these kinds of time lapses, which I always thought were interesting. So it's definitely like a piece of... I always bring my drone whenever I can now. I think lots have changed. But obviously, culturally speaking, some people don't like that either. The drones? I think the drones are not very well known.

CBP: In certain areas. It started probably at first, people weren't even aware of what is that. And then now it's changed a little bit.

Diego: I get it. In US national parks, you need permits and a drone license to fly, or you'll face hefty fines. However, the concept of capturing unique perspectives from above was appealing to me. It really hit me when I visited Naoshima in Japan, where I used my drone to take top-down shots of amazing architectural designs in a museum. It revealed the architect's intention with primitive shapes, like circles, triangles, squares, and trapezoids, something I wouldn't have noticed otherwise unless I were an expert or read about it in an architecture or travel blog.

But just as a regular person, being able to do that, I thought that was cool. I think in any country that you go to or place that you want to visit, I think I always think that there is an opportunity to just take the drone up and quickly do it and see what you can find obviously within the respectful cultural and laws and whatnot.

CBP: So talk a little bit about the difference between you started with maybe photography but also video. When you got the drone, it always did video as well. The quality between photography, video, and how you were doing either or both?

Diego: Definitely both. I think the drone that I got, this was I think the first 4K drone for video at 30 frames a second, which for the time it wasn't bad. I think it was 2015. But it is an artistic choice where I think if there are more stationary landscapes, obviously, to take pictures. So I think that's great. I usually, like I mentioned, both. Sometimes for sunsets, there are time lapse features that you can use or just plain old video. I think video is nice when you're doing flybys, very slow flybys of a particular subject, like a mountain or a forest. It's pretty chill when you take it up there and it's fairly stable. You have to get the lighting conditions right. I bought some ND filters for just blocking out the.

Above: From above - flying above Storm King, New York

From Above Zine - $18

Introducing the new and captivating zine created by Austin, TX photographer and artist Diego Rioja, now available from Corner Bodega Publishers. This 32-page zine is a visual feast, featuring a collection of stunning drone photographs taken by Diego from cool and unique locations around the world.

Diego's use of drone technology allows him to capture breathtaking aerial views and perspectives of some of the most beautiful and remote landscapes on Earth. With his keen eye for detail and composition, Diego's images showcase the natural wonder and diversity of our planet. This zine is the perfect way to see the world from a new and exhilarating perspective.

You'll discover a wide range of photographs that capture everything from unique views of Storm King in upstate New York and the cityscapes of New York City to the green fields of Tuscany, Italy, and the spiky mountains in the Valle de la Luna, Chile. Each image lists the latitude and longitude of the locations Diego flew his drone from to capture the view. The photographs in this zine are printed on high-quality paper, making it perfect for display.