drone session: Flat top hill run

One of the biggest features on the phantom 3 advanced is the video quality it can take, 2.7k video at 30 fps at the best which is far more than I need it for. I'm more into the photography half of it, but it really shines with video, which is unfortunate for me because i have absolutely no video editing skills or experience in shooting video. That doesn't stop me from taking countless videos in 1080p at 48 FPS and ogling at the scenery, but that also means that I'm not exactly creating professional clips, and they're not exciting enough to be worth sharing most of the time.

Someday i'd like to invest in a camera for the ground, so that I can combine both to make something really worth watching. I'm still working on my video editing skills, which is more of a technical challenge over anything(trying to keep the format correct and not losing quality, finding the right video editing software and actually having to learn how to use it).

Eventually I plan to take a bunch of my clips and combine all the great parts of them into a 'welcome to our city' type thing, maybe I'll convince my good friends to come back to our state, Nothing makes you home sick like seeing your home from the sky..right? sure, we'll go with that.

The video below is the latest (at this time of posting) video that I have taken, This was my first time actually trying to edit, and i also had the exposure too high on my camera so the whole video is a bit bright from the giant ball of fire so  low in the sky. There's a few great shots that could be taken from this video, but since I did not manage to clip out every boring part, the video is a bit long.

I climbed all the way up the hill with my good friend Alex, he helped carry the drone up, while i carried my daughter in a backpack all the way up. As a smoker, I was convinced i'd die before I made it to the top, but I managed to get there without stopping(my friend is in much better shape than I, perhaps it was that as motivation)!

I had reception problems in town here and there but there was definitely a full 3 mile range for me at the top of this hill. I could have gone around the whole town ! but since i was up so high, i didn't want to stray too far from the mountain and smack into a helicopter or something..

I'm pushing 35 miles an hour the whole video, which it doesn't seem like because im typically 1000 feet in the air through most of it.

Hopefully it shows up correctly, haven't yet posted a video here yet, but you can find my whole youtube collection HERE

comment or just give me page views like how you have been doing, whoever you are.

delicious session: FOOD

Ah, food. It speaks for itself.

I work for a catering company that goes by 'castle', were one of the more well known companies in my local areas, I've been in food service for about 7 years now, and this is the best place i have ever worked thus far.

At the end of the day, food isn't what i really want to do, but i've tasted some amazing things and have learned so much about food now, I don't feel like theres anything I couldn't make at this point.

These photos were taken all on my phone, not necessarily professional, I was in a hurry through most of these, some of them were wrapped already and it was hard to get a solid shot on most of these. My phone camera is fantastic but has a very slim angle and has to be pulled back pretty far to capture entire trays.

mm veggie wraps, made them and stacked them so nicely, then after I thought at the last minute i'd take a photo.

This one wasn't mine, one of my bosses usually does these, its a whole smoked salmon, a bit creepy, it's even got jalepeno eyes!

This is one of my favorite cheese trays that I have made thus far

the center is brie, all around with white cheddar cubes and smoked ghouda and manchego slices

The center of these is terrine, which is blue cheese and cream cheese, topped with walnuts/or cherries, you dip it with crackers and as you reach the middle, theres a fine layer of pesto, amazing and delicious. I've made all kinds of different cured veggie/meat/terrine trays, some i used different molds to give them fun shapes and make them eye pleasing.

We made a GIANT cake , made entirely of rice krispies and lined with doughnuts, this cake was over 200 lbs , we all had a blast making it, and it sold for like..800 dollars or more(I don't remember honestly but I remember thinking "DAMN, ITS JUST A SH** TON OF CEREAL AND MARSHMALLOWS"

not entirely completed, but you get the idea, Sadly I wasn't working the day all the doughnuts got finished up.

A few more trays and things i've done below, Honestly I've been wanting make this post for a few days and haven't found time, even today I am cutting it short because theres so much to do and so little time! I will probably elaborate and edit this post later, but it's a quick summary of what I do for a living

If you have any questions or are curious, feel free to comment! I'd be happy to answer them for you

drone session: THE NIGHT

I was hoping to be able to post much more frequently, I've got pictures for days man.. But I am a very busy and very lazy person, and those 2 mix very terribly, leaving me with lots of responsibilities, and when I have free time I just piss it away (or so it seems from my perspective). I've got 3 new posts pending because I simply haven't devoted some time to sit down and make them happen. Even as I write this, my crazy 1 year old is running around causing chaos, I hope to have this written in time before her next target is my laptop!

This post is all about my attempts at night shots from the sky, I have many more to come, but this is where I'm at so far. In my experience up to this point, it has been a bit of a challenge to find night shots worth viewing at all. This is partly due to the fact that my neighborhood and basically my whole city is 80% one color at night time: Orange. 

Those stupid HPS lights that light our streets up, not that they're not essential, but they don't do well for night photography.

Seriously, so much orange.

So far, this has been my favorite shot, especially since they decided "hey, lets put white lights here, just here.". I do quite love the 100% downward angle shots, you really get to see the design of things from this view, I find it quite tranquil.

This shot looks like it was through a much crappier camera, and with the lack of light, I just wasn't getting a cool shot, but I liked the idea that it could have been cool had I been a master with a better camera.

Messing around with catching moving cars, right above my house. If you look closely you can see me on my porch.

This is an older one from one of my last posts, but it so far has been one of my personal favorites(although that doesn't make it a great shot).

Trying to catch symmetry again, I took a bunch of these shots at the corner , but I wasn't wowed by the results.

at some point, id like to go somewhere much brighter and much busier, if you do some quick google searching you can very easily see photos of people taking drone shots in way cooler places. I've seem some particularly amazing night shots from China!

slightly higher quality versions HERE

thanks for reading! the next post will be about foooooooooooooooooooooooooood, so be sure you ate breakfast or dinner or whatever before you look or you will be tempted to eat expensive things.