Upde Designs

Happy Monday!  ~  347

Saturday was pretty much a veg day.  Jeanne came home with a bad case of Bronchitis and was pretty much under the weather Friday and Saturday.  She got to feeling better yesterday and so yesterday afternoon we did our normal photo trip around town.

First stop as always was the 16th Street Basin.  We had heard there were a lot of Pelicans there but we could only find 3 or 4 at most.  A couple came in while we were there but certainly not what we have experienced in past years.  So in anticipation of finding a body of water full of Pelicans I packed my long lens (500 mm) and the Phantom and we took off.

Before I get too much in to this story I have to tell you about the two flights I did on Saturday.  The first flight I flew from the back patio (basketball court) and went over to a small pond that is located on the school grounds.  It is about 750 feet away and that is the farthest I have ever flown the Phantom and still maintained video link between the Phantom and my receiver.  There were two ducks in the pond and I got as close as I could but the reception wasn’t all that good so I didn’t want to put it in the pond.  🙂

The second flight was later in the afternoon when I decided to take it up and see if I could above 1,000.  Actually I got to 1,320 feet.  It is amazing how things look from that high.  I worked most of yesterday on editing that video but lost my work two times.   I’m still trying to learn the video editing program and apparently I still have a bunch to learn.

This image was grabbed from the video and it shows what the neighborhood looks like at 1,320 feet.

Okay, so back to the story of the 16th Street Basin.  I shot a few images of the one Pelican that was closest to the shore and then some other wildlife that was close enough to capture and then it was time to fly the Phantom and see if I could get some overhead shots of the Basin.

We went around to the other side (away from all the power lines) and I launched the Phantom.  There were two Pelicans out in the middle of the Basin and I flew pretty close to them for several minutes.  Came back to where we were and made a perfect landing.  No really I did it was beautiful.  Went over to turn the Phantom off and realized that I had accidentally switched the GoPro camera from video to still shots.  The problem is I don’t have anyway to take still shots with the GoPro when it’s in the air.  So all that flying was for nothing.

Well, I reset the camera and took it up again.  I got pretty close to a gull and a Pelican and had some fun tracking the Pelican.  I know I made him a little nervous but I didn’t stress him very long.  Good thing I decided to come back when I did because I was running on fumes (battery wise) as I came in for a landing there was a gust of wind and with the battery so low the controls did not respond as they normally do so I crashed.  Yep, it’s on the video.  My good fortune I crashed into some soft grass so no damage to the Phantom or the camera. 🙂

I do not know what this duck is and I didn’t have time to look him up.  If you know please post in the comments.

The video below is only a little over 5 minutes.  Some good music and I think you’ll like the Pelican and Gull.  That’s it for today.  Hope you enjoy your day.  Thanks for stopping by and be careful.