It's really hard to *not* find a way to get my Mavic up in the air when the winds are calm and the sky is clear, so when a day starts shaping up this one did the other day I hit the road, visit some of my airports, and fly until sunset. Theese images are probably not the first ones that come to mind when someone mentions Hawaii; beaches, coconut trees, and mai tais come well ahead of ranch lands. But this is Hawaii too... here seen on the slopes of the Kohala Mountain on the Big Island.
A stunning day here simply demanded that I put my newly repaired Mavic up in the air. Must say that the camera on this bird is better than before it went in for repair. DJI didn't actually repair my drone, they swapped it for a different one. I noticed the serial number on the unit I got back was different than the original. So it not only works once again but I have a better camera as well! And I'd be remiss if I didn't send props out to the West Coast DJI Repair center. They did a great job and provided a very reasonable turn-around.
Enjoy a brief tour of the ranch land side of the Kohala Mtn and Mahukona harbor!
My Mavic has been out of service (OTS) since I got back from the mainland in mid-October. DJI eventually fixed it for free since the problems were within my warranty. I also had a DJI Care Refresh policy so it would have been free anyway. So it was great that a Friday afternoon coincided with a perfectly clear, wind free day to let me get up in my little bird again. Over time I hope to fly many more pu'u around the island. For now here's a short look at countryside I get to see on a regular basis.
I managed to catch a bit of fall harvesting with my DJI Mavic Pro drone this past trip to Wisconsin. Not as much as I would have liked, but being in the right place at the right time when every field is in a different condition can be tricky. And I was just a few weeks shy of seeing full fall color too... something I haven't been around for in many years. So much for the mea culpas...
I'm so terrible at cross promotion that I completely forgot to post this here! But all is not lost, it's up for you now. Take a short tour thru a small portion of south central Wisconsin with me in early fall 2017 and Enjoy! my inspection of...
And now I should start to get caught up on some of the flying and filming I did while on the mainland this fall. We will begin with my childhood friend, the Crawfish River.
I just realized that in my rush out the door to the mainland last August I forgot to put this up here... as well as a few others. So I'll start to get caught up. I'm behind on everything really... sigh.
It may be true that age will never cure me of burning the candle at all ends. After being up all day and working all night I still found energy to take off for a sunrise shoot with the DJI Mavic Pro this past Sunday. For my sacrifice I was rewarded with some stunning light, calm air, and beautiful scenery. There is still a lot to learn about flying, cinematography, and editing for sure, but I'm making progress I hope. In any event I'm posting my journey as a record for myself. You're more than welcome to ride along if you like. Enjoy!
The "Point of Interest" mode is an automated flight mode setting within the DJI Go 4 remote control (RC) software. It allows a drone operator to define a specific target on the ground, an elevation to fly, and a radius to orbit about that object. It effectively takes all the complications of flying and aiming (think: pat your head and rub circles on your stomach while riding a unicycle blindfolded) out of the equation and leaves composition up the operator. You still have the ability to vary orbital speed, elevation of the aircraft, radii of the orbit, and direction of travel so all you really have to think about is camera tilt and framing. With only a few minutes of practice just about anyone can master it.
Today I took my DJI Mavic Pro out again to the Kona Judiciary construction project (it's rapidly becoming my Mavic training ground) and tried out POI for the first time. I think it will become very useful. Granted, here I've used it entirely too much, but that's what training is for: repetition.
