#86 – October 17, 2021

Hello!

I took the chance to leave the house specifically to take photographs for the blog (and for myself) today. Although I packed my DSLR (and camera phone), I only used the drone for the short time I was out. Thankfully for my peace of mind, including this image I’ve added eight photos to the infamous “Candidates” folder, ready to publish at a moments notice. 

This was my favourite from the day.

The serenity combined with the forward-facing viewpoint (most drone images are looking straight down). The singular focal point along with the expansive cloud cover makes for what is to me, a successful image. I also love that this is not the perspective or distance that we normally look at these water thingys.

The black and white treatment also removes the drab colour that was actually present and provides some feeling to the image. The appreciation of colour is such a subjective thing and the same colour photo can stir different emotions in different people based upon their own colour biases. It’s one of the biggest reasons behind my love of black and white photography. You don’t have to deal with colour bias, you just deal with the subject and mood of an image.

As I was selecting images for the blog I said to M “I’m spoilt by big sensors”. My four big-boy cameras are all “full-frame” meaning the physical size of the image capturing sensor is equal to the standard 35mm cameras of yesteryear. The bigger the sensor, the better the image quality. That’s why as much as I love the unique perspective that drone photography can offer, I’m just not in love with the image quality. I still love the images I can pull out of the drone or phone, but I’m not IN love with the images. I’ll hang around with them but I won’t be taking them home to meet my Mum (who reads this blog daily. Hi Mum!). If only I could strap the D850 and 16-35 mm lens (around 4 – 5 kg) to the 249-gram drone. That would work, right?

It’s amazing the confidence you build up with this technology though. Seriously, this little thing weighs only 249 grams and I’m sending it out in strong winds out over a large body of water. One signal failure, one downdraft and I’d be adding a replacement drone to the Christmas wish-list. The furthest I’ve had it away from me before freaking out and bringing it back was around 2km.

As tiny as it is, never attempt to land it on your hand in sports mode on a windy day. Take my word for it. Not a smart thing to do. Luckily I keep a box of band-aids in the car.

Another fun thing from today was the small flock of crows or ravens attacking the drone. Not quite sure what they were but I can confirm that they were not pleased with my drone entering their airspace. If I’d had the drone in video mode I’d have some great footage of a bird attacking the drone and then feathers flying to share. But bugger and tarnation, I was in photo mode. 

That’s it for now. Thanks for reading, I really appreciate your time and interest. Talk to you soon. Stay safe.

Richard

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