ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Koeun Neak flies his drone.
By MATT DEMIRS
LYNN — From the ocean shores to the treetops of Lynn Woods Reservation, Koeun Neak captured it all on video with his new drone.
Since it was uploaded to YouTube last week, his pictorial dubbed “DJI Mavic Pro, Lynn, Massachusetts” has been seen by more than 500 viewers.
“Lynn gave my family an opportunity,” he said. “Without the city, we wouldn’t be here today. I wanted to capture Lynn’s beauty since it sometimes has a bad name associated to it.”
Neak, 28, was born in Cambodia and has lived in the city since he was 2 and is a graduate of Classical High School. He said he hopes the video allows outsiders to see the city in a different light.
While this is Neak’s first production to hit the Internet, his talent for taping didn’t develop overnight. In 2013, he graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a degree in video production.
He wants to make money from doing work with his drone and travel to locations such as Bolivia, a place he admires, to capture some of its beauty, he said.
“I want to go to Bolivia because of the landscape,” he said. “I want to capture the countries’ salt flats and the Laguna Colorada, Bolivia’s famous red lake.”
The footage was shot on Neak’s $1,000 DJI Mavic Pro, a two-pound drone equipped with flight autonomy, a stabilized camera, and a 27-minute maximum flight time, according to the company’s website.
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It took Neak about a week to operate the drone. He practiced on Lynn Beach and spent two days filming the different spots before editing the final product.
In order to operate the small aircraft, he purchased a hobby and recreation drone registration for $5, he said. That’s just one of the laws affecting those who want to operate drones.
On Monday, Bay State lawmakers were scheduled to consider a bill to impose limitations on the use of unmanned aerial vehicles.
The proposal seeks to stop governmental use of drones to “track, collect, or maintain information about the political, religious or social views, associations of activities of any individual, group, association, organization, corporation.”
While the measure won’t directly impact Neak’s projects, he said there are precautionary measures that must be taken. To fly in Boston, he said, you must call the FAA control tower for clearance before flying.
In the meantime, Neak is interested in pursuing smaller projects. His goal is capture all of Massachusetts’ landscape for people to enjoy. But it will take a while, he acknowledges.
One thing Neak hopes his video will showcase is a different side of Lynn.
“On social media, people always comment how Lynn is such a bad place,” he said. “I made that video for the people of Lynn, and the haters too.”
Matt Demirs can be reached at [email protected].