A Benedictine monk who works at a private Rhode Island school has discovered that finding solitude is no easy feat, even 175 feet in the air.
Brother Joseph Byron was recently relaxing atop the Portsmouth Abbey School's wind turbine — as he often does — when a drone zoomed in.
Video taken by the drone shows Byron sprawled across the turbine's flat surface, with views of Narragansett Bay in the background. The footage was posted online this week.
Byron said Friday that alumni he hadn't heard from in years are contacting him after seeing the video.
He says he found the drone interesting at first but was annoyed after it zoomed by a second time.
Byron says he climbs the turbine, which was installed in 2006, because he enjoys the view.
The pictures were taken by Kevin Miller, from San Diego, California, while he was on holiday in Rhode Island on the other side of the country earlier this month.
Kevin, 49, who was watching the live images on a monitor screen, 'waved' back to Byron by moving the drone from side-to-side.
The videographer and producer said he had noticed the maintenance door at the bottom of the turbine was open, but 'thought nothing of it' and decided to send his drone up to record some footage.
Byron seems completely relaxed as he perches up in the air, with no protective railings to prevent him from falling off.
Kevin said: 'My girlfriend and I were vacationing. I thought this was my chance to get up close to capture what is usually tough to access. So I decided to drive up to get a super close video while it was not in operation.
'When I reached the bottom, I noticed that the maintenance door was open and thought someone was up inside doing repairs.
'The guy must have been napping because he did not notice the drone for 5-10 seconds, but once he heard it he sat up to take a look.
'At that point I decided to take a closer look by moving closer to say "hi". Once I got closer I moved the drone side to side to say hello and he motioned back to the drone. It was a cool interaction between us.