National Geographic’s February cover features one of Europe’s most well-known structures – the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Captured beautifully by a drone, the cover shows the cathedral’s iconic buttresses undergoing reconstruction after being damaged by fire in 2019 (see image below). But did you know, it took photographer Tomas van Houtryve six months to get the aerial shot!? Here’s why…
Although millions of people around the world were privy to the horror that was the cathedral going up in flames on April 15, 2019, media access to the rebuild process has been painfully limited. In fact, National Geographic is the only foreign media outlet that has been allowed to capture the seismic reconstruction effort with high-level photographs and drone footage.
However, getting the drone up in the air to capture the iconic monument was no easy feat. Just getting the paperwork done took about six months.
First, the photoshoot had to be approved by the
