Aerial Photography + La Union Workshop Weekend

I’ve been able to rest at home some more lately. In fact, now, I’m thinking of doing a mini tour of this place before things get crazy next year schedule-wise with the baby & all. 🙂 One of the things that I think will be demoted in my priorities would be these Instagram problems! 🙂 Haha. I must admit I’m always guilty of thinking about content creation and management. Then again, that’s part of my passion & luckily, my job so I guess this makes it legit? I hope so! IDK

More comics about Instagram here by the way:
Instagram Problems (Part 1)
Instagram vs. Real Life
Instagram Comments
Instagram Animation Tutorial
Instagram Pet Peeves
The Instagrammer Goes on a Date!

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Ola Guys! 🙂

Here’s Ponggo taking over a section of the blog today. I’m so happy that since I’ve been busy with workshops last August, he started getting in charge of documentation. We were in La Union for the Vitamin Sea Workshop. It was a fun weekend of bonding with friends. 🙂

After months and months of endless work, I was finally able to get out for a much needed break! And so I thought it was a break :p A trip for me would never be complete without my camera gear so here I am, packed all my gear again… and this time… packed my new aerial rig as well… The Inspire 1!

I was dying to try this out since I never had the time to fly it ever since I got it. We arrived in La Union at 2am already, but instead of hitting the sack right away, I set up the rig as soon as we got to the room so that I could fly in the morning. I did a pre-flight check before I sleep so that in the morning I am basically ready to go! I checked the connection between the controller and the Zenpad just to be sure as well as all the batteries so that I will be ready for some aerial photography in the morning!

After that, it was ZZZZzzzzzzzzzz time!

What is nice about the Inspire 1 is that it has a huge suitcase where I could put all my gear in. So… what is inside? Of course, the Inspire 1 is in there, 2 remote controllers, 1 to control the drone and 1 for the camera. Also placed in there are 2 Asus Zenpower power banks, the Zenpad 7 and a Zenfone 2. Yes I know, I carry waaaaayyyyyy too much gear!

The nice thing about the Inspire 1 is that it transmits real time telemetry data. I can see my horizontal speed, vertical speed, altitude and distance. This is valuable data for me as the pilot so that I can control the drone accurately. Attached to my controller is the Zenfone 2 and this is what I use to see all these data and even the FPV view of the drone. Why did I choose the Zenfone 2 over other devices that I have used? It is fast and stable! The drone transmits 720p video to the ground and if the device is not fast, definitely this will lag big time! I never encountered video lag wih the Zenfone 2 attached to it. The 5.5 inch screen is nice! Even in bright sunlight, I can still see the video feed! Of course, it would still be better with the shade but in case I forget to bring it, this is still ok! Battery life is also good! It could last for around 5 or 6 flights before I hit the 50% mark. However, being OC and all, I plug in the device to my power bank after every flight. I am the type who does not want surprises whenever I fly so I try as much as possible to keep the charge of all my devices at full. Zenpower saves the day! One thing I don’t like with the Zenfone 2 is the back cover, every time I load it to the remote, I have to remove the back cover so that it can fit properly.

Check out the La Union video here.

For the other remote controller, attached is the Zenpad 7. With a bigger screen as compared to the Zenfone 2, 7 inches compared to 5.5, this is ideal for the videographer. You can see more details and control the camera easier as well. Battery life is still ok, but definitely, the Zenpowers come in really handy after a few flights. It is definitely not as fast as the Zenfones but it can do the job already. There are a couple of times that I encountered the camera view lagging but not that serious. Another nice thing about having a big screen is while it is on map mode, you can see the terrain (via Google maps) that you are flying in. This way, you can clearly see your flight path.

Call me OC or paranoid or whatever, I also carry a spare Zenfone whenever I fly. It never hurts to have a backup device in case anything goes wrong.

Why do I like ASUS so much that all my attached devices are from this manufacturer? They keep on updating the system making it more stable, not that it is unstable, it just keeps getting better and better all the time. Price wise, the devices are very affordable! So given the need to have multiple units all the time, this is very good for me.

And now to flying!

I have been flying RC helicopters for over 5 years already. Back then, we would DIY our camera mounts so that we could fly our cameras. Everything was DIY! We had to compute the center of gravity and everything else so that the helicopters would fly well. Yes, you read it right, helicopters. There were no quadcopters, hexacopters or whatever else there is now. It was a real challenge to fly them and to land them without crashing. You really have to start training from the simulators so that you don’t keep on crashing all the time.

Fast forward to 2014, quadcopters started to become very popular because of its relative ease to fly. The problem with this is that since it became so easy to fly, a lot were able to buy these devices and started flying without proper training. Every so often now, you can see in the news that there is a drone flying into restricted airspace or one crashing in a populated area or another one flying recklessly endangering people. The actions of these people are creating problems for those who fly responsibly! Remember, use common sense before you fly.

Saying hello to the drone are: Macy, Kanel, June, Jelvin, Abbey, Mansy, Tipsy, myself & Kay! 🙂

Here are some basic rules of flying:

1) Do not fly more than 400ft high.

2) If you can, have a spotter beside you so that you know where your drone is at all times.

If you do not have a spotter with you, make sure that you can always see your drone.

99% of the time you really do not need to fly that far… you just want to!

3) Keep clear of airports! If bird strikes can bring down a plane… imagine what a drone can

do.

4) Do not fly above groups of people. You never know when it is going to fail!

5) Do not fly in bad weather or reduced visibility. Your drone is not waterproof!

6) Do not fly when you are intoxicated. It is hard to fly as it is… imagine doing this when

you are drunk.

7) Do not fly near sensitive structures like power plants, power distribution facilities, military

camps… you know what other structures can be considered sensitive!

8) Use your common sense! 🙂

We’ll be sharing more photos from La Union so stay tuned for the next blog post! 🙂

-Ponggo

Previously in La Union:
Of Emojis & a La Union Workshop
Googly Travels: La Union & Malaysia
Our Flotsam and Jetsam Weekend

This is officially Tipsy typing 😀
P.S. Just a few important dates for this month:
1) I will be doing a watercolor demo at the Katipunan Art Fest this month with June Digan & Abbey Sy at Ninyo by 3pm. Don’t forget to follow Katipunan Art Fest on Facebook & Instagram for more details.
Katipunan Art Festival Map

2) Mark your calendars! I’m so honored to be a part of Ilustrador ng Kabataan’s INK Fest at Fully Booked in BGC on October 24! Check out the INK Fest 2015 event page on Facebook for more details or follow INK on Facebook & Instagram.

Ilustrador ng Kabataan INK Fest 2015 Poster design is by Robbie Bautista, the Creative Dork himself! 🙂 I have a confession to make: I learned about INK wihle reading Robbie’s blog years ago.

‘Til the next blog post!

XOXO,
Tipsy ♥

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