On Sunday morning I woke up at 4:40am and could not get back to sleep so I decided to try and capture some drone footage of the Golden Hour at Alport Heights, Derbyshire. I set out at 5:30am and arrived just in time, it was 2C and there was frozen hail on the ground. Am I mad?, maybe but the footage was damn good at that time.
Crank up the sound and get it on a massive screen to appreciate the golden hour colours
Look at the lovely warm glow of the sun hitting the top of Alport Stone at 00:35
And that epic sunrise at 01:48 with long shadows
03:05 you can see how the sun is only on part of the stone.
03:39 the sun skimming the tops of the trees making them glow on the landscape, wow !
This is filmed with my trusty DJI Mini 2, no filters.
I used all three drone batteries up during my filming there so today I ordered three more batteries, they are ÂŁ69 each on Amazon but only ÂŁ50 each direct from DJI, so now I have 3 hours flight time !
Alport Stone
Alport Stone a pillar of quarried gritstone 6.1m high which is popular with climbers. In my video you can see that the stone has names carved into it, one from 1883 !
Note currently (April 2021) this site is only accessible by foot, the car park is blocked off with huge boulders.
The Golden hour
The golden hour is the period of daytime shortly after sunrise or before sunset, during which daylight is redder and softer than when the sun is higher in the sky. The golden hour is also sometimes called the “magic hour”.
My 360 degree Photographs
Here are some 360 degree Google Street view photographs I have taken here.
Just above Alport stone on Sunday : 360 photo above Alport Stone.
Great video. What do you use to edit? I am 1 week in to being a DJI Mini 2 owner and if I can get results anything like this I will bee very pleased indeed!
Thanks. I use Sony Vegas Pro 18, I have been using Vegas for about 10 years now, I did try DaVinci resolve but didnt get on with it as I know my way around Vegas. Ive only had my Mini2 3 months and not really had a lot of time at flying it due to lockdown, work and poor weather.
I have 11 DJI Mini 2 videos so far https://www.youtube.com/c/comedyhunter/videos
@comedyhunter Nice. Just 15mins from me. I’ll have to have a trip up sometime.
@BigPete Although I’m new to drones, I’ve been making relatively simple videos for several years. As massive skinflint I’m always looking for something for nothing.
Windows Movie Maker never hit the mark.
Blender was okay, but a funky UI meant I almost had to relearn it every new video I made.
HitFilm Express was easier but struggled with large video files.
For me, Davinci Resolve is a winner because while it has the capability to get really complex, it isn’t too hard to put together a quick edit. And you can’t beat the price.
Of course it all depends on your previous experience and aptitude.
I’m feeling a bit dumb right now. I thought I’d get a quick snap of the East Mill for the challenge. Unfortunately I lost signal and the drive decided to land. I was adjusting settings at the time. I only had my eyes off it for a couple of seconds, but in that time I lost sight of it. I heard it clatter but I can find no sign of it. Looks like it came down on a roof.
The thing is, if the flight data is correct, and I don’t have any reason to believe it is wildly wrong, because I heard the thing come down, then this is where it landed…
So there’s no way it shouldn’t be in the street. Unfortunately I was so confused about what had just happened I spent a couple of minutes across the street looking for it. I’m beginning to think that in that time, someone has possibly come across it and made off with it.
oh god what a place to land, its not like you can even get up there looks like a way up.
That looks like the old charnos factory bit, so guess thats empty?
Honestly, I don’t know. It’s hugely annoying that it’s so close to where I was; it might be slightly more bearable if it was properly distant and had come down unexpectedly.
As it stands, I’m probably going to have to write it off. I mean, I could post on Facebook on the off-chance someone did pick it up while I was looking elsewhere but it’s a bit of a long shot.
I’ve had the thing for one day under 5 weeks, with a total of 2h 9m flight time, and while I was constantly aware that things could go awry very expensively, I didn’t expect it to be on a 2 minute, straight up and down flight. I’m going to have to think very hard about whether I replace it.
Sorry for totally hijacking your video thread, by the way.
Many thanks! Will check it out (if I can free enough space on my Mac … and it works with Mac too!)
Just need to take the next step of allowing my Mini 2 to go as high as allowed and take fantastic footage like you guys go.
