recent drone photos

[loki]

these were taken in iceland - aka the windiest place on earth. i used a dji mavic 2 pro. the wind presented a few issues. i transferred the files after every flight because i knew there was a good chance that i'd lose the drone due to strong wind gusts. i didn't lose the drone or end up with any damage. it rained a lot during the middle part of the trip and flying in the rain is a quick way to ruin a drone. so i flew mostly around the snaefellsnes and hjalteyri peninsulas.

snaefellsnes peninsula over a river and roadway.
1/160s, f/7.1, iso 100
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49047339282_38a9b38313_o.jpg

this waterfall was in a tricky location. the roadway went right over top of it. i found a place to pull off down the road and flew back to it, happy to find that it did indeed fall all the way into the ocean. show on the hjalteyri peninsula.
1/100s, f/10, iso 100 - the green channel blew a little on this one. if i had a second chance i would have used an nd filter and tried a longer exposure time.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48901358972_104bdee70d_o.jpg

one of the trickier shots for the mavic 2 pro. the sensor doesn't do well at all with noise and so low light, high iso and/or long exposures will come out quite noisy. shot on the hjalteyri peninsula.
1/100 s, f/11, iso 100. this was 2 shots hand blended in photoshop. one for the sky and water, the other for the land. the weird dark line on the horizon is a cloud, the actual horizon is a bit further up from the dark line.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48901152036_4435fc4b00_o.jpg

not an original idea for a photo, this one has been done way too often. but i still like it. this bridge is found on snaefellsnes peninsula. this was probably the worst place for wind, it was a very windy day and was even worse over the water.
i shot this one on two different days and this is from the second attempt. the first attempt was way too bright for the drone (the sun was in the wrong spot) and the water in the fjord was more of a brown than a blue.
1/160s, f/7.1, iso 400
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48856990102_78004a8596_o.jpg

[mbrager]

Thanks for sharing these, and for your comments in runmonty's thread about the Mavic Mini. I'm impressed in your photos by the apparent stabilization. The last photo is evidently a time exposure or time exposures, which is sharp and the water is smooth in spite of the wind. In fact all these photos seem sharply in focus and well exposed. Are they all stacked?
For me it would be a pleasant toy to have, but in our city there's a huge no fly area because of two airports, so I would have to use it farther away. The appeal of the mini is its weight, which would not require licensing in Canada. And its price. Still watching You Tube videos,so maybe in the future.

[Marko]

I really like this set!! 1 and 4 are my faves here!
I'd like to know the technical details as well if you'd care to share.
very cool!!

[loki]

Thanks for sharing these, and for your comments in runmonty's thread about the Mavic Mini. I'm impressed in your photos by the apparent stabilization. The last photo is evidently a time exposure or time exposures, which is sharp and the water is smooth in spite of the wind. In fact all these photos seem sharply in focus and well exposed. Are they all stacked?
For me it would be a pleasant toy to have, but in our city there's a huge no fly area because of two airports, so I would have to use it farther away. The appeal of the mini is its weight, which would not require licensing in Canada. And its price. Still watching You Tube videos,so maybe in the future.

thanks mbrager.

don't let the registration put you off from getting a bigger drone. canada's process is the same as the us's and its quick and easy. need a little info about it like serial number and when you purchased the drone. fill out the form on canada's drone registration site and pay $3 (that's what it was in the us). then put the registration number on the outside of your drone. plus i think that at some point in the next few years they'll require drones the size of the mini to be registered. the mini is very well priced for a drone.

i hear you about the no fly zone. i live in an air base town so it's crazy restricted here. there's a few places i can fly legally, but i bought it mainly for travel.

the one thing you need to consider when getting a smaller drone is your line of sight. once you're able to legally launch your drone you can only fly it as far away as you can still see it. which with my mavic 2 pro is less than 1200' away for me in the states and 1400' away on a clear day over the ocean in iceland and i have decent eye sight. you cannot legally fly your drone once you can no longer see it.

none of these were stacked to reduce noise. they look great at web size prints, but i don't think they'd print well any larger than 8x10. focusing is dead easy - you tap where you want it to focus on your phone. but honestly, at 23mm equiv. on a crop sensor at f/4 and shooting as far away as a drone will get from things almost everything is in focus. you'd have to work at it to get an out of focus image. i'll update the original post with the exif info.

the nice thing about the drone is that it hovers really well. so you can stop flying for a few seconds and take the photo. i've seen a few gorgeous long exposures done and i'm itching to try it myself, but i imagine on closer inspection they'll be pretty noisy.


I really like this set!! 1 and 4 are my faves here!
I'd like to know the technical details as well if you'd care to share.
very cool!!

thanks marko, the post will be updated with exif data and whatever other info i think of. 1 is my favorite from the set. i have a few more that i have yet to process, but they're not anything special.

[Runmonty]

Well, in the other thread i was saying that drones aren't for me. Now you have me questioning that.

These are great, especially the first one.

[loki]

Well, in the other thread i was saying that drones aren't for me. Now you have me questioning that.

These are great, especially the first one.

thanks runmonty. it takes awhile to realize that there's a drone in your tool bag, but once you start using you begin to see all kinds of shots that you could never take.