Jacaranda

By way of explaining a long absence of blogging I'll only say that sometimes life (and work) get in the way of our being able to do the things that bring us the most joy. But over the last few weeks as I've made Friday drives up to Waimea Airport to check on the weather equipment I couldn't help but be reminded that this is my favorite time of year here. It's that short window of time when the Jacaranda, Silver Oak, and Ohia trees all blossom at the same time. So I've been waiting for a day when a trifecta of conditions come together: 1) It has to be a calm day... not too windy; 2) The weather has to be clear and the lighting good (end of day being best); and, 3) I have to have a set up drone with me and time to fly. All of that came together this past week and here is the result.

Enjoy!

Alex & Beatriz - South Point, Hawaii

A random encounter. New friends made. And a fun little video made from a brief moment within an incredible weekend of travelling my beautiful island.

For the full (if not more complete) story of how this came about be sure to read the Description under the YouTube video.

Enjoy!

Olivia

"Olivia"... the hurricane, er, tropical storm, er... event that never really was this past week... at least not here in sheltered Kona. Regardless, we have had a full summer of hurricane scares, warnings, preparations, close calls, earthquakes, eruptions, wildfires, and overall angst out here it seems. It's been an interesting summer on the Big Island.

So, Olivia, and to all your friends and named events... Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoy!

Kuainiho

Found perfect sunset light on my second day out with the new Mavic 2 Pro and flew over a favorite pu'u. I'll continue to struggle with only having a single battery and no neutral density (ND) filters for a while, but the batteries will come soon and I've made inquiries with Polar Pro about a custom set (ND4 thru ND64) of filters. So by late October or so all the gear should be here and we'll be into this new rig thru a couple of software and firmware updates. Things on the settings side should settle in by then too and quality improve from here.

... Which is awesome because it's all starting at a pretty high bar I'd say! The dynamic range on this new camera is amazing.

Enjoy!

Grasslands

I need a lot more stick time with the DJI Inspire 1 but finally got some this week during a period of really nice weather and a work holiday. So my subject was largely the contrast between what the area out toward Waimea looks like between normal pasture conditions and the occasional wildfire. I considered combining footage using both drones, the Inspire and my Mavic Pro, but in the end decided to keep the color and look consistent and just used material captured with the Inspire. In the end I think this turned out better.

Enjoy!

Vocanic Time Lapse

This set of time lapse videos is extremely well done. It pains me that this event is so close to where I live and yet because of the location I'm unable to capture any of it. I would certainly be doing time lapse imagery if I could get in there however.

Enjoy!

sUAS Rescue

The other day, the local USGS folks, with help from the Department of Interior Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Kīlauea response team, was monitoring the eruption activity in the Leilani Estates Subdivision area when they got wind of someone "trapped" in the inundation zone. Let's set aside for a bit asking why someone would remain in their home when a lava flow is bearing down on them and concentrate instead on how some pure scientists and tech geekheads helped save a life. This is pretty remarkable stuff.

First, watch the video here: USGS UAS mission helps with a successful rescue on May 27

Then have a look at where it all went down in context:

All I can say is, Wow. Just. Wow.