TUPPER LAKE – Mitch Harriman of Tupper Lake has taken his passion for photography to the skies.

The high school senior invests a lot of income in his hobby: purchasing a camera, lenses, photo-editing software and now, a high-tech drone to reach angles of the Adirondacks that most photographers only dream of.

Harriman set his Phantom 3 drone, a small but heavy white rig topped with four propellers, on the grass at Tupper Lake’s Municipal Park. He then mounted his smartphone to the drone’s controller and opened an app to display a live feed of video from the drone’s perspective. The aircraft buzzed like a swarm of bees as it began to hover in front of him, and within minutes, it was soaring hundreds of feet above the Rite Aid across Demars Boulevard.

The drone is a white speck in the sky from this distance, hardly discernible from seagulls that fly about a hundred feet below it.

A 12-megapixel camera on the drone displayed a dramatic sweeping view of the town and its surrounding wilderness. The camera is mounted to a gyroscope to keep the view steady for filming and photography from the windy heights of an eagle’s perspective.

Harriman zips the drone back and forth at speeds of up to 34 mph. GPS detection in the drone keeps the device from straying too far away, and it flies the drone back to Harriman when it detects a low battery.

“I’m always going for different shots and angles, and I’ve always loved aerial views, so I figured why not buy one of these?” Harriman said. “I’ve gotten used to it pretty quick. I think a childhood of playing video games helped with that.”

Harriman has used the drone to capture images of the Raquette River Oxbow, sunsets over the Seward mountain range and panning videos of Tupper Lake from hundreds of feet up. He hopes to soon launch the device from peaks of nearby mountains and around Keene Valley to increase his collection of photographs.

Unmanned drones have popularized in the United States with advancements in technology and increased availability of commercial models. NPD, a retail tracking service, reported in April that within the last 12 months, drone sales approached $200 million, a 224 percent yearly increase.

Any owner of a drone that weighs between .55 and 55 pounds must register the device with the Federal Aviation Administration before taking flight outdoors. After the federal registration database went live this January, the FAA reported almost 300,000 registered drone users in the U.S. in just a month’s time.

Drone owners as young as Harriman are rare. About 90 percent of drone buyers are 32 years old or older, according to a report from Skylogic Research.

Not all local pilots of these remote-controlled aircraft are doing it just for fun. Drones have provided towns with a way to market themselves using compelling video and photos. The Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism has incorporated drones into several projects, including filming the start of the most recent Black Fly Challenge bike race in Inlet. A drone is also expected to be hovering above this year’s Warrior Run in Tupper Lake, capturing live video of contestants as they conquer muddy obstacles.

Harriman turned the heads of curious onlookers as he lowered his drone from the skies and grasped it from the air in front of him. A log of photographs and video from the flight are now stored on his phone for future viewing.

More of Harriman’s photography and videos can be found on his account on the Instagram smartphone app: @mitchharrimanphotography.