There are as many reasons why we use drones as there are people that fly drones. My reason was to get a different perspective on my photography.
Surfers on Bideford Beach (god mode)
Bideford 12th July 2022
In gaming you would call it god mode i.e. an overhead or birds eye view of the terrain or subject. I had a few shots that I wanted to get and the only way to get those shots was by using a drone.
Below you can see the various rock formations around Bideford beach in Devon which is of interest to me geologically.
This part of england contains some of the oldest rock on earth from the Lower Devonian period between 395 and 310 million years old.
Bideford Beach Wide Angle View
Bideford 12th July 2022
Bideford Bay, United Kingdom
I started publishing drone photos and videos on the 18th Mar 2017 after taking a hot air balloon flight over the Cambridgeshire Fenlands.
Balloon Flight View
It opened my eyes to what we can see from the sky and got me interested in what I could see if I had control of the camera using a drone.
There isn't much control from a balloon as it is being blown by the wind.
Below is one of my very first videos using a drone.
It was actually a cheap Skywarrior quadcopter that I had bought to see if I could get the kind of shots I was after using a drone of this type.
It had a HD camera and was cheap enough that if I lost or crashed it, I wouldn't lose that much money. It was a proof of concept and it worked fine.
The skywarrior was not a great platform. It was hard to control and unstable but it did prove that I could get better ariel photos and videos.
Skywarrior Quadcopter
Seeing the admittedly shaky results from the Skywarrior. It did get me hooked on the concept of aerial photography and how it could be used in the areas that I am interested in. Namely geology and investigating landscapes for evidence of human habitation and activity from the past.
I bought a DJI Mini SE and it is brilliant for what I want to film. I have flimed a few Roman settlements in the last year or two at Vindolanda, Hadrians Wall and Homesteads Roman Fort in the North of England that I will edit into a video at some point.
Drone photography itself is a very niche topic and filming ancient ruins and geology is even more niche but it fascinates me that simply by using a drone we can pull up from the eye level scene to reveal amazing structures that we just cannot see at ground level.
Luckily we have a great community here on the hive blockchain that will grow over time as we grow with it.
Whatever you use your drone for. Have fun and share your ideas with us.
Interesting to see that early flight on the Sky Warrior. I have to admit, I started with the much easier DJI Mavic. I think this is what holds some people back is the difficulty flying some of the "manual" drones which are closer to the early RC helicopter days (but not quite that hard). Definitely recommend the easy to fly auto-hover drones like DJI and Autel, etc. for photographers that are wanting to use mainly for photos, rather than raw RC enthusiasts or FPV racers. These more advanced drones are so much simpler to fly when out in the open, you just release your thumbsticks and they hover, push the sticks to move in the direction you want, let go to stop. Looking forward to seeing your shots with the new one!
Yep I totally agree that the DJI drones are a great leap forward in terms of ease of use.
I bought my DJI mini SE in February 2022 and it's a breeze to fly and work with.
It's exactly what I needed to get the photos and videos I wanted. Super stable platform.
I'm working on a video about landscapes and flying over lakes and losing VLOS. It turned out to be pretty dramatic. 🤦♂️😂
The free hover function literally saved the day and luckily I got the footage from both the drone and a land based camera. It's going to be a bit of a challenge to edit but hopefully I can get my head around it.
It's educational but also like a little movie if I get the edit right. 🎬🎥😂👍🏼
Will be watching for that one!
Don't hold your breath. I'm gradually working my way back to getting stuff done. 😂👍🏼
It's on the list at least. 🤦♂️
Hi @molometer, Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content. For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am
Thank you for your support much appreciated. I've been finding more UK based people lately.
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
Thanks for letting me know. It's been such a while since I used Pinmapple that I just about forgot how to use it? I'm glad it worked but need to update my skills in this. I'm trying to remember the markdown code for hiding the link?
Just leave a spare line before and after the code to hide it from the post 😉
Excellent advice and thank you. I've updated the post and it worked perfectly 💯👍🏼
Some of your images do not show, but I saw the video. I have resisted getting one as I'm not sure I'd use it much, but the technology is cool. I have seen some used at events, but the legal issues are limiting. I expect a lot of aerial shots in TV shows use them instead of helicopters now as the cost difference must be massive. Drone pilot is an actual job now.
Hope to see more from yours soon.
!PIZZA
Hi Steve, good to be back doing something at least lol
Which photos? They seem ok on my android and laptop? I was editing trying to get rid of the Pinmapple code but I've forgotten the markdown to use? 🤣
It is a minefield trying to fly a drone in the UK but it can be done with the right approach. i.e. get a pilot licence by training and get CAA clearance and insurance all of which I've done. It's not difficult but best to do it rather than not and get into all sorts of legal trouble.
Yep it has created a whole new set of industries. From power cable pylon inspections to roof inspections. It can be done in minutes what used to take hours.
Helicopters in film is virtually a thing of the past. Way to costly compared to a drone.
Thanks for the !PIZZA
I get this in peakd. Similar in ecency. It can mess up sometimes.
🤦♂️Well thanks for letting me know. I just checked it on peakd and it isn't showing the photos?
It's ok on ecency? I wonder what is happening? I'll investigate lol
I've checked it again on peakd and the images are now visible.
It seems like peakd hadn't pick up the image url and just added an image placeholder?
It's working now and thanks again for letting me know. Much appreciated 📷👍🏼
@molometer, sorry! You need more to stake more $PIZZA to use this command.
The minimum requirement is 20.0 PIZZA staked.
More $PIZZA is available from Hive-Engine or Tribaldex
Okay will do 👍🏼🤦♂️
Yay! 🤗
Your content has been boosted with Ecency Points
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more, by @molometer.
Thank you @ecency good to be back.
Thank you @qurator and @ackhoo for your support and kind comment. Much appreciated 👍🏼
Imagine the outcome of coupling your interests with photogrammetry software! I hope to see Hadrians Wall at some point, it's on my ever growing list of locations.
Yep I've been looking into the photogrammetry software that I could use. It's pretty amazing to see the world from these new perspectives.
I know that the Mini 3 is capable of photogrammetry but not the Mini SE at the moment. As soon as it's available on my drone I will use it.
Hadrians wall is amazing. You can see how they lived there 2000 years ago.
The 'Romans' who built the wall and lived by it were from all over Europe and Africa. Incredible landscape and history.
PIZZA Holders sent $PIZZA tips in this post's comments:
(5/5) @steevc tipped @molometer (x1)
You can now send $PIZZA tips in Discord via tip.cc!
Wow the text to speech option is brilliant considering that it is a beta. Very impressive whoever made it? 💯👍🏼
Congratulations @molometer! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
<table><tr><td><img src="https://images.hive.blog/60x70/http://hivebuzz.me/@molometer/comments.png?202303190121" /><td>You made more than 9000 comments.<br />Your next target is to reach 9500 comments. <p dir="auto"><sub><em>You can view your badges on <a href="https://hivebuzz.me/@molometer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="This link will take you away from hive.blog" class="external_link">your board and compare yourself to others in the <a href="https://hivebuzz.me/ranking" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="This link will take you away from hive.blog" class="external_link">Ranking<br /> <sub><em>If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word <code>STOP <p dir="auto"><strong>Check out our last posts: <table><tr><td><a href="/hive-139531/@hivebuzz/proposal-2324"><img src="https://images.hive.blog/64x128/https://i.imgur.com/RNIZ1N6.png" /><td><a href="/hive-139531/@hivebuzz/proposal-2324">The Hive Gamification Proposal <h6>Support the HiveBuzz project. <a href="https://hivesigner.com/sign/update_proposal_votes?proposal_ids=%5B%22248%22%5D&approve=true" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="This link will take you away from hive.blog" class="external_link">Vote for <a href="https://peakd.com/me/proposals/248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" title="This link will take you away from hive.blog" class="external_link">our proposal!