Rudy Willingham, a Seattle drone photographer with a thing for architecture, has captured dramatic new video footage of the Amazon Spheres that provides a unique perspective of the ongoing project.
Willingham, who runs a website called Rudy Drones showcasing his videos and photographs, posted his latest work on Vimeo and imgur.
The drone takes off above the three spheres from Lenora Street and moves over the construction site between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. One shot rises straight up from the center of the biggest dome, and the entire video offers a bird’s-eye view of the grounds where the orbs will sit.
“I drive by the spheres once a week and every time it feels like I’ve just time traveled to an alien planet,” Willingham told GeekWire in an email Tuesday. “I’ve just never seen anything like them. I’m really into drone photography and architecture is my favorite thing to shoot. I get the same feeling of awe looking at these biodomes than if I were at the Grand Canyon.”
Willingham, 32, is a senior copywriter at DNA Seattle. In addition to photography, he said he’s been producing electronic and hip-hop music for over 15 years. The spheres video features his song “Why?” as a soundtrack — which Willingham said had been a KEXP “Song of the Day” and “Song of the Month” in City Arts Magazine.
The Amazon Spheres, part of the tech giant’s evolving campus in downtown Seattle’s Denny Triangle area, are not scheduled to open until 2018. The domes will feature hundreds of exotic plant species and serve as a work and relaxation space for employees. A new photo this week on the site’s official Instagram account, showed large rocks being lifted into the plaza area.
Willingham said he hid himself pretty well while operating the drone to capture his footage.
“Towards the end a security guard walked by me and I was pretty sure he was gonna shut me down,” Willingham said. “But he just said hello and kept walking. Figured it would be pretty hypocritical of them to try and stop me when they’re the ones trying to bring mass drone delivery to the world!”
