Droner

I took a couple of droning jobs this week even though the distance I had to drive probably didn't make sense. But I haven't flown the drones lately and it gave me a chance to get some practice in. First was a photo-only shoot in Riverton, Wyoming. It was a relatively easy job, although maximum altitude was only 200 feet due to a nearby airport. (The client wanted 350 feet.) The next job, photos and video, was more challenging for a couple reasons. First, it was extremely cold in central Montana near Great Falls, 0 degrees, and my fingers started freezing up. Besides frostbite, I also was concerned that I would have shortened battery life due to the temperature, which was below the rated operating parameters for the drone. As it turned out, the batteries were fine.

My second concern was the property was bare land covered with snow. The images were for a real estate deal and didn't need to be artistic, but how do you take an interesting picture of a white field? Fortunately there were enough surrounding mountains to give the image shown below some interest. Third, the lot was large (40 acres), and it was impossible to maintain visual contact with the drone as required by the FAA when it was 2,000 feet away and at an altitude of 400 feet. But it always was in contact with the controller. Supposedly the controller can maintain contact with the drone up to 9.3 miles away, which if you think about it is rather impressive, but in my opinion is inconsistent with what the FAA says you should be doing.

This blog started out as a trailcam site, and it has evolved into one that covers all sorts of remote-controlled cameras, including drones. I would like to use the drones for more than shooting real estate. As I was driving back from the Wyoming job, I saw a herd of pronghorn in a field. I got a few shots with my DSLR and 400mm zoom, but they were not close. I was tempted to get out my mini drone and send it into the field, but did not. I didn't think it would spook the herd, but it did concern me. But my primary concern was having to climb over a barbed wire fence to retrieve the drone if it went down. It was a bit windy, probably well within even the mini drone's limits, but still a concern. The big drone is more robust and I did have one fully-charged battery remaining after the shoot, but I still lacked the courage to attempt it. I'm including the DSLR image, which shows only about a third of the herd.

Wyoming, limited to 200-foot altitude.

Montana, 400 feet above the center of the property looking at mountains to the East.

Pronghorn herd, DSLR.