For the Birds!

Mike, a shipmate of mine that I hadn't seen since at least 1991 moved to Arizona a few years ago. We've been trying to get together but it hadn't worked out until this last weekend...

Cade - male Peregrine Falcon

Mike set up a visit to Arizona's Raptor Experience in Chino, Arizona. This place offers up close and personal photography of their raptors in natural, desert settings. They take their birds outside where they've positioned stumps and they'll do what they can to pose the birds for you. You can walk around them, shoot low or high. You can easily get within a few feet of them. The owners, Anne and Paul Schnell, will keep the birds out, moving them from location to location, until you've captured all of the shots you want or until the birds get too hot (it is Arizona!).

The facility is available by appointment only and isn't cheap but it doesn't break the bank either. We were there almost 3 hours and it cost a bit over $200. That included some flight time (of which I didn't get any usable photographs).

I decided that I'd leave Phoenix after getting off work at my day job on Friday. I arranged for a motel in Prescott Valley, Arizona, about 95 miles north of Phoenix. The Prescott Highland Games event was going on so I was lucky to get a room for about triple the weekday rate. Woo hoo! That's why I don't like staying in motels very often. I don't spend much time in them for the money. I decided to try to get more out of my stay this time.

Luna - male Barn Owl

I got to Prescott Valley at about 4:45 PM. I stopped at a Circle K and picked up a 6-pack of an IPA. I then went to Pizza Hut and got a small Meat Lovers pizza with mushrooms, olives, and onions added, and a small order of spicy wings. I checked in to America's Best Value Inn and discovered that I'd got one of their handicapped rooms. I don't know if that was the reason but the bed was great!

I first checked in with wifey then enjoyed my dinner. I ate less than 1/2 of the pizza, ended up drinking 3 of the beers, and had 3 of the wings. I wish you could get smaller portions of food items! I just can't often eat the "normal" portions. I also didn't care for the IPA much and ended up leaving the rest of it in the refrigerator when I left. Hopefully someone gets some good out of it! 

I made use of their swimming pool and hot tub. I can't remember the last time I had been in a swimming pool, probably around 2003 or 2004. I had the pool to myself so really enjoyed it. 

I placed a wake-up call for 5:15 the following morning. Chino Valley is about 15 miles from where I was staying and we were going to meet at 6:30 at the McDonald's. As it turned out, I made it about 2 minutes early. Mike and his family were already there.

It's something meeting someone that you went through a war together with (Desert Storm) but basically hadn't seen since. He offered his hand and I took it but then made him give me a bro hug. I think it surprised him a bit. We made a bit of small talk, which, surprisingly, centered around photography. 

Eventually we headed out to see the birds...

Anne and Paul met us with smiling faces, happy to show us their feathered friends. They posed them for us on the various perches, let some of our party hold some of the birds, and gave us a lot of information about the birds. It's clear they love what they do and want to share their friends and promote respect for the raptors.

Emily - female Swainson's Hawk

Not only is it really cool seeing their birds up close, but I learned a lot too. Raptors need padded perches, for example, because their feet aren't designed to support a lethargic lifestyle - they're not normally on their feet much. Consequently it is necessary to monitor and care for their feet so they don't develop "bumblefoot" infections.

I shot about 400 pictures of the birds and another 200 of our party. I even got some good shots of the birds. I have learned that I rarely get a good handheld shot so I shot almost everything from the tripod. The 8 or 10 handheld shots I took are unusable other than for memory purposes. Even still, the birds constantly turn their heads or bodies so it's not as easy as you might imagine to get a great shot. It's better than stalking them in the wild, of course, but it's also not like every shot is a winner.

I also got zero usable shots of the hawk in flight. I so rarely use auto focus that it took me a while to remember how to engage it. I use back button focus and had a hard time letting the camera try to take over. If / when I go back I really need to refresh myself on auto focus operation. 

All in all, it was a wonderful experience and I got some photographs I couldn't have gotten any other way. If you get a chance to visit them please do!

Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED AFS VR Zoom Lens

The Need

Sea Lions at Haceta Head Viewpoint, Oregon Coast
Nikon D610, Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 @ 200mm

Last summer, August of 2015, I took a drive through parts of Oregon and Washington. Along the Oregon coast, at the Haceta Head lighthouse viewpoint (located a mile or two south of the lighthouse), I tried to shoot some sea lions that were in the small cove between the viewpoint and the point the light house is perched on. 

I don't do a lot of wildlife shots, but I do enough to know that a longer lens would certainly help. But besides that, I've had enough cases where I'd actually like to be able to zoom in on landscape features too, and to be able to do it in camera rather than cropping in post production.

For example, I wanted to shoot a mountain (I think it was Humphrey's Peak near Flagstaff, Arizona) but I didn't like the shot and didn't end up doing it. If you're close to a mountain often times you have a strange aspect or can't get it all in the shot. It'd be nice to zoom in from a distance and be able to isolate the subject from a better vantage point. At least that's what I'm telling myself in order to add a longer full frame lens to my growing collection!

I believe that getting a longer lens will answer some more of my composition needs. 

Why the Nikon?

I started out eyeing the Tamron 150-600 f/5-6.3 when it was announced in 2013 and thought I'd eventually add it to my collection. Then Sigma announced their 150-600mm f/5-6.3 in September 2014, in two versions. That also appeared interesting and after some time the reviews seemed to point towards the Sigma as being better than the Tamron. Okay, I adjusted my sights.

Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E ED AF-S VR

Jumping forward to August 2015, Nikon announced their 200-500mm f/5.6! Another option, with a constant aperture although with a shorter focal range. Hmmm...

After another bit of time, once the lens was available to the public, the reviews started coming out. The Nikon had a lot going for it and most reviews I read claimed a better image quality compared to the Tamron and Sigma, not to mention generally better build quality. Not all reviews came to that conclusion (see this Photography Life review, for example, which recommends the Sigma 150-600 Sport over the Nikkor).

The reviews swayed me towards the Nikon, however, included one of my faves, Thom Hogan. While he admits he hadn't had much time with the Tamrons or Sigmas, his assessment of the Nikon was very influential and consequently I've finally got one on order as of May 3, 2016 from Adorama. I'll see how much I like it, and may be able to talk a photographer I know who really likes her Sigma 150-600 Sport to do a test comparison with me. I'm not against trying the Sigma, but one other guy who I also take with a grain of salt, didn't have any reason to get the Sigma over the Nikkor - Ken Rockwell's review.

(update) Basically, I decided to get this lens instead of the Tamron or Sigma because:

• A common thread that the image quality (IQ) is better on the Nikon, and generally better throughout it's focal range.
• A constant aperture throughout the focal length. I don't know if I'll do it, but it supports using a teleconverter (Thom Hogan has tried it but doesn't generally use one either).
• 50mm missing on the short end - this might bother me, it might mean swapping lenses more if 200 is just too long. However I'm already swapping lenses more than my original mentor Jon B. (and suffering / putting up with dirty sensors as a result). 
• 100mm missing on the long end - from what I've read, with few exceptions, the Tamron and Sigma IQ is reported to fall off over 500mm anyway. 

Known issues

I know two things about this lens that will cause me to do something more or different:

1. I will need some sort of case for it that I can strap to a belt or hang over my shoulder. I haven't quite started looking in to this issue yet. I use a LowePro waist bag that I really like. This lens won't fit in it. I don't like backpacks (I have one but don't like using it). I just want a protective case for the single lens that attaches to my waist or hangs from my shoulder but isn't free to move around.
2. I will need to mount a plate compatible with my Manfrotto ball head. I have two plates so it won't be a problem, but I may want to pick up a third (I have the additional plate because I have two camera bodies). However, I've actually been looking at switching to some sort of arca-swiss setup that I can mount on my Manfrotto ball head (I really like it - the Manfrotto 468MGRC5).

When it arrives and I get to spend a bit of time with her, I mean it, I'll write a bit more about what I think. (update, 5/8/2016 3:41PM) The UPS tracking says it's arrived here in Phoenix!

First Milky Way Photo of the Year (for me)

No, it's not an award, it was the first photograph I shot of the Milky Way this year. 

After dealing with some minor health issues until mid-April this year, I've finally started getting out again. This weekend I had arranged an exclusive photographer access to the Tonto Natural Bridge State Park near Payson, Arizona, but decided to cancel it due to predicted inclement weather. Instead, I headed to the Chiricahua National Monument in southeast Arizona, which was predicted to have cool but dry, cloud free weather.

Some Planning

I was hoping to get a Milky Way and/or other star shots. By checking out the Photographer's Ephemeris, I found that the moon was also cooperative, being a waxing crescent one day after the new moon, and with a moon set at about 8:30PM. That means no bright moonlight to contend with. If you haven't used the Photographer's Ephemeris, it's available online (and as a download). Here's a screenshot of the information available from Massai Point for 5/7/2016. Note that the pin can be moved by dragging and dropping to any location. It shows not only the sun and moon rise and set times, but the angle for the actions:

Photographer's Ephemeris

Using the Stellarium application, I found that the Milky Way should be pretty visible by 1:30AM on Saturday morning, through until a bit before sunrise, approximately 4:30 AM. If you haven't used Stellarium, it's a free app that shows you space objects at selected date and times. It's free and available for multiple operating systems. I use it on my Windows 7 desktop and my Kindle Fire. Here's a shot using the Massai Point location at about 2:30 AM on 5/7/2016, clearly showing the orientation of the Milky Way:

Stellarium

Wilcox, Arizona

Friday night, 5/6/2016, I packed my Exploder, got my dog, and headed to Massai Point. We left home in Phoenix, AZ at about 11PM. We drove straight through to Wilcox, AZ, arriving at about 1:30 AM. I wasn't sure if I was going to spend the entire day and following night there so when I fueled up at the Circle K, I picked up some jerky, Doritos, and another gallon of water (I already had a couple of gallons of water with me). I tried to go through the McDonald's drive through but they were closed (no 24 hour service there if you're passing through and relying on them to be open!). 

I ended up stopping at the Shell station in Wilcox to get some coffee. The station was attended by a man who was hosing down the parking and fueling lot. I asked him if he had some coffee and he said he did. He had to unlock the door for me to enter, and I bought a large coffee. I was skeptical about how it was going to be - it didn't look like he'd been brewing coffee recently and the streets of Wilcox were pretty much empty. It turned out to be okay; I'd had worse in the Navy at 1:30 AM!

It's about 36 miles from Wilcox to the Chiricahua National Monument, and then about another 12 miles or so to Massai Point, or almost 50 miles beyond Wilcox. I drove a tad slow along the way because there were a lot of mice, desert rats, and cotton tail rabbits running across the highway and I didn't want to ruin their morning. 

There's also a bit of that road that has some alarming hills, at least to me. There are blind hills that have curves right after the summit and I've been surprised by them in the past when I drove faster (the speed limit varies from 45 to 65 MPH along the highway). When I got to the park gate there was a fox crossing the road near the cemetery.

The road up to Massai Point only recently opened up to traffic. It had been closed for road work. There were a number of places where the pavement has not been replaced as the culverts had been repaired or upgraded. I even had to dodge a tree that apparently had just fallen down that night and was jutting out into the road, blocking the east bound lane! I believe it had just fallen that night because in the morning, when I went back down from Massai Point, it had been removed.

Massai Point

I arrived at Massai Point at about 2:40 AM. It was dark! When I shut off the Exploder's lights, I was engulfed in darkness. There were some city lights on the horizon in spots, but the parking lot was pretty dark. (Here's a link to the aerial view of Massai Point in Microsoft Bing Maps - better than I could get from Google for some reason.)

Massai Point is at the end of Bonita Canyon road in the park. It's a bit over 6,000 feet in elevation. The parking lot area is oriented sort of south west to north east. It overlooks the wonderful hoodoos but I couldn't see them at all in the basically moonless night. I did find a couple of trees that I could place in the foreground of my shot of the Milky Way that was obvious to the naked eye and stretched from horizon to horizon. 

I took in the view a bit before worrying about the photograph. I'm getting close to 60 years old and it's only been since taking up photography in the last few years that I've even had a desire to notice the Milky Way. However, I spent time camping in my youth in remote places and I would have thought I'd have noticed it before. But apparently I didn't nor was it pointed out to me. Perhaps it was never visible because my youth years were spent mainly in Washington and Oregon and it may not be very visible there. I think that's sad and amazing at the same time, but I'm thankful now that I live in a place where there are some remote areas such as the Chiricahua's and near Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument that it is very visible.

After letting my dog Elmer do his business, I put him back in the Exploder with the windows rolled down. I set up the Nikon D610 with my wide angle Nikkor 16-35mm f/4 on my Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. 

Shooting the Milky Way

I had a hard time focusing for some reason. Normally I use live view to focus night shots but it took me a while to get it configured. I guess it was just too out of focus. 

I had the camera pretty low to the ground since I wanted to include the trees in the shot and they weren't that tall. That meant sitting on the pavement in the middle of the parking lot. That's okay at that time of day - no one else was up there and since they'd have to have their headlights on to drive up the side of the mountain, I'd see anyone approaching. But in the dark I got startled a few times when I turned my head and saw a dark patch on the pavement. This is rattlesnake, mountain lion, and bear country and the park has many warnings about that to remind you (and make you nervous if you're alone in the dark).

I really wanted to take some shots and get back in my vehicle!

I zoomed in with the live view, found Saturn which was very bright, and focused on the planet. I still had a hard time seeing the trees on the LCD so eventually I took shots and re-composed as necessary to get the trees in the shot.

I also used a number of shots to adjust my exposure. The shot below ended up at 16mm focal length, f/4, 25 seconds at ISO 1600. I wish I'd used more of a 17mm focal length; the images are generally a bit sharper if you don't have the lens into either stop. I also wish I'd tried bumping up the ISO another stop and shortened the shutter speed. The stars have some elongation and I really wanted more of a pin-point star shot. But it's still pretty cool and after being in the pitch black for an hour or so, I had enough of tempting fate.

The shots remind me of one of my photography books recommendations - you really need to get to know your camera so you can adjust it in the dark. Turning on a flashlight really makes you loose your night vision (and if you're with someone else, it can ruin theirs or their shots!). While I can adjust my camera in the dark, I couldn't get the text on the LCD to be dim enough. And how do you adjust that? By using the camera menu which was also brighter than heck. It points out to me that if you're going night shooting, if you can, it makes sense to make any adjustments during the daylight before you start the night shots so that you can hopefully avoid using the menu or other bright lights.

Here's the best of the shots I got, processed in Adobe Photoshop. This time I used some processing tips from a YouTube video from Kenneth Brandon. The bright orange/yellow object on the right edge is Saturn.

Milky Way from Massai Point, Chiricahua National Monument, 5/7/2016
Nikon D610 with Nikkor 16-35mm @ 16mm, f/4, 25.0 seconds, ISO 1600

Google Nik Plugin Collection for Free!

If you've been doing photography post processing using Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop you're likely aware that you can use third party plugins (little software applications that run inside of another application), and if you've investigated them at all, you're probably aware of the Nik plugin collection. 

Google announced on 3/14/2016 that you could get the full Nik plugin collection for free (at: https://www.google.com/nikcollection/)! It had been offered at $149 for the package so that made a pretty good deal! Note that a company named Nik created the software. Google purchased Nik on approximately 9/17/2012.

Superstition Mountains, Apache Junction, Arizona
Processed with Adobe Photoshop and Nik Collection

I have been mostly offline for a good number of weeks due to illness. Nothing horrible but it kept me inactive (I've had a sinus problem since December and had to have surgery to clear it up). In my down time - time that I haven't really shot any photographs - I have downloaded the Nik collection and have been learning it.

Prior to installing the Nik collection, I was pointed to a couple of photography web sites and YouTube videos that I really enjoy. They were great to watch while laid up taking care of my sinus. First, I started watching videos from "The Slanted Lens"(https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSlantedLens).  I was searching for information on starting and running a photography business and found I enjoyed the sometimes quirky videos. They have a lot of information that seems to resonate with me and it's presented well in my opinion. I know that some people like different types of instructional videos but the ones I watched seemed like they were well thought out and presented by an adult. 

Yep, I am a grumpy curmudgeon but I don't think it's for no reason. I am not fond of the current trends of not providing help or information about a product, the poor grammar, or the overall lack of professionalism. The Slanted Lens videos I watched did NOT have those problems.

Further, Jay P. Morgan pointed me to another web site that I also highly recommend, "F Stoppers". I especially enjoyed the videos with Elia Locardi who's landscape photography resonates with me and is the kind of photography I'd like to achieve. I suggest watching the "Critique the Community" with Elia as well as the "Behind the Scenes" of the making of the Landscape and Cityscape tutorials that they offer. I haven't purchased them myself (they're $300 each) but I'm tempted to. 

I did find other videos offered by B&H Photography with Elia discussing post processing and that he, along with many others, like the Nik plugins for various editing functions over the standard Adobe functionality. I have heard about the plugins for some time and have been eyeing them but hadn't shelled out the money. When I heard they were free I couldn't wait to try them.

There are seven different plugins in the collection (you used to be able to purchase them separately): 

• Analog Efex Pro - various effects to simulate film
• Color Efex Pro - many various effects ranging from subtle to over the top
• Dfine - noise reduction that many photographers prefer over Adobe
• HDR Efex Pro - HDR processing of multiple or a single image
• Sharpener Pro - actually two different processors - a "RAW" sharpener and an output (e.g. Display/Monitor or Print) sharpener
• Silver Efex Pro - one of the most popular black and white conversion processors
• Viveza - targeted tone and exposure control 

The plugins all offer "control points" or "U Point" technology to allow you to control what part of an image is affected by a plugin. This is different than Adobe Photoshop where you control the affected area using masks which can be troublesome at times (like when selecting hair or trees). This same technology is in the Nikon Capture NX 2 software so I was already familiar with it and frankly, since I rarely use Capture NX 2 any longer, I've missed the "U Point" ease for controlling processing.

There are a lot of good videos on YouTube concerning using the collection, including videos put out by Nik itself (I'm not sure if they were done before Google bought them or after wards).

I find that they do offer a wider variety of processing than Lightroom. You might be able to do the same things in Photoshop but not as easily. I have used the plugins from both Adobe applications. I seem to prefer Photoshop because it seems more seamless, at least in operation. In Lightroom each time you open one of the plugins it generates a TIFF file to send to the plugin. When it does this you have options for the TIFF file, one of which is to set the resolution. I always set it to 300 DPI but it's not sticky so the next time I open a plugin I have to remember to set it back to 300 DPI. The Photoshop versions don't do this.

I too like the noise reduction on most of the images I've tried it on better than the Adobe version. It just seems better. And, you can target it if desired.

The HDR is great. I still wish you could do some things such as exclude an image from the stack without having to close the app and starting over. I use Photomatix too but I prefer the Nik tool. And you can use it to try to bring out detail in a single image (maybe Photomatix supports that but I've never tried it).

The Color Efex Pro is the biggie, though. You can modify your photograph in many different ways (there are 55 separate "filters") for simple correction and enhancement to very creative and distinctive processing.

I'm enjoying the presets and working with them to learn them. I'm not a huge Google fanboy but these plugins are great. The downside is that they're likely to not have any future updates or improvements but they do so much already that you can't easily do with the straight out of the box Adobe software that, for a while anyway, I'm very pleased and recommend getting them yourself!

The picture at the top of the page was processed using various Nik plugins.

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced - 11 Noob Piloting Tips



DJI Phantom 3 Advanced
and DJI Backpack

I've had the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced drone for a few weeks now and haven't done much except watch YouTube videos and practice flying with it. In large part it's because I've been battling a sinus infection for about 2 months and it's kept me from getting out much. I've flown in my back yard (tight quarters), in the green area of my housing community (better), and at a couple of places in the desert (the best).

You'll see people say it on YouTube - if you fly a drone you're going to crash it. I have twice now. The first time actually roughed up the expensive gimbal ($409) and slightly bent it. The bend doesn't affect it much, it's maybe 1 degree out of perpendicular. The second time chipped a prop and loosened one of the rubber gimbal mounts.

I did fly through my three batteries today and had a pretty good time practicing some things so I thought I'd share what I've experienced so far with the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced. Some of these things won't apply if your copter doesn't have all of the same features such as the warnings, return to home, GPS/GLONASS tracking, etc.

1. I purchased a gimbal guard but frankly I haven't used it much. I bought the DJI Phantom 3 backpack and you can't put the copter in the backpack when the gimbal guard is installed. Where I've been practicing the ground is pretty level so the guard isn't really necessary. I think it was an impulse buy after my crash that scratched up the camera and even if I'd had it on during that crash I'm not sure how much good it would have done.
2. Practice flying in large, open areas without fences (like brick walls common in Phoenix, AZ or weeping willows like in my back yard). That way you've got plenty of room to recover from losses of orientation which is what caused both of my crashes.
3. Make sure you let your battery levels go down so that you can get used to keeping calm and collected while alarms are going off on your $1,000 device. My first crash was also due to experiencing the alarms for the first time and worrying about what was potentially going to happen instead of maintaining control.
4. You're not supposed to ever fly over busy streets or people and I think that is especially true while you're learning how to fly. Those things can hurt. I was landing on a T.V. tray in my back yard, standing just a couple of feet from the drone. It was down but the motors hadn't stopped and a light gust of wind blew it off the top of the tray. Instinctively I grabbed for it, sticking my hand in the spinning rotors. Ouch and bloody.
5. This is from a YouTube video - if you loose orientation and there is nothing above the drone, give it altitude to help keep it from running in to anything while you figure out which direction it is headed. This is a good reason NOT to fly under trees or other obstacles until you've had some pilot time.
6. This is from a YouTube video - when you fly the drone some distance away it can be easy to loose the orientation. As long as you've stopped flying while you still have some room, you can maneuver the drone to re-establish the orientation. Give it forward pitch (make it go forward). If it goes to the left, give it left yaw (make it turn left) so that it's coming towards you. If it goes to the right, give it right yaw (make it turn right) so that it's coming towards you. In other words, assuming a "normal" joystick configuration, if the copter goes left push the left joystick left, the same direction as the movement of the drone. If it goes right push the joystick to the right. If the drone starts going the opposite direction you've over-corrected and you just need to reverse the joystick direction to match the drift of the drone. This will bring the drone home to you (make minor adjustments as required to keep it headed towards you).
1. If you give the drone forward pitch and it doesn't go left or right then it's headed towards or away from you. Give it some left or right yaw. If it turns the same direction that you steer it's going away from you. If it turns opposite of the direction of the yaw then it's coming towards you.

   

   Intersection where I used "Return to Home"
   Interstate 10 and Loop 303 from 112 feet above ground

    
7. Even with the above tips I had a couple of times today where I hit the "Return to Home" (RTH) functionality because I couldn't tell how much room I had to play with to figure out the orientation. The RTH will cause the drone to point towards you and rise up to a set height before giving itself forward thrust to return to you (or more specifically, to the set home point). In one case I was near an intersection on Interstate 10. I knew I wasn't over it and that there was nothing above the drone. In the other case I realized I'd gotten close to some power lines. In both cases the drone ascended and started heading back. After it got to where I could tell what its orientation was I took over the controls again.
8. Regarding the power lines, it didn't dawn on me until I got close to them (I was still probably a decent distance away but they made me nervous) that there are two problems with high voltage power lines (yeah, the big ones): a) you could run in to them; b) the magnetic field could interfere with the control signal transmissions. I did actually have something minor go wrong with the signals and I had to land and reboot everything. The controller has a switch that makes the camera point down or straight out and it stopped working. The reboot restored the functionality. The controller also has a wheel to control the camera angle and it still worked - it was just the button that stopped working.
9. While learning to fly I shot some video and still images but I don't really care much about them yet. I'm just concentrating on keeping control of the craft for now and the video and images are just a minor distraction.
10. It is hard to see my tablet in the Arizona sky. I could at times use it to determine the orientation of the drone (I was trying to use it) but unless I really got the tablet in some shade it was hard to see it, including when trying to change controls (like go to "waypoint" mode).
11. The videos I shot had a lot of propeller in them. I think this is due to two things: a) there was a bit of wind and I think the craft is running at more of an angle to try to keep it's orientation correct; b) I think it would be good to always drop the camera angle a bit below horizontal to avoid the propellers.

Looking south down Cotton Lane
from 228 feet above ground

I'm partially enjoying this learning process but at the same time it seems like a distraction from photography and that there's a lot of skill required, which in turn requires investing time, and that time is being stolen from practicing photography. For now I'll keep up with it a bit longer but unless I get some pictures from this soon that provide some wow factor I am half of the mindset that I'd have been better served getting that Nikkor 200-500 f/5.6E lens. Maybe once I'm cured from this sinus issue and start actually taking some photographs again I'll find that this thing is cool. Otherwise I may have to take up my co-worker on his offer to purchase it.

Looking West along Interstate 10
and Phoenix Trotting Park from 228 feet above ground

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced - Initial Impressions - Part 4

I had been dealing with a sinus infection that won't go away but I had a work holiday on January 18, 2016 to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. I didn't feel great but forced myself to take the drone out to try to take some photographs and try out some of its more advanced functionality. I had charged the batteries up after flying in the back yard the day before, and I charged my phone up as well.

I travelled to the Gillespie Dam Bridge area where I knew there was some rarely visited space that was fairly free of obstacles. The Gillespie Dam Bridge is a bit west of Phoenix. Heading west on Interstate 10 out of Phoenix, you take the State Route 85, exit of of it on the Patterson Road exit just south of the state prison. Continue to you reach Old U.S. Highway 80 and turn right heading north. You'll come to the bridge and you can't miss the rusty old steel bridge - there aren't many like it in Arizona!

The spot I went to is on the west end of the bridge. There's rarely anyone there and its pretty open. I thought I might be able to fly along the side of the bridge and also fly around the open area.

Per somebodies suggestion I had taken a piece of particle board to use as a take off and landing pad. If nothing else it would give me a place without rocks to land.

I parked and got everything set up. I had the DJI Phantom 3 in its box and the second box for my other battery. You have to have the propellers off when the unit is in the box. I assembled the drone, hooked my phone to the controller, placed the Phantom on my landing pad, turned on the DJI Go application on the iPhone, turned on the controller, and turned on the Phantom. I was excited and ready for my first real flight!

Here's video of my first excursion. This is a reduced size video - not the full HD size.

 

 

As you can see, I didn't have the White Balance set properly. I had it set to Incandescent from the little clips I did in my house and didn't change it when I got outdoors. I had set the DJI Go app to only allow the drone to go out 200 meters which is where I got to alongside the bridge when I stop and turn it around.

I'll admit that I was a bit nervous seeing the Phantom out that far. That's a big part of the $1,000 toy way off in the distance and the YouTube videos of "fly aways" had gotten to me! My old eyeballs could still make out where the drone was but not its orientation. When you push the "pitch" stick (right control) forward to make the drone move forward, it moves forward in the direction of the front of the drone. You can change which direction the front of the drone is facing with the "yaw" stick (left control). The problem is that after a few yaw adjustments it is difficult to tell from a distance which is the front of the aircraft.

And that is a great reason for the "Return to Home" button. The drone figures out on its own which direction to turn and then drives itself right back to you! I tried that out a number of times and frankly it would be hard to get along without it I think. Once you see the drone heading back to you it allows you to take control again if you want and then you can continue to pilot it to where you want it to go next.

I spent time just getting used to the flight controls. I also tried out the "follow me" functionality by having the drone chase me while I walked around. I started trying out the "waypoint" feature but ran out of battery life before I got that done.

Gillespie Dam Bridge from abut 36 feet elevation
Taken with the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced

On a photographic note, I did take a couple of photographs of the bridge and the dam. I saved them in the DNG RAW format. The histogram looked pretty good. The sky was partly cloudy or partly sunny - not a cloudless sky but also not completely overcast. I thought the daylight was pretty good. I had the ISO set at 100.

Gillespie Dam
Taken with the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced

When I got home to process the images I was underwhelmed. There was quite a bit of noise in the hills on the right side of the image. I processed them in Adobe Lightroom and it did pretty good but the original just wasn't the same as my Nikon D610. The drone MIGHT be about the same as the Nikon D3200 - which I also don't like any more and rarely shoot with it because of the noise.

I am holding my final judgement on the picture quality of the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced because I've seen decent photographs online taken with it. I want to shoot some more with it and hopefully I'll figure out how to get better images with respect to digital noise. But if they don't clear up I'll be wishing I'd got that Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6 lens instead! I'm already questioning my decision. I didn't want to get involved with video and I don't think I'll become a big quad copter fan, at least not of this big bulky type of  'copter. The FPV Racing Quads might be a different story!

DJI Phantom 3 Advanced - Initial Impressions - Part 3

After ordering the DJI Phantom 3 Advanced, and while waiting for it to arrive, I downloaded and read the manual, watched the DJI tutorial videos, and watched a lot of YouTube videos about or taken by drones, especially the DJI Phantom 3.

I felt I had some insight as to how to approach learning how to fly and control the drone. A co-worker of mine, Nick, who has flown RC drones for years gave me some advice. When it arrived and I got the batteries charged and the firmware updated, I was ready.

I went out to my back yard, set up a crate as my heliport, followed the instructions to turn the equipment on, and hit the "Auto Takeoff" button. The drone armed its motors and then launched, hovering about 4 feet above the top of the TV tray! I was airborne!



Birdseye View

Per Nick's advice, I started slowly moving the roll and pitch controls to just go back and forth in one direction, then flying small squares, in both directions. Getting a feel for the response of the aircraft to the controls. Because the DJI Phantom 3 is such an advanced aircraft, I didn't need to control the elevation manually during these exercises. It will hold it's elevation for you. When you move horizontally, however, you do lose some lift so I did bump up the elevation a bit now and then just to keep it about eye level.

Eventually I had it in an open area with no trees above it and I decided to try making it go higher. I went straight up to about 60 feet. It was still easy to see the drone but at the same time a bit nerve-wracking having something that expensive up in the air that high! I made the camera point down and snapped a picture of my dog Elmer and I in our backyard with the dormant grass.

I was able to land before using up all of the battery, and repeated the trials with the second battery. The batteries were used up before you know it, and way before you want them to be used. It would be great to have half a dozen batteries or so, with the capacity to charge multiple batteries at the same time.

I found that using the DJI GO controller application on my iPhone 5 was satisfactory. I could make out what the camera was seeing. I could access most controls okay. Some of the controls use icons that are rendered very small on the iPhone 5 but I have somewhat grown accustomed to that from other iPhone apps and was able to get around it.

I tried my wife's iPhone 6 Plus which has the larger screen and it wasn't significantly better, not to the point where it made me want to upgrade my phone. I was actually thankful about that - it meant I didn't have to spend more money!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, this is my first encounter with the RC world. I don't know what it would have been like without the auto-hover or video streaming capabilities of the DJI Phantom 3. I do know that those features and others are what people praised in the many reviews I read and what led to their recommendations for this platform and to my purchasing it. I have to say I did not have any trouble flying the drone!

What about some video?

After the batteries had charged again I was able to go through both of them once more in my backyard. This time I captured a video of the adventure. It's not terribly amazing but I edited it a bit by putting some titles on it and one of my songs (the Phantom 3 does NOT capture sound). Enjoy!