I took my drone on both holidays this year, but cycling through the footage is something that I’ve put off. Nothing bears a quick photo edit.
None the less, one down (Greece), one to go (Faroe Islands), though it’s unlikely that the second one will get done before I go on my next holiday (Isle of Skye).
In Austria the drone laws are pretty strict; a drone is considered a toy if it produces less that 79 Joules of energy, and as such it doesn’t require a license. So I opted to take the Spark with me, as I would legally be able to fly it without paying for a license.
Because I am a total loon I got up at 5:45am to go and take some video footage around Ulley Country Park at sunrise. Technically the sun rose at about 5:10, but I figured that if I got there an hour after then I would have enough light to play with.
What I didn’t count on was flying my drone into a tree and then panicking that I was going to have to fish it out of the lake. But I suppose these experiences allow us to poop our selves and then learn from them. I made myself carry on flying the drone, because my gut just wanted me to land it and then drive home and be sad.
In hindsight I probably should have landed it to check that it was OK. This is defiantly what I will do next time, as it turned out that one of the propellers was ever so slightly cracked. On the flip side, I suspect that if I had landed it and seen the crack I would just have gone home and then possibly been too nervous to fly it again. So swings and round abouts. These things are bound to happen when your too excited about the mist and the sun beams to be properly keeping an eye on what is happening!
When I bought the drone I also bought some ProPlus ND filters for it. I had been using ND4 for the other flights, but as it was super sunny with no cloud this morning I used ND32 – I was pleasantly surprised to find no colour tinges on the footage!
Most of Xmas we have been ill.
 I was ill for 2 weeks before Xmas and I though “A-ha! For indeed I will be OK at XMas now.” And how wrong I was. 
As a result of this my plan to go out with the drone every day hasn’t really panned out. Ive managed 4 times in just over a week, but to be fair the weather hasn’t been that great either.
What I have learnt is that the drone is better in wind than I thought it would be, and that I need to be more committed to panning and movement shots. I’m too focused on composition and so my footage is jerky whilst I try to correct it. I’m learning that in video this isn’t quite as big of a deal as with still images. It’s a learning curve. 
Today is the first day for the Christmas holidays, so obviously the first thing I did was go out with my drone!
The weather forecast was nice, the air was still… So naturally it was a drone kind of day 😉
I decided to go to Ulley Country Park, and practice a bit more with my drone. There is a nice spot with a few benches on it that made for an ideal seating area and Return to Home point. I flew the highest I’ve flown before, but I am still hesitant about distance away from me. I think the next time that I go out with it I am doing to focus on distance more than height. 
I’m slowly getting more used to the controls. I’ve gotten used to using the control to control the gimbal head.
I need to pay more attention to exposure though, as most of the shots were over exposed.
Manadh Photography 