Dronie Sunday – 28 June 2020

Fargo, North Dakota.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of ours mentioned Orchard Glen Park in the extreme south of Fargo along the Red River. What we learned upon our first visit is that if we headed further south and then east to the Red River, we would find another park known as Forest River Park. The two parks are less than a mile apart and we’ve discovered they are a popular place for people to explore and bird watch. Situated at an “oxbow” in the river, Forest River Park is about 2000 ft (609 m) by 900 ft (274 m), with the main trail and several smaller trails wandering through the trees. If you look carefully toward the top center of the photo, you’ll see a large house with a red and white roof visible just below the edge of the trees. That house is on the other side of the Red River in Minnesota, the river marking the north, east, and south borders of the park. If your browser allows it, you may have to select the photo to enlarge it for a closer view of the house.

Dronie Sunday – 19 April 2020

Buckeye, Arizona.

On an early March day, we hit the trail with my Mavic Air drone in the backpack. Our goal, in case you missed it from my last Dronie Sunday, was to hike into the Verrado Trails area toward the Petroglyphs and capture some aerial views of the White Tank Mountains. There aren’t a lot of flat spaces in the desert that are accessible from a given trail, so we hiked along the Petroglyph Trail about a mile before we found a suitable space for launching the Air.

Dronie Sunday – 29 March 2020

Buckeye, Arizona.

OK, so I took a break from my drone photography this winter. It’s been a busy season for me between Civil Air Patrol activities, nearby travel destinations, and even a Caribbean cruise (just before CoronaVirus, fortunately.) Part of my issue revolved around how to get to a photogenic place in the desert where I could set up the drone. The carrying case I had been using for the Mavic Air is a repurposed video projector bag that once belonged to a long-since broken projector. It wouldn’t be the best way to schlep the drone and accessories on a hike.

Dronie Sunday – 24 November 2019

Howard, Colorado.

During this summer’s travels, we stopped on our way to Antonito, Colorado at Pleasant Valley Campground near the small town of Howard. The summer getaway place of our friends Fred and Ellen became a good place to show off the Mavic Air. We walked over to a part of the campground with open skies and launched. Located next to the Arkansas River, the view of an abandoned railroad track and gravel road made for a decent composition.

Dronie Sunday – 20 October 2019

Moorhead, Minnesota.

The Red River forms the border between North Dakota and Minnesota and is one of the few rivers in the country to flow north, its headwaters begin at the confluence of the Ottertail and Bois de Sioux Rivers near the city of Breckenridge, Minnesota. From there it meanders northward separating the two states until it leaves the United States near the border crossing just north of Pembina, North Dakota. It finally terminates at Lake Winnipeg, the fifth largest lake in Canada.

Dronie Sunday – 15 September 2019

Ogallala, Nebraska.

For an upcoming Travel Tuesday, we planned a visit to Lake McConaughy, a manmade lake and popular recreation area in western Nebraska. Today would be the first day I used photos from my airborne camera to add aerial images to my travel posts. I haven’t yet had any negative interactions with bystanders who are understandably curious when they hear that whine and spot the flashing lights on the small drone that I use.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Angles

Fargo, North Dakota.

This week Ann-Christine asks us to look at photography from different angles. As a landscape photographer, I often go to a “new-to-me” place and take oodles of images of the subjects at different angles. The goal of trying different compositions is that something in one of the angles captured adds a little extra something to make it a more interesting photograph. As her contribution to the challenge, she features a couple of fascinating sand sculptures captured from different angles. You can read her entire challenge post here.

Dronie Sunday – 18 August 2019

Fargo, North Dakota.

It’s been a month since I’ve shared a “dronie” photo. I haven’t had much of a chance to take photos from the aerial platform. With a trip to Winnipeg and another to Baltimore in the last few weeks, I’ve barely had time to only complete some proficiency flights as a remote pilot. I hope to change that in the next few weeks. In the meantime, I felt it’s time to share another image captured from one of my first attempts at using the remote photo software built into the DJI Go4 application I use to operate the Mavic Air.

Dronie Sunday – 14 July 2019

Fargo, North Dakota.

It’s been a rocky start to getting the drone I purchased to automatically update its airspace database information, but after returning it to the manufacturer, they replaced the unit and this one is working properly. Now I am learning more about camera operations having learned to be comfortable flying the airborne camera. I got into drone flying because of Civil Air Patrol. They are ramping up mission training for using drones in several important operations, not the least of which is search and rescue. At some point I expect our ground teams will be able to deploy a drone to search areas where their vehicles or even walking the area is either uncomfortable or hazardous.

Dronie Sunday – 30 June 2019

Fargo, North Dakota.

Those accustomed to seeing “Cellpic Sunday” on its usual day may note the name change. No, I haven’t abandoned Cellpic Sunday. In the interest of variety, I decided to mix it up a bit and use the term Drone Sunday when the shot featured is captured from a flying camera platform. Please excuse me while I inflict upon you the results of my learning experiences as I get familiar with the characteristics of drone photography. Cellpic Sunday will be featured whenever the photo was generated from a cellphone, tablet, or other mobile device.