Tag: flying

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First Flight and First Photo with the Mini SE

I managed to fly, perform basic maneuvers and land with no problems.

Enough snow melted so I could find some grassy areas and the wind died down – so I figured it was time to overcome my nerves and fly this thing. A long, long time ago I flew Radio Control airplanes and helicopters – and remember a lot of happenings (crashes?). This drone is much easier to control than what I remembered from the past. Much easier!

So, here is my first photograph (that looks like anything other than a test shot). I was 50 meters ( 165 feet) above our back yard and facing southeast toward Ocean City, Maryland. The high-rise buildings of Condo Row (just right of center) are about five miles away.

Drone View of Ocean City Skyline 750x300

The water in the foreground of the Ocean City Skyline is Assawoman Bay and the water on the horizon is the Atlantic Ocean. This look quite impressive as a semi-panorama 4,000 pixels wide by 1,600 high.

I did not want to put the drone on the grass for launch so I made a makeshift takeoff/landing pad from a piece of heavy cardboard reinforced with Styrofoam strips. I may waterproof and paint the cardboard to make a more permanent landing pad. Of course, if I paint an “H” in the center it may become my Heliport.

I first tried a short flight in a sheltered area on one side of our home. I did the “Auto takeoff” and hovered a bit right in front of me to check the drone over. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary so I explored the controls. I went up and down a little and yawed left and right with the left stick. As I gained a bit of confidence I tried the right stick and propelled the aircraft forward, backward and to the each side. Next I took a short flight out and back and then proceeded to “Auto land” my new airship.

For a second flight I moved to the back yard where I had more “space” and figured I would expand my reach, so to speak, a bit higher and further. I hovered in place to make sure the drone could handle the slight breeze. It did, so I ascended to 50 meters (165 feet) and yawed in a circle a couple of times – all the while changing my gaze from the screen to the drone. I was impressed with what I could see and took a few pictures. The most interesting one, in the fading light, was the one posted above – the skyline of Ocean City, Maryland.

The batteries are charging now, as I type this, for my next adventure into the sky. So, of course, there is more snow in the forecast for tomorrow morning and I can hear the wind howling right now. I may have to practice continued patience – but I do not want to “push” anything until I am well experienced.

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First Still Image Test with DJI Mini SE

Night, indoors, low light, impressive results…

Yes, the weather outside is not conducive to me doing a first flight and, no, I did not try flying indoors for my first test with the new (to me) DJI Mini SE drone. However, I did activate it while it was sitting on a coffee table and, or course, had to take a couple of pictures. This indoor “practice” with the DJI Fly app on my (older) iPhone 6 should help me be more comfortable when I do launch my first drone flight.

drone image test bookcase

But – on with the first test – where you can see the initial test photo of a bookcase in our family room lighted only with a couple of room lamps. The lighting was certainly not ideal!

You can see the coffee table in the bottom foreground and one of the lamps used for lighting the room. There was also a lamp behind my wife in the chair on the right and a lamp behind where I was sitting.

A normal, daylit scene, flying outdoors, will have about 50 to 100 times more illumination. Our eyes are surprisingly adaptable to the difference in light between night indoors and sunlight outdoor. Camera sensors – not so much. With that said, here is a center crop of that full frame to show the detail captured under these poor conditions.

drone image test bookcase detail center crop

This is a 660×300 pixel section of the original full 4000×3000 px image. The only editing I did, besides the crop, was to run it through one level of Topaz Studio2 denoise. I am eager to see what this camera can do when outdoors flying on a nice day.

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Getting a New DJI Mini SE Drone

And adding a new camera perspective to my photography galleries…

My U.S. Pictures gallery will be gaining some new perspective in 2022. Several of my wall art photograph sales over the last few years have been taken from the high vantage point of my Ercoupe airplane and/or the top deck of a large cruise ship. I no longer have the airplane (it was a very expensive to maintain toy for nearly seven years) and we will not be cruising again for the foreseeable future (until the COVID protocols actually makes sense and work).

Here is a popular photograph that has sold multiple times. It was shot from the top deck of the Grandeur of the Seas at it left the Cruise Maryland terminal at Port Covington and sailed past Fort McHenry two days after the Baltimore Blizzard of 2016.

Fort McHenry Shrouded in Snow

Here is an image shot from my airplane a few years back of the Century I Condominium building in Ocean City, Maryland. A drone would be able to replicate this image – but they are (supposedly) not allowed to fly within the town limits of OCMD.

Century I Condominium Ocean City Maryland

There are several other instances of high-vantage-point images that have been purchased from one of my online galleries. A drone, once I learn to effectively fly it and become licensed to do so for commercial purposes, will allow me to photograph many interesting landscapes and seascapes from unique vantage points. This will offer a perspective that most people will never see from the ground and using their cell phones.

Related: The drone arrived and, of course snow was in the forecast. LINK