The other week, Milwaukee Uncut had Nate Vomhof, aka Drone Nate, on the podcast. While you may not be familiar with the name, chances are you’ve seen some of his incredible drone footage of Milwaukee. 

Nate’s story is unique because he didn’t aspire to be a drone videographer/photographer. In fact, he originally went to UWM to study engineering but only attended for a semester before changing course to study biochemistry at the university. After working at Walgreens for some time, he decided to become a pharmacist and enrolled in pharmacy school. During his last rotation in the program, he was placed on a Navajo Reservation down in Arizona where his love for photography would begin.

“I wanted to have a nice camera to take photos of the great American Southwest," he explained.

When he returned, he would continue taking pictures, capturing the city with his camera. In 2018, after photographing Milwaukee from the streets, he decided he wanted to shoot a new, aerial, perspective of the city. So, he bought a drone and took to the sky for a bird’s eye view.

Along the way, he would post his pictures on Instagram, slowly garnering a following. While it was never his intention to turn it into anything, before long he had people asking how they could purchase his pictures. 

“I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to sell a photo,” he said.  

Eventually, his passion would turn into a second source of income as companies were then asking to buy his photographs. As he would recall, it was a huge learning experience for him as he had no idea how much to price photos or videos for. 

Over the last couple years, Nate’s drone content of Milwaukee has really taken off and helped paint the city in a positive light. Several times a week he shares beautiful shots of Milwaukee with his 23,000-plus followers on Instagram, and he’s even met people who have moved to the city after following his account. It’s also brought opportunities he’s never expected, like the filming for "Top Chef" when they were in Milwaukee.

“They had me for 12 hours," he explained. "I had to do the craziest shot of my life ... ”

In this episode, we talk more about Nate’s experiences capturing the beautiful city we call home and some of his favorite parts about Milwaukee.

Dive into it on Apple, Spotify, or online.

Milwaukee Uncut is produced by Story Mark Studios, in partnership with OnMilwaukee and presented by Nicolet Law and Central Standard Distillery.