Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I fly around the country fairly often and since I live less than 10 minutes from John Wayne Airport I fly out of there if at all possible. Since I am pretty familiar with the airport now I thought I would share a few tips if you plan on taking a flight out of there.
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Traveling via John Wayne Airport
GoCast #19 – How to choose the right equipment
With different camera bodies, lenses, and countless accessories available, deciding what to buy that will really make a difference is often very difficult. In this episode I discusses how to go about picking out the right gear.
Host: Kerry Garrison
Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting
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Budget Aerial Photography Part 2
While I have been doing some experiments with the AR Drone, it just really isn’t cut out to carry a payload. This week I was at CES and ran across a platform I had seen before and decided to give it a second look.
The Rotor Concept HPQ-1 is a big step up from the AR Drone in that it has a lifting capacity of a full pound. With a GoPro camera weighing only 3.3oz and even larger camcorders weighing in around between 9-14oz, the HPQ-1 can be used to lift a wide variety of small size gear.
Their larger HPQ-2 can loft up to three pounds which is enough for small DSLR’s and Compact sized cameras. Rotor Concept was selling the HPQ-1 for only $299 instead of their regular $499 price and they were flying off the shelves (pun intended). For a few extra bucks you got nice aluminum case with custom designed foam for the copter.
While I did a quick test flight just to make sure everything was working, its sitting for a few hours while I am charging batteries and I put some Loctite on the propeller shaft screws as directed in the manual. I will get out for a test flight in a bit and see how she flies.
Get Yourself a Hobby
I know for many of your that photography is your hobby and if that is what photography is to you, than that is great. For others who are trying to go from a hobby to a business, this is when you need some other distraction to keep yourself balanced. For some people it is video games, for others it may be scrapbooking, or maybe yours is knitting. It really doesn’t matter what it is but if all you do is eat, sleep, drink, and live photography, you will get burned out more often. I certainly know this from personal experience. I have the business, I have CameraDojo.com, I have the podcast/gocast, I talk at user groups and trade shows, if I don’t do something that is non-photography related, I get to a point where I just want to shut it off for a while.
The past few months I have wanted to get back into radio control helicopters (of course with the excuse of mounting cameras to them). I bought a small 450 sized helicopter and started practicing on a simulator (this is a required step in my opinion). The problem is, I can’t just run out to the backyard and fly it, it needs some good space devoid of people and I find it hard to make the time to head over to a safe place to fly it. I also have access to a monster sized heli I can use for aerial photography should the need arise, but it takes even more space and is quite expensive should an accident occur. So while I enjoy them, it really isn’t something I can just “go do” for an hour and then get back to work, so I was off in search of something else.
What I found was the Parrot AR Drone. The AR Drone is a quadricopter but what is really unique is that it is controlled over WiFi from an iOS or Android device instead of a traditional radio controller. This difference means you get FPV (first person view) as you fly it around as well as real-time telemetry such as altitude and battery level. Given my slight obsessive compulsive disorder, I went in search of all the information I could find to maximize my experience with it and, to my surprise, there was actually very little info about it other than some forums with some posts. So what am I to do with my background in developing websites, a great new gadget I am having a blast with, and a few evenings free over the holidays. Well, time to create a website about the AR Drone and within a few hours, AR Drone Tips was born.
Now I am not suggestion you all go find a new gadget and in a matter of days create the top fan site for it, but I am suggesting that you follow my lead a little and find a hobby that you can go do, go play, go enjoy, and use to turn off your day to day grind if for only 30 minutes a day or so. The trick is finding something that requires very little time to get going so if you decide I need a break right now that you can go do it, and when done, get it put away in just a few minutes. If you take on a hobby like painting, there is just too much time to do the prep and the cleanup. Not that painting is a bad hobby, its just not a good “I need a 20 minute break” hobby.
I find that something like flying the drone or working on the AR Drone Tips website is a quick little distraction that I can go do quickly and then when finished, just pop it on the shelf and throw the battery on a charger. Have a little fun in your day with some quick distraction and help keep yourself from burn-out.
Budget Aerial Photography
Usually an article like this would find its way onto my educational site at http://cameradojo.com but it’s here on my personal blog because it is very much a work in progress versus a completed project. Put simply, I have been experimenting with different platforms that can carry different size camera platforms. For light weight cameras, its hard to beat the GoPro HD Hero. The Hero takes such good video that you will see them used on TV shows such as Mythbusters, Deadliest Catch, SurvivorMan, and many, many other shows.
What I like about the GoPro is that it is very lightweight so it shouldn’t be too hard to get something to be able to lift it up to do aerial photos and videos. Down the road, I want to have much higher end gear and offer aerial photography as a service.
My first attempt to loft the GoPro used a Blade 450, a 450 sized electric helicopter. The main problem is with vibrations. Using the GoPro’s mount attached to the helicopter’s chassis, the vibrations cause a “jello effect” rendering the video pretty much useless. In order for this to be a viable solution, I need to come up with some kind of mount that absorbs the vibrations Secondly, a 450 heli is not the easiest thing in the world to fly. While I am quite capable, the added weight does make it more unstable making it quite a chore to fly well. A much more suitable helicopter would be a 600 size or bigger. While I like flying helicopters, their unstable nature and potential problems in a crash is simply too dangerous to fly anywhere near people. Add in the fact they even the electrics are not very quiet and you have a flying platform that you would never use near a group of people like a wedding reception or party.
Over the holiday season I decided to try out theParrot AR Drone. While the AR Drone is considered a toy, many people have successfully flown it with a GoPro attached. With the four rotors, the AR Drone is very stable and is super easy to fly and you control it with either an iPhone/iPad or Android device. I use my Motorola XOOM Tablet. The AR Drone broadcasts a WiFi signal that your device connects to, and then an app on your device allows you to control the drone.
The problem with mounting the GoPro is that it will hit the ground as the legs are not long enough. To solve this I added ping pong balls to each leg and used a foam pad to mount the camera.
While the drone flew great and stable, the camera angle was not ideal as it was pointed down too much. Even though the video didn’t turn out as good as I wanted, as a proof of concept, it was a complete success. The reason I say this is that attaching the GoPro via a foam block would certainly help vibrations, the foam block was attached to the bottom navigation plate which itself has vibration damping so the footage is not great from a subject matter point of view, but there is no visible jello effect.
What’s Next
Next on the agenda is to redesign the camera mount so it points more forward than down but the problem is that even with my ping pong ball leg extensions, the GoPro will hang down too far. The solution will either be a way to extend the legs further, which is problematic as that will make it easier for them to show up in the shot, or find a different landing system. The latter may be a better solution since the GoPro is facing backwards, a different landing leg on the front might be easier to fabricate.
Stay tuned for more progress on this project as it evolves and I figure out ways to make it work better. When its all finished, then the final build article will be posted at CameraDojo.com, until then, all of the progress and testing will be posted here.
Resource Links
- GoPro – http://www.gopro.com
- Parrot AR Drone – http://www.ardrone.com
GoCast #18 – Making the most of your new gear
In this episode, I talk about making the most out of your new photography gear that you just got for the holidays. During this show, I discuss what things you may want to look at next, how to go about planning future purchases, and how to make the most out of your photography budget. If you have additional tips, please add them to the comments.
GoCast #17 – What is this WPPI thing all about
WPPI is coming up in mid-February which may seem a ways out, but if you are going, you should make your plans today. What is WPPI? WPPI is the yearly convention for wedding and portrait photographers. At WPPI you will find some amazing speakers, a huge expo floor, and a wonderful community of fellow photographers. Should you go? What should you do there? Hopefully this GoCast will answer those questions.
WPPI Parties Group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/315432758592/
Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting
GoCast #16 – Is it the photographer or the gear?
In this episode, I discuss the ago old question…is it the photographer or the gear?
At almost any event someone will likely say “That’s looks like a great camera, it must take awesome pictures” and over the years people have argued that you can hand a point and shoot camera to a great photographer and they can make amazing photos with it.
Is there any truth behind these statements? Let’s dive into the issue and see what we come up with.
Sponsors: GoPro, Blackbelt Lighting
For this and more GoCasts, Podcasts, and tutorials, please visit my educational site at CameraDojo.com
Simple and Effective Three Light Portrait Setup
After learning the ins and outs of your camera, the next thing you generally want to do is to start working on your portrait skills. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to get really good lighting without spending more on lighting than you did on your camera. I have been promoting a pretty simple three light portrait setup that is very simple to use and creates excellent results with a minimum of work. This setup is so easy and effective that you will see it used anywhere mass portraits are done such as on cruise ships.
For more information on this, please read the entire article at CameraDojo.com.
GoCast #15 – What’s Wrong With Photography Education
While I have many friends that are photography instructors and I know many photographers who have moved into doing workshops, seminars, ebooks, and other education formats to try to pay the bills, one of the biggest issues I have is instructors that completely over sell the earning potential for photographers.
The fact is, very few photographers can even pay their bills with their photography business and I actually can’t name a single photographer that I know who makes their sole income from pressing the shutter for their own business. Every photographer I know has to supplement their income with a day job, other types of work, side jobs, or by going down the teaching route.
With clients’ budgets at an all time low, this has become an even bigger issue as the price of jobs has fallen over the past few years. Add to this instructors who are telling aspiring photographers that they can easily make six figures or more or bill weddings at $10,000+ when the average photographer in the US makes $29,000 a year and you have a real recipe for disaster and disappointment.
Listen to this week’s GoCast at CameraDojo.com as I delve deeper into what’s wrong with photography education today and how to make sure your photography education budget is spent wisely.