Zagreb Flight

I decided to sneak in one flight this morning in Zagreb before I caught my train to Slovenia. I had noticed that the park near the train station had several things going for it. It isn't very crowded, it has a nice fountain in the center and a beautiful old building at the end. So I took the Inspire to the park, but there were three young ladies with baby carriages right were I wanted to be. I sat and waited and in a couple minutes, they left and I moved on in. I setup the Quad and checked around to make sure the area was still safe to fly. I took off and ascended for my first scene. Usually, as soon as you take off with a quad, you start to gather curious observers. Today, nobody was paying the slightest attention to me. As I descended from my first vertical pass, I noticed an old guy walking a dog and reading a newspaper. He stopped pretty close to the fountain, just about where I wanted to start my next scene. So I just hovered a comfortable distance above him. And he just stood there reading. His little dog would look up at the quad, then at the guy. Pretty soon the guy took a few more steps, then stopped, right in front of me, right under the quad that is hovering at about 20 ft. The little dog is still looking at the quad and then at the old guy. I can almost hear the dog thinking "Dude, I can't believe you don't see that!" Pretty soon the dog just shapes its head and wanders off to pee on a bush. After a couple more minutes, the old guy must have finished reading his article because he wandered off in the general direction of the little dog. He never had a clue that a DJI Inspire was buzzing around right above him the whole time. The lady at the next bench over was laughing and shaking her head. So drones don't always draw everyone's attention.

Zagreb

I have to admit that Zagreb totally exceeded my expectations. It's a neat, clean, compact city with plenty of local color and history. I was blessed with sunny weather once again, so I spent a long day walking around the city photographing the interesting sights.

The city is divided int two area, Upper Zagreb and Lower Zagreb. As you might expect, Upper Zagreb is on a hilltop and is the oldest part of the city (hills are easier to defend from invaders). So most of the really old buildings are in the Upper section.

Here's a shot from Upper Zagreb looking out toward St. Mary's Cathedral in Lower Zagreb



St Mark's Church in Upper Zagreb.


A courtyard in the upper city:



Upper City Architecture:



Votive candles burning in a small chapel located inside the "Stone Gate" passage from lower to upper Zagreb:



The main square in lower Zagreb:


Statue of St. Mary on a tall column in front of the Cathedral:



I didn't shoot anything specifically of the Cathedral itself because though it is a very beautiful building, it is currently afflicted with a bad case of the scaffolds. I dis shoot some interesting sections of the Cathedral wall:


And one of the towers:


And a clock that is always 7:05


One of the interesting features of the lower city is an open air market selling fruits, vegetables and flowers. Dolac Market is open every day, year round, but I suspect that attendance is lower when it's snowing:

















All in all, Zagreb has much to see and do, I think I'll visit here again sometime in the future.

Budapest

No Flying today. The weather and politics were uncooperative. Cloudy morning, some sunny spots in the afternoon, but a Vladimir Putin visit had police and military out in force in the interesting area that overlooks the Danube, so I didn't want to risk getting shot down. I shot some stills in the morning, and then in the afternoon I went back and re-shot everything with somewhat better light. Here are a few quick picks:

Parliament Building:


Fisherman's Bastion:


Some old green guy on a horse:


Margaret Bridge from Fisherman's Bastion:



Saint Something Cathedral (you can tell I didn't have a guide book):


Stained glass backlight by the sun:


Chain Bridge at night (did I mention that it was freaking cold?):

Vienna Views

I must admit that I wasn't planning on doing any flying during my stop in Vienna. My main intent was to visit my old friends, Christian Reddinger and his Mother Anneliese. But an un-seasonable high pressure zone over Central Europe was tempting me with clear blue skies so I decided to make hay while the sun shines. It also happened that Christian was working on a project that required shooting some RED footage around Vienna, so off we went in search of some interesting scenes.

The first place we flew the Inspire was at Steinhof Church, an Art Deco church from early last century. It is high on a hill and seemed to be a good subject. Thanks to Anneliese stalking me with her iPhone, there are actually some (rare) photos with me in them. Here, I'm doing my first setup:


Here the Inspire is hovering low while I'm getting ready to take it up for some filming:


Then it's Up, Up and Away:


The view from up there gives a very unique perspective of Steinhof:


I did few passes, then brought it back down and shot a "Dronie" of the three of us:


Then it was time to come in for a landing:


Our next stop was Belevedere, the summer palace of Prince Eugene. Wherever you setup, drones seem to draw spectators:


I was now flying on about half of a remaining battery, so this one had to be short and sweet. I took it up, and got myself lined up for a couple in and back passes:


It was a good thing I didn't dally too long because I got a low battery warning on the way back. Fortunately the Inspire remains fully maneuverable with a low batt so I was able to come back for a nice landing.


The next day, we went to the Wheel of Vienna, built in 1896 for the World's Fair and still operating today. Seeing it from the air is once again a unique perspetive:


There are lots of bare trees this time of year and you have to be careful that you don't get too close to the nearly invisible upper branches. It can give you a bad case of Inspire Neck:


Of course in between each of these setups, Christian and Anneliese felt it was their Austrian duty to stuff me with as many goodies as they could:

First Flight

Yesterday, I did my first test flight with the DJI Inspire 1. I have a little bit of experience flying DJI Phantoms, so I had a baseline of Quad knowledge and some expectations of what I would find. Wow, was I ever underestimating the Inspire. It is freaking awesome. It is such a well finished product. Everything you need is included and ready to go right out of the box. I invited my former studio partner, John McNally to come out and witness the historic event. I think he was pretty impressed with the Inspire's capabilities and the quality of imagery that it can produce. The gimbal is amazing. Even in aggressive flight maneuvers it holds the image rock steady. There were times when I was hovering that we both thought that the video signal had frozen because the display on my iPad looked like a still shot! The auto take off, auto land and come home functions are brilliantly executed. It's pretty cool to have the Quad so far out t hat you can just see a speck in the sky and push the go home button to bring it back. Each time it landed almost exactly on the same little spot of grass that it took off from. The sound is impressive too. A Phantom sounds like a noisy swarm of angry bees. I was expecting the Inspire to be even louder with it's bigger props and more powerful motors but it is surprisingly quiet and has a sort of a SciFi sound. I think the reduced sound level may be due to the carbon fiber props that are stiffer and therefore don't vibrate as much. I'm not going to post any of the sample video I shot. Not because it isn't impressively crisp, but because I don't believe in sharing test footage shot in a park of backyard. 90% of the Quad footage posted online is in that category. I prefer to share things filmed in locations worthy of the effort. So you will just have to wait a bit until I start hitting my marks around the globe. But here is a still that John shot of me and my baby while checking things out:

New Website

I'm starting a new trip around the globe with an emphasis on aerial imagery and to share the journey I've launched a brand new website: www.iQuad.photos. I will be posting to the blog on that site more than here on FishTalesFilms. I'll also be uploading videos and images periodically during the trip. So head on over and see what is going on.

Goodbye Bali, Hellow World

I've officially started my long journey. I'm now in Sunny Oregon (yes, you heard right, it's sunny in January in Oregon). I'm reasonably recovered from my jet lag and fully engaged in preparations for the next leg of my trip. This stopover in Oregon is mostly about dropping stuff off and picking stuff up. I will be traveling as light as I possibly can because I will be traveling in quite a few remote areas where you don't want to schlep a lot of gear around. So I'm limiting myself to a Panasonic GH4 for stills and 4K video, and my new DJI Inspire 1 for aerials. I'll be trying to put as much emphasis on aerials as I can. I will be shooting with the Inspire 1 anywhere it is practical. Quite a few of the destinations on this trip have been chosen for their potential for interesting Aerial footage.