A few weeks in, my thoughts "learning" so far

General Drone Discussion
1

I can’t even remember when bought my drone now but I know it was the start of November. I have learnt a lot in that time and wanted to summarize a few points below to see what others thought.

  1. Its hard. I didn’t think it would be easy but flying smoothly, accurately and safely are all harder than I thought. Quite often doing them all together is even harder. I have flown almost every day and I am now feeling fairly competent around most aspects, however as I am becoming more adventurous I am entering more hazard rich environments and maneuvering in more challenging ways. This has led to me coming away with footage I deem no good, and therefore I abandon and revisit, and so it goes on. But that’s all part of the fun of the learning curve I guess.

  2. Its misunderstood. There seems to be a stigma attached to drone flying of negativity. A few posts on this forum have alluded to that in recent weeks, but I have also taken some videos of local landmarks and emailed them to share a link - had no response from any and I feel like I am seen as a pest. I may not be, but that is my underlying instinct. I am also wary of flying in view of others. I am not in the least fussed by confrontation, but I just don’t trust people.

  3. Its underrated. Some of the angles, footage and scenery you can get is amazing and with very little effort. But it seems like people in general aren’t that “fussed” by the effort unless you are a fellow enthusiast. I have loved putting together some simple videos and I purposefully set myself difficult tasks to improve, but those I don’t think those that I share my work with really understand the time and effort involved. And like the post on here recently - (stunning drone was it?) that was such a huge effort of collation and editing - but where is it really going to go apart from this forum? It is high quality media such as this that I feel should be recognized more widely, and followed by more. Unless of course I have got this wrong and you have thousands of subs. But I see lots of great videos being posted and it just seems like they don’t get the credit they deserve.

I look forward to next year as I am going to get a chance to produce lots of videos as the seasons change and I have some ideas of what I want to capture. I am uploading my final video of 2024 currently which I will post later in the video section - it is my new “playground” of detail where I am going to return to continually and practice, and obtain different shots and angles. Luckily it is on my doorstep and it is the one place that I went to and failed at. I have had to return a few times just to manage put together a simple montage, however it was 45mph winds so I have had to make the best of slightly flawed footage. I will be returning in Spring when calm and making a longer and more intricate video with my ideas.

Thanks for all the advice so far and have a great xmas!

11 Likes
2

Go slower, don’t fly faster than you can think (this is dead slow in my case). The drone is intelligent, work with it and take it’s advice. I prefer to think of it as ‘not easy and needs concentration’ rather than ‘hard’, but it’s definitely fun!

I’m lucky, been flying since May and haven’t encountered any negativity or hostility except in the media, which can be ignored. Ken & Karen are out there right enough, but they’ve left me alone so far touch wood. Encounters with the great unwashed have been positive, interest in the drone and questions, amazement at the on-screen images, and ‘wave at Mr.Drone’, which I don’t mind at all! Although I don’t have a car, I’m lucky in that Cardiff has plenty of open parkland and the Bay Barrage, all easily reached by bus with my WAG bus pass. As my skill level increases, the number of viable sites increases as well.

I’ve had 2 encounters with security, both positive, one was simply curious and the other guy was from an xmas funfair to ask me not to overfly because the boss was worried about the rides hitting the drone (some of them went up quite high). He was happy when I showed him that I was flying up to the boundary and no further (could get all the shots I wanted from there) and didn’t want to overfly crowds.

A little while later he brought a lady security over who I got the impression was his gf, to show her, and they went away talking about getting drones of their own.

Very much so. I am still in awe of the technology that can hold a camera platform as steady as that 400’ up and half a mile away. It is a new sort of photography to me, though, and the bottom of another learning curve. I’m in awe of RTH as well.

Like you, I’m looking forward to new adventures next year, especially the summer months when I can put some of what I’m learning into practice. I’m starting to see the benefit of practice flights, and Newyear’s resolution is to fly more,

Have a great xmas, mate, and happy landings!

5 Likes
3

Hear hear

1 Like
4

You are both welcome, if stuck for a subject, to join in with the RTF (Reason To Fly) competition each fortnight.

The Challenges Committee can be right %%&*s when it comes to something like the annual Birthday Challenge and Treasure Hunt but the other challenges they run are relaxed and depend very much on input from the club members.

RTF has a subject, picked by members vote from three picked at random from the pool of member suggested subjects. Pictures illustrating the theme are posted and the members vote for the best. Sometimes the weather defeats us but as the days lengthen you’ll have a better chance of finding good flying conditions.

Check out the Challenges category to see more. And, if you go to Groups you can join the Challenges group to get notifications of forthcoming events .

2 Likes
5

Thanks. Macspite; I was wondering what all that was about!

1 Like
6

I take a week to edit my 5 min or so vids. They are my hobby, so not fussed if they do well, or not. Post them on YouTube and on here, and eventually they will get viewed.

I started 3 yrs ago, with no expections, and each year I get more views. Have fun is the main thing. :hugs::hugs::partying_face::partying_face:

2 Likes
7

It doesn’t matter where it goes, of course we want to see more on here though. I take my stuff for me. It gets me outside in the fresh air, clears my mind and gives me something to concentrate on. I take dozens of photos everyday, 99.99% don’t get shown to anyone. Do it for you or it takes the enjoyment out.

4 Likes
8

??

9

Think he means you and the other poster who want to fly more

10

Of course most of our members post their videos on YouTube. The most prolific YouTuber on here is Suzanne @AlbionDrones . Her videos have made it onto television too. Not only is she a brilliant video maker, but also a craftswoman. :wink::wink:
Many members have had their photos published in various newspapers as well. :wink:

1 Like
11

John, you are too kind, but thank you for those wonderful words, both about my videos and my crafting - I have a bit of adhd/asd so multiple hobbies that I can swap between is my normal…

I didn’t think I was all that prolific, only about 150 videos a year, and only 4 of them have made it onto ‘Ode to Joy’ on Alan Titchmarsh’s show…

For me I fly and make the video’s for myself, I make what I would like to watch, and then share it on YT, 3 forums that I frequent - this being the best of them of course - and on FB and in a few drone group on FB… I also share to a couple of YT Drone show channels, who feature my work once a month or so…

But, its about the flying and creativity for me, not about the accolades or the nice comments and likes - although they are always welcome and help to boost my somewhat low self-esteem nd give me confidence that I am doing something right…

I would love to earn some income from YT, and make the hobby more sustainable, but its unlikely as everyone with a drone is trying to do the same…

2 Likes
12

I had a look at your videos Albiondrones and liked them - what stood out was the simplicity of simple manouevres and not going down a path that I seem to be heading down, where I want to do an entire series of movements and coverage all in one take. I have no idea why I am doing this other than like you I am adhd and in all my hobbies I go straight to “difficult” and repeat over and over until I get it right. I also like to do everything fully manually. That way, once mastered it is mastered the correct way with no shortcuts. I will take that simplicity away and try and put it into practice next year when uploading. I needn’t try and make it so complex for myself.

I agree with your last sentence and have been saying it for years - everyone is a photographer, everyone is a video editor and now everyone is a drone pilot. I have already worked out that to stand out you need to do something out of the ordinary, film something out of the ordinary or cover a topic that will be looked up by many going forward. I like you post and upload for pleasure, although my last video covers a site of public interest and I will be interested to see whether people searching for the site alone will increase traffic. But either way I am not fussed by traffic - I used to post online drumming videos just under a decade ago and covered complex songs that others had not done before, some of my videos were approaching 10k views before I parked that up as a hobby in 2017. I removed the vids a few weeks ago. I never got anything for them, it was all just for fun.

1 Like
13

Thanks Jay, glad they were enjoyed…

Deceptively simple I would say, my moves are usually in 3 axis, sideways move with a yawing added in the opposite direction and either a gimbal move or a height change, which makes it more interesting… Fly as complex as you like, then edit it in a way you like… Also set your controller up to feather every movement, this slos the move as it comes to an end, making the transition smoother…

Lol, straight to difficult, yup, me to a T, I am not happy unless I am at expert level with everything I do - blacksmithing, leatherworking, drone flying, wood-turning, everything has to be done to the very best possible level I ca manage - there is no such thing as ‘it will do!’

I shall look forwards to seeing how your video’s progress…

14

After years of moderately successful landscape photograhy, I’m back to the bottom of the learning curve with aerial videography, and enjoying it, but like you both, I want to be perfect at it and get angsty when I’m not…

To a degree, success is related to prior preparation. I’ve found that it helps if I can envisage the shot beforehand, including the angle, where the light is coming from and where the shade will be, how long the shadows are, the time of day I’m likely to be there, and the weather, so planning and preparation.

Timing and weather can be predicted reasonably well, but for the rest I can only recommend ‘The Photographers’ Ephemeris’, an app I have downloaded on my iPhone but assume is available on other platforms as well. This will show you the bearing and elevation angle of the sun or moon from any given location at any time or date.

For example, I’m planning on flying Nell’s Point at Barry Island on Saturday, when a high tide coincides with a sunset. Nell’s is up at the eastern end of Whitmore Bay, away from the Rhoose Airport FRZ. TPE has shown me that the sun will be going down at 16.12 over the Exmoor skyline, and if I position myself at the beach huts, just at the start of the path around the headland and the end of the promenade, it will be directly in line with the end of Friar’s Point at the other end of the bay. That’s taken all the guesswork out of the planned shot, which is intended to be the highlight of the outing! Now, so long as the forecast holds…

In my general opinion rather than a hard & fast rule, I’ve found that drone framing should include an element of sky to make the image ‘pop’, ideally the top third of the frame and not overexposed. This gives the image scale and depth, particularly if the weather is a little dull and you can’t rely on shadows to perk things up a bit. If you have angled the lens downwards and there is no sky, then some moving feature is needed to hold the viewer’s interest, even if it’s only traffic on a road. The vertical downward from directly or nearly overhead shot really needs low-angled sunlight and strong light/shade to make it successful, all the better if you can show some repeating patterns in the shadows. Use the screen grid and the ‘rule of thirds’ to help with compostion, and think about the background as much as the subject to avoid the trap of the subject being difficult to isolate against a busy background. You can use DOF/‘bokeh’ to achieve this as well, but with moving images the result might be blurry or grainy.

With all that advice, you’ll be wanting to see my own masterpieces, but very few meet my own standards. I’m improving, though, as my flying skills get better and detract from the imagery less. Sooner or later I will get to grips with uploading video here and/or to YouTube, and you might be able to see the results.

1 Like
15

Just go out and shoot, simples

5 Likes
16

Totally agree, i certainly wouldn’t get bogged down in what needs moving objects or low sunlight. To me the objective is to film anything, and present it in a way that is interesting enough for a viewer to appreciate it. Interest can be gained by movements, speed, angles and my personal favourite, audio overlay later.

2 Likes
17

You certainly inspired me and provided me with quite a few wonderful places to fly when I was in the UK, so “thank you”. Your videos are amazing. Cheers / Ian

1 Like
18

Thanks, Ian, I appreciate the compliments hon, glad I was able to help with some ideas of places to fly, and really happy to hear that my videos are so appreciated :slight_smile: