Daniel Gaines, 21, an Edgartown native, arrived home on the last boat on Friday, Feb. 28. I ran into him on Saturday with his mother, artist and photographer Debra Gaines, in the quiet cold of early evening, walking my dogs in Menemsha. I watched from a distance as Daniel put down, unzipped, and began unpacking a black case. I was not close enough to discern what was being unpacked, except it was clearly not fishing equipment. Daniel is home for one week from his studies at Clark University in Worcester, where he is a junior, majoring in philosophy and public policy, and plans on doing his master’s in conjunction with his senior year in public administration.
I watched as he finished putting together his commercial drone, having gotten his pilot’s license last semester. He tells me he “started doing more research into drones, how to fly them, and what people use them for commercially.” He has started work with the Massachusetts Pirates, a professional indoor football team based in Worcester, whose season is just getting started. He uses Final Cut Pro to do all his editing. Thankfully, all football games are played on Saturdays, and don’t conflict with classes. When he was looking for a video-editing position, Daniel found a number of openings with the Pirates.
“I’d been flying the drones for awhile, but wanted to find some sort of résumé-building work,” Daniel says. Though his position is unpaid, he is now shooting, or should I say “piloting,” footage weekly that is being used on the Pirates website, and will be used in projections during the games. In fact, Daniel and Debra are working together the whole week he’s home. Daniel tells me, “One of the areas I’m really interested in is drone policy with the FAA, responsible drone use.”
Just as the light fades from an unexpected perfect sunset, Debra pushes Daniel to mention the research he’s been involved in, and he says, “I’ve been working on organic pesticide for ticks, using dust.” When the paper is published, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, you can find some of his recent work on Vimeo by searching “Daniel Philip Gaines,” or contact him at daniel.philip.gaines@gmail.com.