Thursday, July 10, 2014

Flying over Sunflower fields - Video

While I was taking photos of the sunflower fields near Artois, I also had my Phantom 2 quadcopter out in the field as well. It gives a unique POV to any subject.

Here's a short video of flying over the sunflower fields.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Aerial Views of Sunflowers in the Sacramento Valley


My last post showed regular ground-based shots of sunflowers in the Valley. On the same trip, I also used my Phantom quadcopter with GoPro 3+ Black Edition camera to capture some aerial images of the sunflower fields.


The fisheye perspective of the GoPro makes it look like you're well above the flowers, when the reality is that the quadcopter is skimming less than three feet above the golden blooms. 

That can make for some exciting flying, but makes for even more exciting images... like some unique panoramic images like these (click on the images to enlarge).



In my next post, I'll try to put up some HD video of the sunflower fields, taken as the Phantom skimmed above the flower tops.


Friday, July 4, 2014

Sunflowers in the Sacramento Valley

It's summer, and besides heat, rice, and tomatoes in the Sacramento Valley, if you look in the right places, it can also mean sunflowers.


Though sunflowers are not a major crop in the Sacramento Valley, if you look around, you can usually find a field or two tucked away in some corner somewhere.


These images were taken in a sunflower field near Artois, in Glenn County.




My next post will include some aerial shots of the sunflower field.

Monday, June 23, 2014

Lake Oroville from the Air

In the middle of all the family drama in the past couple of months, I was able to take my drone out to Lake Oroville and fly it high above the half empty lake.

The drought has really brought the lake way down.


Lake Oroville from the Air

Small world view of Lake Oroville

I should try to get out to the lake again and get some other angles and perspectives.

Monday, June 9, 2014

Aerial Views of Chico State

More photography using the DJI Phantom drone, this time around the Chico State campus.

I hope to do more flying around campus.

Trinity Hall

Trinity and Kendall Halls

Trinity Hall

Panorama of campus

Panorama of campus

Monday, June 2, 2014

Flying around a Sacramento Valley Vineyard

This vineyard, owned by Sutter Home winery, was a very tempting subject for the DJI Phantom.

I was able to get a wonderful short video of the vineyard, along with some stunning images.

Vineyard panorama
The video is short and actually quite wonderful. I'm getting much better at flying the drone smoothly.




Thursday, May 29, 2014

Flying around Butte College with the DJI Phantom

I've had the opportunity to fly my DJI Phantom drone a number of times, but I haven't had the opportunity to post many images or videos.

Last month I was able to fly it around Butte College one weekend, and got some wonderful images and video.

Here's a short video flying high above the campus.


And here are some images from the flight: