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Rafael Suárez

Rafael Suárez

Rafael Suárez is a drone journalist and content creator with more than 20 years behind the lens. He began in film photography in 1998, moved to digital in 2005, and has been flying and filming with drones since 2016. As a commercial videographer he has produced work for premium brands including BMW, Porsche, and MINI, and his documentary work champions a #flysafe mentality across the industry. Based in Quito, Ecuador, he covers drone news, hardware, and the policy and business shaping the industry for DroneXL, and shares reviews and cinematic flight on his YouTube channel. A dad and a lifelong aviation nerd, he's happiest when something is in the air.

1,178
Articles
144
Beats covered
2025
Writing since
Aug 13
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DJI Osmo Action 6 Gets 8K Right Before Christmas
DJI

DJI Osmo Action 6 Gets 8K Right Before Christmas

Just when many of us were already mentally powering down for eggnog mode, DJI decided to slide a very shiny package under the tree. A new firmware update for the DJI Osmo Action 6 has landed, and yes, it unlocks 8K video recording at up to 30 frames per second. Two days before Christmas, and…

Lost Dog Found by Drone After 9 Days in New Jersey
DJI

Lost Dog Found by Drone After 9 Days in New Jersey

A frozen marsh, a missing dog, and a ticking snowstorm clock sound like the start of a bad winter story, but in New Jersey it ended with a quiet win for drones, thermal cameras, and one very relieved family. NBC New York bring us this story. Nine Days Lost in the Cold Samira Gross was…

Texas DPS Quietly Built a Border-Scale Drone Fleet
Skydio

Texas DPS Quietly Built a Border-Scale Drone Fleet

Texas once flirted with the idea of citizens shooting drones out of the sky. Now the state is operating one of the largest law enforcement drone fleets in the country, irony included at no extra charge. Under Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, the Texas Department of Public Safety has gone from zero drones to…

NOAA Trains Drones for Oil Spill First Response
Skydio

NOAA Trains Drones for Oil Spill First Response

Oil spills do not wait politely for paperwork, daylight, or perfect weather, they move fast, spread faster, and leave responders racing a very messy clock. To tilt that race in their favor, the National Ocean Service Office of Response and Restoration has teamed up with the U.S. Coast Guard to turn drones from classroom projects…

DJI Osmo FrameTap Appears in FCC Filing
DJI

DJI Osmo FrameTap Appears in FCC Filing

A quiet FCC filing has revealed a DJI product name that absolutely nobody had on their 2025 bingo card: Osmo FrameTap. The discovery came courtesy of a tweet by drone sleuth @Saracool_drone, who spotted a freshly registered DJI device hiding in plain sight inside the FCC database, dated December 17, 2025. Naturally, this sent me…

Border Patrol Bets on Tiny Drones for Big Sky Surveillance
Search & Rescue

Border Patrol Bets on Tiny Drones for Big Sky Surveillance

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is going small, very small, when it comes to drones. Instead of relying only on large, expensive aircraft, CBP is now deploying palm sized and backpack friendly drones to watch massive stretches of border terrain. Think less Predator drone, more “DJI Mini with a government ID badge.” These small unmanned…

Drone Pilot Uses Thermal Tech to Find Lost Wisconsin Pets
DJI

Drone Pilot Uses Thermal Tech to Find Lost Wisconsin Pets

Losing a pet rarely feels dramatic at first. A gate left open. A collar that slips. Then minutes turn into hours, hours into a quiet panic. In Wisconsin, one drone pilot decided that waiting was not an option, as KIMT3 reports. In Oconomowoc, Sky Guardian Rescue has turned advanced drone technology into a lifeline for…

DJI Firmware Roulette: One Controller, Two Drones, Zero Sanity
DJI

DJI Firmware Roulette: One Controller, Two Drones, Zero Sanity

Hello dear readers. It’s Rafael again, reporting from the front lines of daily drone flying, where batteries are always charging, SD cards are always full, and firmware updates are always waiting like unpaid parking tickets. As you know, I fly almost every single day. Not metaphorically. Literally. If a drone has propellers and DJI’s logo…

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8,400+
Articles published
340+
Beats & desks
2020
Covering drones since
100%
Independent