Summer cruise 2019 - the Drone Shots

For someone that has been a serious photographer since the early 2000's, it took me a long time to finally get a drone. Over the years I did a little flying with friend's drones. I was waiting for one with big enough sensor that I wouldn't constantly be complaining about the image quality. 

Last year the DJI Mavic Pro 2 arrived, and I got the one with the Hassleblad branded camera. Amazing piece of technology. I flew it once at home, then packed it up on the boat. Jumping into the deep end! 

The two above are from the same spot, just different lighting and orientation. 

The range on the drone is just incredible. This was from about 1,200 feet high. That's the Toba Wilderness resort in the foreground. Just a beautiful place.  I bought the dedicated controller that has a super bright screen for use in sun. I have very good spatial awareness so the flying is straight forward for me. 

Same location from maybe 150 feet up. That's Sequel in the foreground, Nordhavn 52, and Mary Pearl further back, Nordhavn 43.

---

The challenging part is the landing. I alluded to this in the previous Bookend Part III post. The spot I'm using is the foredeck, ahead of where you see that orange patch. Even though I think I have the "safeties" turned off, the drone still senses the various areas of the boat and thinks it is too dangerous to land. I have to "force land" it. Hopefully I'll get more experience this Spring and this becomes easier. 

This is the same spot but from a distant perspective. Just a beautiful location that I named Paradise Cove.

I also did some video but wasn't pleased with very many of them.  I really need to wrap my head around perspectives and movements which will result in video that is fun to view. The drone has a "follow me" mode and we did this while running through Princess Louisa in the tender. But alas the tender just wasn't in focus. Argh!

Speaking of Princess Louisa, we had to wait outside the rapids for slack tide for a few hours, so I took the drone up. This is the sound, outside the rapids.

We were about a mile away at the point where I was flying, so I thought "what the heck, I'll fly over the rapids to take a look." Yeah, the current was running pretty strong.

The best images came out of our two nights in Von Donop Inlet. I took off early in the morning, with no idea that the clouds were reflecting in the water like this. That's Mary Pearl, one of our boating buddies.

And Mahalo all pretty in the morning sunlight.

Finishing up with my favorite. I was pretty blown away viewing on the controller, even more so once I got it onto my computer. Mahalo, queen of the clouds! 

Doing this post reminds me that I should spend some time sharpening my skills over the Winter and Spring. Hope you enjoyed.

Previous-Bookend III