I flew the drone again

DJI has some of the worst products on the market.  Their customer service is atrocious and their stuff is probably spying on us  and sending it back to the Chinese government.  I wish there was a Canadian or American company that made good, inexpensive drones.  The last time I flew my DJI Spark, I nearly lost it twice in a span of 5 minutes.  Do I trust the drone?  Hell no.  It's my second DJI Spark since I lost the first one last year somewhere near Pakenhanm, Ontario because my remote lost connection with the actual drone. I think next year, I'll actually spend more than $1,500 on a real drone that shoots raw and 4k videos and use that for my microstock photography business.  In the mean time, the above shot was taken with the DJI Spark and edited in ON1 Photo Raw 19.5.

Another precarious day with the DJI Spark

Decided to go fly the drone after work today.  I went to Almonte, Ontario today as I wanted arial pictures and footage of the falls.  I setup and started the drone, connected with my Remote controller and started a flight.  Within a second of me taking off, the battery popped off the drone.  I had thought again that that I lost the drone or at least severely damaged it as it fell at least 15 feet onto some rocks.  The battery was easy to get.  Just climbed over the wall and got the battery within 30 seconds. The drone wasn't easy to get.  Had to climb down rocks to the base of the waterfalls.  The rocks were slippery from the spray from the falls.  There was a lot of moss which did not help.  Luckily I was able to retrieve the drone.  It took about half an hour to retrieve the drone.

Luckily the only damage to the drone was to one of the propellors which were easily replaced.  I decided to fly again and the drone started to act weird.  When I tried to land it, it literally took off on my climbing up at least 30 metres.  I luckily got control of the drone and brought it back down.  It would not land at all.  I literally had to grab it by the underside of the drone and remove the battery from the drone to get it to stop. 

After this debacle I wanted to just go home and not fly the drone again as I feared losing a second drone within a month.  But I gave the drone a second chance and flew it out maybe 25 metres and just started taking shots and video.  Luckily the DJI Spark did not act up.  I got what I wanted and I just left.  Luckily the only damage to the drone was the rear left propellors had to be replaced which was easily done.  

One of my favourites

Shot back in 2013.  Hasn't sold once anywhere.

People either like owls or they don't.  They are one of my two favorite birds, the other being Bald Eagles.  It's been 5 years since the Great Gray owls were in Ottawa.  I hope they come back soon.

Drone flight at dusk

Was out with the girlfriend last night at a friends place for dinner and a sit down by a fire.  I decided to test the DJI Spark out at dusk just to see how the camera would perform.  It's ok.  But it could be better.  A lot better.  Maybe in the spring I will upgrade to the DJI Mavic Pro 2.  The Hasselblad camera should help a bit.

I edited about 6 clips which I'm currently uploading to Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.

Actually went flying tonight

Finally flew the DJI Spark at dusk today.  I'll have to view the video once I get them off the micro SD card but it will be interesting to see how well the footage turns out from the DJI Spark.  Took a few photos as well.  From the Apple iPhone 8 Plus, the footage and photos looked a bit noisy but I an fix that in post.

The rest of the weekends sounds like it's going to crap weather wise with 90% chance of rain for both Sunday and Monday.  So the girlfriend and I are planning on just going to church tomorrow in the morning and a movie in the afternoon.  Monday I want to pretty much read a few books and just relax.

I need to go flying

I really, really need to go flying with the drone after work.  Flying the drone is so much fun and exciting.  It's nothing like I've done before..  Taking new photos and videos is an awesome feeling.

First day of work

First day of work on a new contract.  Will be taking the drone with me so I can fly it after work.  I did not get a chance to fly it yesterday.  Girlfriend and I were so tired from Saturday.  I think we both got a bit of sun stroke so that did not help.  Well, it 's time to go to work.  And flying the drone.

Back to flying

I just want to thank a friend who saw my struggles with DJI and their lousy customer service and offer of a 30% discount on a new DJI Spark.  My friend knew I was in between contracts and photography and doing footage work helped me out in rough times.  Lets just say I'll be back to flying a new drone tomorrow when my girlfriend and I are going to Sandbanks Provincial Park near Kingston, Ontario again.

I start a new job Monday with Global Affairs Canada so this weekend is going to be fun.  My girlfriend and I always have fun at Sandbanks.  It's like going to the Dominican Republic.  The sand and water are so nice.  The breach is fantastic.  So is the company.

DJI Spark - LOST FOR GOOD

As some of you may know, earlier this week I lost my DJI Spark in mid flight.  No explanation.  Nothing.  I uploaded the log files to the web and sent them to DJI as well.  I have a ticket open with DJI to see what went wrong.

From the DJI forums, it looks like and I hope to be getting a new drone.  But that is just other users opinions.  Not DJI' opinion.  I hope to hear from DJI next week to see what the results of their testing is.  I hope they work quick to find the results.  Hopefully, I will get a new drone.  I hope.

Who needs a plane when you have a drone

I'm in love with the DJI Spark drone.  One little hick up from today' flights.  Lost connection again for less than 10 seconds today.  The only thing I can think of is there were some power lines between myself and the drone.  That is the only constant from the last two flight sessions.

I'm also thinking of at some point upgrading to a DJI Mavic Pro or a higher end drone as I need a drone that can fly longer.  I'm limited to about 15 minutes with the DJI Spark.  The video also looks good but only shoots at 1080p/30fps.  I'd love to have a drone that shoots 1080p/60fps.  I really don't shoot in 4k as I find it totally unnecessary.   The DJI Spark only shoots in the JPEG format and not RAW so editing is somewhat limiting.

I bought the DJI Spark to learn how to operate a drone.  It's been a great teacher so far.  Right now I have other priorities like getting back to work.  With fall and winter coming up quick, I think my drone use will be dead in the winter with the short, cold days and the long, cold nights.  I'm trying to get as much drone footage in as I can.

Drone flight

Solar farm near Arnprior, Ontario

I am planning on flying my drone again today.  I hope I don't lose connection with the drone for a whole 7+ minutes like I did yesterday.  I have the video and you can clearly see from my body language that I am more than mad and miffed because it is a good little drone.

Fort Henry, Ontario - Arial view

Just one of the videos I took over Fort Henry when we were in Kingston, ON over the August long weekend.  The drones are a lot of fun to fly but I fear losing it.  I try and keep it in visual site.  I think next year I will upgrade from the DJI Spark to the DJI Mavic Pro just so I can take better video with the drone.  The DJI Spark takes really good videos but I want something better.

The Canon EOS 7D

Got this shot of a Great Grey Owl a few years ago with my trusty Canon EOS 7D and the Sigma f2.8 70-200MM.  Honestly,  I think the Canon EOS 7D is a great wildlife, sports photography camera.  On a trip to Prague, Czech Republic in June of 2013 it was the only camera that survived of the two.  My Canon EOS 6D body did not make the flight from Ottawa to Prague.  Somewhere between Ottawa and Prague, the pentaprism dislodged from it's housing and was completely useless.  So back to shooting on a cropped sensor.

Anyways, we're gonna talk about the Canon EOS 7D.  Great, great action camera.  With the version 2 of the firmware it just kicked into an awesome action camera because of the number of shots you could get within a second.  The above shot was taken with the Canon EOS 7D and the Sigma f2.8 70-200MM non OS lens.  From what I remember it was a warm day that day.  Now a March day in Canada is not warm for anyone south of the Canadian border.  I think it was maybe around -5 degrees celsius with no wind, no clouds.  Just your typical Canadian spring day.

This was one of the better days of photographing the owls.   No winter snow storm.  It's actually pretty cool to photograph these owls in a cold snow storm with the snow falling down.  It adds some drama to the shot.

In this case I got the Owl coming in to get a meal on a little mouse.  I t think after it got the mouse and went back to eat it, we left as we knew that, that was it as far as it flying as it disappeared into the woods.  I to this day still remember this being one of my happy days.  Photography always makes me happy.