For the Christmas just gone I was gifted a drone, something I’ve been tempted to add to my kit bag for a little while. I’ve obviously only had a small amount of time to play about with it, but I’ve flown it a few times and I’m pleased enough with the results (above not crashing it) to share them here.
| Kit List |
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| DJI Mini 4K |
Before we kick off, just a note on the pictures. I am normally pretty fastidious with including captions with the camera settings in my posts, but as the drone has a fixed aperture and focal length (unless you count digital zoom, which I do not) and all of the shots in this set save for one are bracketed HDR exposures, there isn’t much point in including my normal captions. So you’ll just have to make do with the pictures.
My first flight was from my back garden, just to get used to the mechanics of it all. I did do it on a nice day though, just to make it a bit worthwhile.
Feeling a little more confident with it, I added it to my kit bag for future treks (and for once I mean that literally, as well as figuratively).
In early January I took a wander – the full results of which will be in a future post – and found myself at the Chattri war memorial in the middle of the Sussex countryside (according to Wikipedia, in a place called Deep Bottom). Part of the reason I wandered in that direction was that I figured the memorial would be a decent subject for some aerial photography, and as it was a bit of a walk from civilisation it would be quiet. I had to wait for a little while until people left (I didn’t want to disturb anyone or, frankly, embarrass myself) but eventually I got my drone in the air.
You can see me in the background of that shot, standing next to a bench.
The views from a few dozen metres above the memorial of the surrounding area looked pretty good too. In the background of this shot you can see the sea, and the Brighton coastline as indicated by the i360 (which appeared to be moving despite being shut down).
I got some decent results even shooting into the winter sunlight.
The day after this walk was a beautiful, sunny frosty morning, so I once gain decided to send the drone up above my house to get some shots of my local countryside.
As you can see I once again shot straight into the sun. It might look a little bit like a bomb going off.
I soon felt a little braver to send the drone up a bit higher for a slightly different perspective.
I also ventured a little further and look a photo of some of the buildings in town, like this former asylum, now a tasteful complex of apartments.
A little over a week later, and we were again blessed with a frosty, misty sunrise, and I couldn’t resist sending the drone up for a look. I’ve taken snaps of the amazing misty views from my house before, but I wanted to see what it looked like from above it all. It was worth the flight.
I love the sunbeams you can see over the tops of the trees in this shot.
The DJI Mini 4K does have an automatic panorama mode, but when I tried it with the previous sunrise I wasn’t that impressed by it. It automatically positions itself to shoot a 3×3 grid, which only emulates a wider angle lens (and in the time I used it, it appeared to catch a bit of its own fuselage when shooting the upper portions). It also does it as single exposures, not the HDR I really need when shooting into the sun with this kind of camera. So this time, I decided to try more of a manual panorama, shooting a bracketed set, panning a little and then doing it again. The result is this HDR panorama, made up of three sets of bracketed exposures – nine frames in all.
The hills in the distance are the South Downs, on this day still covered in a light smattering of snow.
Given the way the light was, I also decided to shoot with the sun in the centre of the frame and the sunbeams radiating outwards.
I also took another with more traditional rule of thirds framing.
I think this might have been one of our last nice days so far this year – certainly the last one on a non-working day.
I think this drone is a great addition to my kit bag and a useful thing to have with me when I’m out and about in open areas, although I’m sure it’ll take a while before I don’t feel quite so self-conscious when I’m flying it. I’d also like to fly it more places further than walking distance from my house.
Although I’ve grouped these shots together for this introductory post, I’m sure whenever I use this drone in the future its shots will just be included as part of the main set alongside the ground-based photos. But for now, please enjoy this slightly bigger gallery of the shots I’ve taken so far.
