I have a Drone !

I have been thinking about getting a drone/quad copter for about 6 months, DJI the main company making these machines announced a new smaller foldable design called Mavic Pro last year , after pre ordering one it became apparent that supply/delivery was going to take quite a while, with numerous delays from the factory.  After about 6 weeks the company announced another drone, the  Phantom 4 pro  , which has the renowned 1 " Sony exmor sensor. adjustable apperture, shutterspeed and iso .   hearing this i immediately cancelled my Mavic order and pre ordered this one , after all image quality is more important than portability!
Eventually i received my P4p the second week of January this year, after a long wait and hearing all sorts of problems with the new drone i hoped that all these problems would have been fixed in firmware updates.

Setting it up was done in no time, new updates installed easily and now i just had to go and test it out in beginner mode at first :)              There is a field nearby next to a golf course where i can safely make its first flight ,   i have been practising with a small cyma xc5 so it should not be too difficult .

                                               My first drone image , WOW   impressed already .

 After a short test taking a few images and short video clips i have gone home , re charged the battery ( need to be careful not to go below 50% for the first 4 or 5 re charges to prolong battery life)  i have taken off directly above the garden to take a topdown shot .

A few days later i took the drone down to New Brighton to try out on the beach over the groynes

     Looks pretty good from above . i have been shooting at f5.6 which appears to be the sharpest apperture on this 28 mm lens

My next trip out was to Talacre beach for a quick try in a wide open space ,   i now have a second battery so will have about 46 minutes flying time now , approx 23 on each battery.     Its quite breezy but not a problem , but it started spitting with rain so only managed a twenty minute flight.

One of my favourite images taken so far ,  topdown over the lighthouse with the Terrible Twosome running into the water .

              Newborough Beach on Anglesey  next stop on the Drone tour ,     a fabulous location.

A video test on Moreton shore came next , i have not a clue about video but i shot this at 60fps so i could do a couple of slow motion clips in the finished film.

 Finally a view of Colwyn Bay pier just before the end was destroyed by a storm a few days later.
yes i took of from the beach straight over the sea !

                                                       and Parys Mountain on Anglesey

 That is a selection of practise shots of my first 6 weeks of flying the Drone ,  its has amazed me how different everything looks from high up and how easily you can get good compositions 

all these have been shot at less than 200 ft ,  the maximum allowed in uk is 400ft for safety reasons obviously .

Next stop a Snowdonia shoot with the Drone in the mountains.

The Best Wrong Mountain climb ever Dec 2nd 2012 pt1

Well it was the day of another Twitteratti walk, i drove up to the lakes to meet friends for a walk around the Coledale Horseshoe, or at least i thought we were! 

 driving along the a66 towards Keswick the view of Blencathra came into view, snow capped and lit up in early morning sun , as i stopped to take an image a flock of seagulls appeared and what a super image it made :D     view large  HERE

 we all met in the car park in Braithwaite near to Keswick early on sunday morning. Gina had sent us all an e mail with the route ,including which path to take out of the car park.   so we all knew roughly where we where going:)
so after a group photo

 what did we all do?    yes you guessed it, took the wrong path out of car park  lol   instead of the small path behind the cars we started walking along the very good wide flat track down the valley!  Ooops
but we didnt realise this fact for another half hour!

walking along the path, chatting and taking some images of the snow capped mountains of Skiddaw behind us , i mention to Jimmy pointing up at Grisedale pike and said " arnt we supposed to be up there? "  he said the others know which route we are taking.

                                                       looking behind us to Skiddaw

i have just taken this image above and having caught up with Tanya ,she has informed me we have gone the wrong way!   Ooops,  Dave did suggest we climb straight up the fell side, but one look and everyone said  No way   haha    it appears everyone followed each other even though a few had already walked this route.   pity Ray wasnt with us , he would have known, and in reply to a txt someone sent him, his reply was " you didnt make that mistake did you? "     Doh

we are carrying on walking down the low valley track alongside the coledale beck  towards the Force Crag mine workings

coming to this stream we found the very smooth wet stepping stones very slippery and it was quite difficult to get across safely without falling in , Sian actually tumbled twice but was unscathed fortunatly, it would be so easy to twist an ankle or worse!

the path is at last taking us upwards , i stop briefly to shoot this image of the sun lighting up a pool of water, the oily surface reflecting the snow capped mountains and tinging the colour

                              and a panorama looking behind us towards Skiddaw again.

looking back towards our intended summit , Grisedale Pike. it soon became clear we were NOT going to climb it!    after a quick discussion it was decided to head towards Grasmoor which appears to be covered in snow  yay :)

gaining height rapidy we have now just past Coledale Hause and here is the view!   what a sight to behold, snow and blue sky ,what an amazing view.

walking along towards Grasmoor the snow is getting deeper and deeper, the surface frozen into a crust which is making walking far easier than soft powdery snow. 
                     Grisedale Pike with a slight covering of snow with Skiddaw in the distance.

                       here are the two"Glam walkers"  Tanya and Gina with Grasmoor behind.
                             please take a look at Tanyas blog HERE  & Ginas blog HERE

                       now loads of snowy shots as we make our way up to the base of Grasmoor :)

          i love how the snow folds across the landscape with the light catching all the bumps :D

      Time for a group shot, at the base of the climb up to Grasmoor summit , i got my silhouette in too

The amazing day will continue in part two , a tale of sledging i-phones,dangerous edge walk and views to die for  :D   which could have happened!

Autumn Reflections on Thirlmere 2012

After coming down off Helvelyn i decided to drive around the back road to see the amazing reflections in Thirlmere, it is looking the best i have ever seen it after allot of work felling trees around the lake opening up the views :)

     i just have to take this shot from near the bottom of the Helvelyn Gill path , glorious view :)

Driving towards the dam end of the lake i firstly i stop to take this image looking towards Raven crag with the colours looking great!

after crossing the dam i park up to shoot a series of images , the colours are spectacular this year,  a bad wet summer does have its benefits  haha          nothing to say ,just let the images tell the story.

 

               the end of another superb day in Cumbria . doesn't get much better than this :)

Helvelyn,Nethermost pike and Dollywaggon 0ct 21 2012

Another day in the mountains, i set off for the lakes with no real idea where to climb, but Helvelyn always seems to appeal to me.  so i decided as it was looking a sunny day for a change and the possible chance of a cloud inversion i decided Helvelyn was to place to go. driving through Windermere and through Rydal & Grasmere it was thick fog, a cloud inversion was a good possibility.  i parked at the swirls car park at Thirlmere and started climbing up the Gill path.

                  early morning mistiness with sun just hitting Blencathra in the distance.

                            climbing higher and looking back down the mist is building :)

       using 300mm lens to show the dramatic mini cloud inversion building over st johns in the vale.

         the full view :)  amazing standing here watching it building and flowing into/over thirlmere!

i am seeing some very atmospheric conditions , taking loads of images as i climb steadily upwards:)
zooming in on Thirlmere , the colours are starting to look good.

as i climb to the top of the crags i get my first view towards the Coniston fells, unfortunately no cloud inversion but the low mist looks wonderful.

 

 a "sun dog"  Yay!   rainbow in sunlight :)

                                                   a wonderful panorama, view LARGE

       Looking down Swirral edge with a superb looking sky:)   a great day to be up in the mountains.

      i cant believe there are no other people up here yet on a beautiful day like this! i guess it will be packed up here later :)     the summit cairn on Helvelyn.

                 
                              looking the opposite direction towards langdales and coniston fells.                                                                       view LARGE

 heading across to the summit ,a view of Red tarn from Helvelyn with Swirral edge on the left, Striding edge just visible over to the right.

       i am at the summit, only 2 other people here and two just coming up swirral edge onto the top,             Looking towards Nethermost pike and Dollywagon ,on the left.   my next destinations :)

 i have made my way across to Nethermost pike, i think this is the summit but not too sure  lol
but who cares, its wonderful up here today :D

                                                         Dollywagon ahead, i think  lol

                                    i am on the tongue now on Dollywagon summit What a view!

           looking back towards Nethermost pike top right corner. sitting in the warm sun eating lunch

                               i can just make out Windermere  through the mist :)

                Looking back towards Nethermost pike and Helvelyn where i have just walked from :)

  i have started walking back towards Helvelyn now , using 300mm lens to show Harrop Tarn across  Thirlmere.

                                           stunning views today and great big skies :D

 Thirlmere in view now, what a day it has been up here.  i will take a drive round Thirlmere later to shoot some of the autumn colours :)

                               The autumn colours are looking fabulous now in the sun

                that is the end of a great mornings climb , of to drive around Thirlmere now :)