skinny_tom

There are ways to fly "under" the airspace. If you look closely at the grids you can see the floor of the airspace. If you register your drone with the FAA I think you can get LAANC approval through Airmap. I'm pretty sure they've opened it up for …

Monument from memorial.

I took this while the state of California was on fire. I can't remember which time.

It's Sunday somewhere, and I'll be offline for a great deal of time tomorrow. This is tomorrow's submission. I took it with the "selective focus" feature on my Samsung S9 and then "auto corrected" the image with the software included in the Samsung …

Edited for Instagram. Exposure and all the details don't really have much meaning when I push the sliders around as much as I did on this one.

...and the interesting part is that I don't see that as an expensive car. Does it cost a lot? Sure. This is an expensive Merc in my …

I'm going to make a presumption that a more expensive vehicle these days comes with the improvements to performance that spending would imply. It is possible that those who have more powerful and better performing cars are merely enjoying their …

Not mentioned in the post is that he reported (to whom, I forgot) that his car had veered toward the divider in exactly the same spot one week prior. Consider also that the Black Box in the Tesla does not keep the autopilot telemetry and Tesla …

In 2019 there were 590 reported bird strikes in California alone. Another 336 in New York state. There are 3792 aviation accidents listed in the Aviation Safety Networks database for 2019. And there were an unconfirmed 257 deaths in aviation …

I took a drive out to Buchli to fly the drone. Location: https://goo.gl/maps/j7GkSeF1RdXtNkkE6 The clouds were giving us some fun shadows and were moving nicely, so they'd video well even if it was late-morning lighting. Perhaps this building is …

And it bet you got some good footage! I've found that the AirMap app is a great source for knowing where (and if you're in) regulated airspace. There is also a way to get FAA permission to fly under regulated airspace near airports through the app …

Interesting... Here is what I've learned about that stuff: A property owner, governmental agency (National Parks etc.) and even a city may enact a law or policy that you may not operate a drone from their property or jurisdiction. That is, landing …

Drone Film Guide is pretty good. I've watched a bunch of their videos as well as others. I have to admit that I forget about all "the moves" as well. I think that I'm going to make a little cheat sheet and create a flight plan for when I'm doing …

Okay, I have more.... If you push the sticks toward each other, or away from each other, what you have is an "orbit" type move. That is, the drone simultaneously moves laterally and rotates at the same time, but because they're opposite, it will …

If you're after the true cinematic shot; that one with a little bit of motion in each frame, I believe you're looking for a shutter speed of about twice the frame rate. For 30 FPS you'll want to put an ND filter on there that will bring your …

I would imagine that the processing power, memory and associated hardware that accompanies the subject tracking processes would put this drone over the FAA .5 lb limit for registration. Also, in other countries the rule for flying drones over that …

2 image panorama

Steamboat Slough

Southern Sonoma Valley last night. 10 image panorama (cropped)

By the time I replaced the tires on my 7000 LB dodge diesel pickup, the Michelin LTX "whatever's" had about 70,000 miles on them. That's really, really good for a heavy truck like that. So I bought another set of the latest version. 5 actually. …

https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-3J7TfSd/0/b5b41d69/X2/i-3J7TfSd-X2.jpg I jokingly titled this one "barrow" because it's missing the wheel. Bodie NP.

I would not. Under load, electric vehicles become significantly less efficient. The video below explains why they're bad at towing, but any additional load applies. Just maybe not as much as a heavy …

The optimist says the glass is half full. The pessimist says its half empty. The engineer says its twice as big as it needs to be.

I've been practicing, and honing my skills flying a drone. Mid-year I upgraded, and learned some new stuff. It's visible in the quality of images. A few of my …

I took a picture like that but more moody and abstract (read: difficult to tell what it is) when I was in Hyder AK. I printed it big and hung it up with a bunch of my other work at a show I was invited to participate in. It totally flopped- and I …