It’s been a while since I have posted so I’m going to drop a photo or two from the last couple of days. After doing some work in the yard having not done so for 7 days we cleaned up and went for a drive mapping out some new roads around home. As is often the case, we were blocked by a passing train. This one hauling 150 cars full of coal headed to Washington.
Coal train headed to Washington, DC.
It has been raining like crazy around home. On Sunday evening it rained 10 inches near here and subsequently washed out many small bridges where we were driving closing most of the routes we would normally take for an evening stroll. At first we thought it was official maintenance of the roads but quickly learned it was mother nature reclaiming what is hers.
Switching gears… I don’t like crows, in particular, but I liked this photo from a long lens against a cloudy sky. Probably because of the high contrast.
Crow
And, finally, these bluebirds, two of so many on our property have made a nest near the well head. Every year this time the bluebirds are very active. They don’t go anywhere during the winter so they tend to stay close by. They have unmistakable markings that you can see in this photograph. Every year I say I am going to put up more bluebird houses because there are so many nesting pairs. I need to get out there and build them.
Bluebirds
I put all this stuff near the well head to keep farmers from running it over when we harvest the hay which you can see getting tall in the background. It does not interact well with farm equipment. Usually the farm equipment is the loser of any battle with only minor scrapes on the well. Concrete and steel are a formidable competitor to anything other than concrete and steel.
It seems like I just posted a blog on a snow storm!
The last couple of days has been preparing for another n’easter to come in to the mid-atlantic area as two low pressure systems collide near my home. With the crazy weather brings some interesting photo opportunities; especially for black and white high contrast photography which I enjoy so much.
Doukénie Winery
The Doukénie’s are nice people. I got to know the owners of this winery with my previous work. I’ve since lost track of them but drive by their place all the time as it’s on a road less traveled.
Random corn farm
This corn field is on my regular running/walking route. I give them shit because they use harsh chemical to treat their land. You can’t see any of that under the blanket of snow today.
Fence line of trees in the snow.
Drone photography has really changed the way I look at the earth. The first time I saw my first photograph from the drone I knew it was going to be something that would take the world by storm.
Back then I had the DJI Phantom 1 which did not have a camera mounted to it. Instead, I mounted a then unknown camera to the bottom of the drone … my GoPro (the original).
I remember being in my living room seeing the picture for the first time and saying something like, “Oh My!” which got my entire family’s attention. They wanted to know what I was looking at. It was something like you see here.
Producing the photograph is skill. The equipment is pure science.
The lonely tree
My “new” drone is the DJI 2. Even the DJI 2 didn’t have a camera so I bought a third party gimbal, wired it into the GPS of the DJI as well as into an OSD module.
The OSD, short for On Screen Display, superimposes all of the flight data into the video transmitter which I also procured and wired into the drone. All of this runs on 5 volts of dc power that I get from the drone itself.
Then I put my “new” GoPro 4 in the gimbal and tie that into the entire system.
When I fly the drone I have my FPV, or First Person View, goggles on my eyes and it is as if I am hanging from the bottom of the drone. It is literally like flying an airplane. I have the exact same instrumentation as an aircraft all displayed in front of me.
I control the drone with 2.4ghz DSS. The video downlink is 5ghz analog. It’s worth noting that the use of 5ghz downlink video is not something normally approved without a license. But I do possess the FCC license to do this.
The “wet land” experiment
This camera system that I created is not as fancy as the stuff you can buy today. Since that stuff wasn’t available when I built this I did what I could. It takes a photograph every 5 seconds as well as shooting 1080p 30fps video at the same time. So I get a little of both vs one or the other. But I do have to stay on my target for 5-20 seconds to get the photo I want. That is if I want it in high resolution and not from the video grab.
The video is not the latest 4k with all the latest technology. But for what I am doing with it I don’t need that either. For me and this system anyway, that is just a camera change. Not a drone system change. I just haven’t gotten around to swapping out the camera mainly because I don’t prefer GoPro cameras any longer as they are too expensive compared to all the other technology out there that can do just as well for 25% of the cost.
This is me behind my “camera” this afternoon
I’ve thought about buying a new drone over the past several years and, so far, I haven’t seen anything I’d prefer. There are smaller ones that fit in your pocket but don’t take better video or photos.
I think the next drone I have will be much more sophisticated in the use of aerodynamics. Like quieter props. These are not quiet machines. But they take awesome photos!
On Saturday, 18 February 2018, the day started cool in bright sunlight. There was a winter storm warning for later in the day where they said the weather would change and become overcast and quickly dump 3-5 inches of snow on the ground. I didn’t believe them until it started snowing.
Towers 1 & 2 in driving snow
It was about 30º and the air was very moist making the snow sticky which quickly covered everything.
Sticky snow
The next morning I got up and flew my drone to take some pictures of the snow covered landscape knowing that the temperatures were about to rise and it would likely all be gone soon.
My home after a snow storm February 18, 2018Virginia snowscape looking towards my home.
And, no kidding, it didn’t take long. By the time 5pm rolled around the sky was super clear and sun uber-bright casting long high contrast shadows everywhere.
Long walk in long shadowsMongrel at sunset on top of a bird house
With Mongrel on top of the bird house I noticed it cast a cool shadow on the ground behind us. I snapped a few photos. He’s on the house because the ground it totally saturated with water. It’s like walking on a big sponge out here.
So many places are doing without water. This just doesn’t happen to be one of them.
Mongrel really doesn’t like having his picture taken so I have to be coy about all this photography thing. When the camera is pointed away he will do his own thing. The second I put the lens in his direction he complains. So if I shoot a photo of him you now know it’s extremely quick and has to be right the first time or he’ll move off.
Me and My Shadow
This winter the temperatures have been so cold, colder than I remember previous years being. For several weeks we had temperatures consistently below freezing with lows near zero every day.
That changes tomorrow with a high of 75º in the afternoon. I’m really hoping I can peel off and get a motorcycle ride in during the evening hours. Work is busy so that may not happen.
Maybe spring really is only a few weeks away.
Other than droning I got to fly some of my other aircraft during the calmer parts of the days without precipitation. That was fun but I have no photography of that. Also spent a ton of time with my radio hobby but not photos of that either.
It’s been a fun, long weekend but that all changes in the morning.
The weather there and back was in and out of the rain and fog with a temperature range between home and Baltimore of about 20º. It’s just so odd that the temperature spread would be that different in such a short distance.
The ground is still very cold as is the temperature of the waters near home. When we went across the Potomac river we couldn’t see past the windows in our car. But when I came back across the river this is what I saw:
The Potomac River
It’s often not easy to get a photograph like this. I’d say that most photography that you don’t see every day has some element of crazy in it. I tried to describe it here.
I’m not posting these high resolution pictures on Instagram or Facebook because they take out all the detail. Since these shots were made by hand with very high ISO in low light they are already “grainy” which would look worse after “enhancement” by the big box social media sites.
As I stood on the river bridge like a crazy man the sky color changes like it always does as the sun sets lower in the sky. The colors changed from blue/grey to pastel. I did my best to capture that here:
If you want to see more detailed photographs you can touch the images. Following is a map showing the GPS coordinates of where I was standing to take these photos and video. I was on the west (left) side of the bridge.
I have been collecting images for a few days now. As I went outside with my camera yesterday evening the following photos came in close succession before the sun went down.
The evenings here are alive with wildlife of all kinds. I’ve been trying to get a photo of the fox that has decided to come live with us but so far have been unsuccessful. It’s been very curious of me and Mongrel. Unlike most of them that just run away this one stays and observes us.
It gets so cold here with the blowing wind that I can only take a few photos before I have to put my hands back in my pocket where I have hand warmers running full blast.
Red shouldered hawk looking for the unsuspecting from above.
As you can see from the photo above amateur radio is assisting the local wildlife. The hawk is atop one of my telephone poles with my 80-meter antenna just below.
I took several pictures of geese flying around. Every evening they seem to be looking for a place to spend the night near some body of water. You’d think they would all be sort of going in the same direction but they are going in all directions and at all altitudes but in groups about this size, all of them in the V formation. I liked the contrast of them against the sky.
Navigating a darkening sky
Interesting contrast of a single goose trying to catch up with it’s flock and the jetliner going in the opposite direction.
Progress – Or is it?
Mongrel and I still go out on our walks but it’s been so, so cold that we haven’t been goofing around like we normally do. The first few minutes we are out, as indicated here with Mongrel on the stump, are so uncomfortable I’m surprised we don’t just run back inside.
It’s so cold!
On top of it being bitter cold the winds are blowing 15+ miles an hour. I don’t know what the wind chill is and I’ll keep this G rated in trying to describe it. But it is crazy cold.
Walking on (frozen) water.
The pond (above) is frozen solid. When we were out there exploring it made a popping sound that was so loud that it sounded like a gun going off right next to us. We both jumped!
Mongrel at the pond rock. Normally we hang out here for a 20-30 minutes.Mongrel on one of our walks today. All boy.
This morning when I woke up and looked outside the frost was so think that I didn’t think I had seen it like that before. It was definitely a “hard” frost. It had the appearance of snow in the sunshine. The weather last night was uber-clear with a very light wind.
When you can’t find Mongrel … look up.
But we did manage to get in a tree climb in spite of the weather. For whatever reason Mongrel loves the game of “cat and mouse”. We play this game both inside and out, typically in the evenings. He will run and hide and I’ll have to go find him. Then I go and hide and he’ll find me. Often when I am looking for him (unsuccessfully) I’ll get ambushed from behind. I’ve never had a cat that plays like this one. Normally I’m tacitly ignored.
In spite of it being only 19º today we ventured out for a drive in the countryside towards Shepherdstown, West Virginia. It’s a pretty drive on any given day but most days you want to get out and check things out. Not today really. It was sort of nice to stay in the heated car. But we got out anyway.
Helen at the frozen rivers edge.Olivia cozy in a thick jacket on the C&O Canal path.I think we’ll stay out of the water today.
We had brunch at The Mellow Moods Cafe in town. I’d never been there before. They had a egg and cheese sandwich on sour dough bread that was pretty darned good! And a black iced tea to go along with it. The girls had some chips and guacamole and we were off to the next place.
The girls went in to “The Good Shop” to see what kind of things they couldn’t do without in there. We came out of the mostly unscathed. There are a few shops in Shepherdstown that are fun to visit, have some pretty cool stuff in them but I rarely buy things except for food. One of my favorite restaurants there is Betty’s. I think it’s appropriate they don’t have a web site and still get 4 stars. I like eating there. The service is good and people are always nice to me. Typical “home” cooking.
Helen and Olivia doing digital stuff.HelenChatting at lunch
We came back home via the Shenandoah River bank on the West Virginia side of things. It’s a pretty drive and there are some cool places to get out and visit but no one was really into that because of the cold.
The air temperature is headed down to single digits tonight so we’ll be close by the fire together. Two of these guys are off on airplanes tomorrow to be in other parts of the United States. It’s a bummer to see them leave but so glad we got this time together as a family.
Only 1 more day until winter arrives on December 21, 2017.
I like this day for a number of reasons:
a) We can get on with winter.
b) The sun stops sinking further in the sky.
c) Every day gets longer between then and summer.
Pastel skies at sun set – a common scene in winter.
Below is what that sunset looked like over time. I do a little RC flying in the time lapse as well.
Recently I have noticed that a small family of deer (doe and two young post fawn types) have started to come to the house at night to eat the bird seed that the birds don’t eat during the day. At this point they have become a fixture around here. They don’t have the normal flee instinct when we come outside any longer. At night the sleep in the front yard where I can capture them easily on infrared cameras in complete darkness.
Deer in the front yard as seen in infrared. – We are all ready for winter to begin.
As we ease into night time here everyone is finding a place to lounge.
Sock; leaning on one of us while watching the other.
I hope you have had a restful night and a great day ahead.
Lately I’ve been flying my new “delta wing” aircraft called “Recruit” and made by Ready Made RC (RMRC). I’ve put this video together to show my shenanigans trying to get some video of what it’s like to fly one as well as video from the aircraft itself.
Flying a small RC plane is really no different than flying a big one. Unless you want to crash there is a lot of preparations and testing of systems. The different being if you do crash generally it’s only pride that is damaged and something a little glue and spare parts can fix pretty quick. But when you do crash it happens very quickly and sometimes quite dramatically.
There are some outtakes from other sessions at the end of that video so watch to the end if you want to see it all.
2017 may be the year we have a white Christmas. It’s been bitter cold with highs in the 20’s lately. The sun goes down a little after 4pm so the nights are also much longer.
Today is about finishing up work so I can help Gloria get ready for her Christmas party here as well as the party we will have tomorrow night. We’ve been working in our spare time to get the house ready for all of the folks that will be here during the holidays.
I haven’t been home much but when I am I try to fly my RC planes and such when the wind dies down in the evenings. It’s absolutely freezing cold when you are out in the open with gloveless hands trying to control one of these things. I don’t have the best circulation in my fingers so I seem to get colder faster than I used to. But I fly anyway. If you look closely in the video (towards the end) you’ll see me flying a couple of my planes.
When I was up in NYC this week I bought an older typewriter. It’s a 1965 model Smith Corona with 10 point pica font. I learned to type on a machine similar to this. It’s been fun getting to learn how to use it again.
1965 Smith Corona
It’s totally old school and fun to do again.
Yesterday we went to the radio observatory at Green Bank. Back in the summer I went through the process to get a clearance to go “behind the scenes” to see how things are run, talk to scientists and other technical people at the facility.
There is a 10 mile radio exclusion zone where there are no cell towers or the like anywhere near the facility. It’s nice at times to no get any notifications at all from anyone. If that is what you would like definitely go here. Your cell phone will stop working as you approach from the mountains and will stop working the entire time you are there. It’s kinda nice.
Green bank observatory GBT scope (100 meters)
But they also don’t let you use digital cameras there so you can’t get close up shots of the scope unless you have a film camera. I don’t have those anymore. Luckily there are a ton of pictures available out on the Internet of the facility.
It’s largest scope is the “GBT”, or “Green Bank Telescope”. It’s ~100 meters in size and is essentially the size of a football field suspended in the air. It’s enormous. And it rotates 360º as well as tilts it’s elevation with precision only found at this location. There is not a larger scope of this type anywhere else on this planet. If you are near here it’s worth a drive to go see what’s going on there.
I haven’t taken too many photos lately so not much more to post here. I hope you all have a great week and upcoming holiday.
It’s cool, not so cold. But you can tell winter is on it’s way. Evenings like tonight look very much like winter with the sun so low in the sky and the wispy high cirrus clouds.
Tonight I finished up a project on my #2 tower. On my way out there I set up a time lapse sequence to capture the sunset as I worked out there before the sun set. I’ll never get used to the sun going down at 4:30 pm. By 5pm it’s dark and we are inside. I have to remind myself that in 22 days the sun will be headed back up north a few minutes each day.
I’ve mostly been posting on Instagram lately but I don’t like how it renders my photographs at all. It’s very hard to fit a 16:9 ratio image into a 1:1 hole. I have no idea why they make it so hard to put a picture on a picture platform. Ha. I also heard they are thinking about a “Re-Gramming” option. This would allow people to take someone else’s content and, like Facebook, “re-post” it on to your own timeline. If they do that, it’ll likely be the last time I use the platform. At least now people have to make the effort to take their own pictures.
Helen was home from school last week so we took the opportunity to go get the Christmas tree for the season. We’ve been going to the same place for many years. Each year the picking gets a little slimmer. This year was no different.
We did manage to find a nice tree to fit into our home but it took some time. We also created a bunch of video but the first cut of the video was quite long and the file very large so I’m not going to post it here.
Christmas tree hunt 2017
I’ve been building a new flying wing lately. This is my first wing. I’ve covered mine in laminate so it will survive a few crashes and fly a little faster. This guy is set up for FPV (First Person View) and has a spot for a video camera like a GoPro to record the flights.
RMRC Recruit Flying Wing
My plan is to mostly fly it visually until I can get comfortable flying it with my FPV goggles like I do with my drone. This guy is super fast and will do aerobatics with ease. But I’ll leave the cameras off of it until I can reliably fly it without putting it into the trees. It has three gyro modes so I can fly this with an autopilot of sorts to keep it stable. It’s amazing what you can put in such a small package.
After I finish this guy the next plane I’ll be refurbishing a gas powered biplane that I bought in the summer at an auction. It’ll be my first gas powered plane for about 20 years. The last one I famously crashed in China (no video). But back then the avionics were horrible. I’m going to gut the device and put in all new electronics inside that I’ll use to control the plane from the ground.
