It Was A Great Terrible Day For A Drone
I don’t always take my drone with me, especially on days like today when my drone weather app was glowing red, warning of high wind gusts. But I’ve learned it takes very little extra effort to toss the drone in the car, and much less effort than wishing later that I’d brought it when the weather clears for a few minutes, the sky opens up, and I’m stuck doing everything from ground level.
I knew this morning which photographs I wanted to make, and I also knew that if conditions gave me even a small chance, I could probably get them. Not without some worry, but I would still manage to get them. That turned out to be the case.
My strategy was simple. I kept the drone low, about five feet off the ground, as I moved from place to place. The wind is usually much less troublesome there than at fifty feet. And just as important, if a gust did knock the drone around, a five-foot fall is a lot easier to survive than a fifty-foot one.
Once I reached my desired spot, I would raise the drone just high enough for the shot, take a few frames, then bring it back down low before moving on. That method worked well at the Sharp House and at the boardwalk. It also worked at the bridge site and Braun Farm, where fill dirt was being leveled for planting. It succeeded last week as well, when I photographed Millstone Creek Park.
Days like this remind me that a drone doesn’t need to go high to be useful. It doesn’t have to be dramatic to do its job. Sometimes it’s just a raised tripod, a way to get a little separation from the ground and see the scene more clearly.
It also reminds me that overshooting isn’t usually necessary. A drone makes it easy to stay in the air and keep shooting, but having more frames often just means more time editing later. I’d rather know what I want, move into position, make the photograph, and move on.
That might be the real lesson for me here. Keep it simple. Fly low when the wind is strong. Raise the drone only when the shot requires it. Capture just a few frames instead of dozens. The goal isn’t to end up with more files. It’s to come home with the photographs I set out to make.
In total, I made 11 frames with the drone today. All from less than 50 feet off the ground.
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