PHOTOS: Britain From Above In 2021

From a snow-covered Stonehenge to stunning laser displays over Tower Bridge and the beautiful South Harting countryside in West Sussex, this is 2021 as seen from the air by drone photographer Chris Gorman.

The aerial viewpoint has allowed him to capture Britain from a different angle than those normally employed by photographers.

Mr Gorman - known as the Big Ladder Photographer tells Sky News the stories behind his pictures.

London

He began 2021 by photographing a light show over Tower Bridge, which was part of unannounced New Year Celebrations at the stroke of midnight.

Mayor Sadiq Khan had cancelled the traditional fireworks display around the London Eye to discourage crowds that could spread COVID-19.

"I was tipped off that somebody in a flat nearby had seen them testing this laser display the night before," Mr Gorman says.

He says he didn't know what it would look like, but when midnight came, "all of a sudden the sky just lit up with this laser display".

M25 and M23 Junction, Surrey

Days after England went into its third lockdown on 5 January, Mr Gorman photographed a motorway junction that was nearly deserted.

"Nothing says lockdown more than this - the M25 going from top left of the frame to the bottom right, and that's the M23 to Brighton going the other way," he says. "The other roads are slip roads.

"Believe me, it doesn't look like that anymore."

Stonehenge

"Some of my most successful pictures are weather-related," Mr Gorman says.

"What I do is I watch the weather forecasts extremely closely to work out in the summer if there's a heatwave on the way or in winter if there's a big snowstorm on the way."

He says he often uses weather stories to pitch his landscape photographs to newspapers.

He heard southern England would be snowed under and made his way to Stonehenge to prepare.

"All my pictures really involve landmarks," he adds, "because people can relate to landmarks immediately."

Shere, Surrey

Mr Gorman was commissioned to photograph the Flying Scotsman and looked for a spot that would give him a clear view of the train.

Asked what made him choose this location, he said that "came down to being given permission to use the field".

He arrived a couple of hours before the train was due and knocked on the nearest farm door to ask if he could take the photograph on the property, which the owner said would not be a problem.

He says he had a friend on the train who phoned him when they were approaching and is waving at a window in the picture.

Plymouth, Devon

Mr Gorman says he shot this image for the National Lottery Heritage Fund after Plymouth was awarded £9.5 million to create a national marine park.

"That looks like the weather was playing ball, but it didn't," he says.

"I was down there for like 36 hours and that was the only time I saw the sun, for about - I'm not joking - for about four minutes between the clouds."

South Harting, West Sussex

Mr Gorman says he lives close to this village, which is often foggy because mist gets "trapped" by the hill overlooking it.

To produce the image, he used a technique called HDR - or "high dynamic range" - which involved taking six frames at different exposure levels and blending them together.

"That's why that picture looks quite unique," he says, "because most people are only used to seeing photographs that are one dynamic range."

He explains that the level of detail in the sun, the mist and the shadows would not all be visible if only one frame had been taken.

"HDR has a bad rap sometimes by photographers who overdo it and it looks fake," he says. "But I tried to do HDR how my eye saw it at the time."

He adds: "When you're viewing a scene, your eye is seeing a relative form of HDR because your brain is adjusting for it as you're looking at it."

Reading, Berkshire

Mr Gorman photographed the site of the Reading Festival the day after it ended due to his concerns about its environmental impact.

He describes the picture as "millionaire houses on the left", and then behind a massive eight or 10-foot high fence on the right, "you've got absolute carnage, different world carnage, of the Reading Festival", which he says happens every year.

To take the picture, he stood on the towpath outside the complex. When he started flying the drone, he was shocked by what he saw.

"It proves that the environmental message has still got a way to go," he says.

He says ticket holders buy tents for the festival which are "actually quite cheap" and "they can't be bothered to take them with them, so they just leave them".

Felixstowe Port, Suffolk

Mr Gorman captured shipping containers piling up at Felixstowe Port amid concerns about a shortage of HGV drivers to move them.

"There was a scare story going around that goods weren't being transferred from Felixstowe to the shops," he says.

Asked if he took many different shots, he explained that the battery life of a drone was limited to 20 to 35 minutes, depending on how new the model was.

He said he was selective about how many shots he takes, to give himself enough time to fly the drone back.

There are other legal limitations: drones have to be flown "within visual line of sight" and no higher than 120m.

"It might be a speck in the distance, but I can still see it," he says.

Long Itchington Wood, Warwickshire

Mr Gorman photographed tunneling that was set to begin in Warwickshire as part of HS2 construction towards Birmingham.

"As you can see, you can't deny that that's ripping the countryside up," he says.

"I photographed this at exactly the same time COP26 started," he adds.

"Boris [Johnson] was quoted saying how he was against deforestation and destroying the environment."

He laughs: "I think these pictures maybe caused the government a tiny bit of embarrassment when they came out."

Hyde Park, London

"This one is a really good example of how many permissions you need for a drone shoot," says Mr Gorman.

He took the shot of Winter Wonderland in November but said the process of setting it up began in August.

Mr Gorman stresses that it is illegal to take drone photographs if you are not a certified drone pilot, like he is.

Even then, in many locations additional clearances are needed to fly a drone.

In this case, he had to get permission from the Royal Parks, Winter Wonderland, Metropolitan Police and air traffic control.

He says satellites communicate with drones and if you are missing permissions in a highly secure area like an airport zone or in central London, the drone will be "locked" and prevented from flying.