Three Minutes Apart

I’ve begun work on a long-term project requiring the use of a drone. Today was the first chance I’ve had since the start of the year to make photos. I’m not sure how long the project might take and today showed me one of the problems.

I knew the location I wanted. It’s the view above.

Correctly done, the light needs to be a very specific angle to the subjects. Brighter, better light offers more detail and better color. Began today’s exploration in the 90-minute afternoon window where wind gusts were forecast to be low enough for event-free flying.

Although the wind gusts were within range of safe flying I was at the mercy of the clouds.

Also, at the mercy of cold temperatures that effected both the battery life and the strain on the motor systems on the drone. Flight time per battery was cut by at least a third meaning I had les time to wait for clouds to open for light to spread across the subject.

Cold weather would not have been as much of a problem if the sun had been out the entire time.

Below is an example of how the quality of the photo is diminished by cloud cover preventing sunlight from getting through. These two photos were made less than three minutes apart. The photo at the top was made just as the battery warning turned on.