This Girl's Selfies Will Make Your Selfie Stick Look Like Just A Stick

Oh, so THIS is what a personal drone is for!

Instagrammer Renee Lusano is taking selfies to the next level with three words: Personal Freakin' Drone.

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The Los Angeles-based graphic designer and illustrator told BuzzFeed Life that the idea came to her after crashing a toy helicopter she had bought.

"When I first saw a quadcopter (aka a 'drone'), it looked like it flew a lot better than those RC helicopters, and I wanted my hands on it. First I got it just because it was fun to fly, but once I started flying it with a camera, my life was complete."

"Aerial footage is cool, but there's only so many videos of rooftops or waves breaking on a beach that anyone cares to see."

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So Lusano decided to change it up. "By making a selfie video and then revealing that I'm in some epic place (out on the edge of a cliff or on top of a steaming volcano), the video is exponentially more interesting."

"Furby 4," a DJI Phantom 3 drone, has become a loyal companion in her travels. It makes your selfie stick look like the technology equivalent of a car phone.

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Lusano named her drone Furby because she wanted it to be named after a machine. And there have already been three Furbys before the current one, all of which have ascended to electronic heaven.

"The worst was last fall when I was flying off the Bixby Bridge in Big Sur, when the copter stopped responding and fell into the ocean," she said. "I learned the hard way that proper lithium battery care and storage is VERY serious business."

Aside from technical difficulties, she's had very few issues while flying.

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"When I travel, I check the local laws and use common sense and courtesy, and people are usually excited to see the drone and ask me a thousand questions about it," Lusano said.

Her biggest obstacles have been in the United States. "In San Francisco I had a kooky old guy at the skate park threaten to whack my drone out of the air with his skateboard. And I was threatened that I'd be arrested for trespassing by cops in L.A. for flying around Watts Towers."

So what kind of drone adventures can we look forward to in the future?

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"I can't do the top of the Eiffel Tower because flying a drone is illegal in France, but maybe from the top of one of the pyramids in Egypt," Lusano said. "Ooh, or flying from a hot air balloon at a hot air balloon festival!"

And maybe the next Mad Max movie?

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Check out more selfie travels on Renee's Instagram.

h/t Nasty Gal