Wow Ray that is cool. While my 3S has the follow me feature, it would scare the dickens out of me to use it in the canyon like you did. Echoing Eric, did the obstacle avoidance feature kick in while following you in the canyon? Or was it just wide enough not to matter?
Thanks
Jerry
Thanks!
In the Arroyo Seco video, the drone was operating autonomously and definitely using its obstacle avoidance as well as tracking. It’s a very sophisticated piece of tech!
Here’s another one, with more emphasis on scenery:
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I kept waiting for Luke Skywalker to go zippin by on his speeder. Or Obi Wan to come trudging over one of those hills…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)
Here’s a “trailer” showing a few highlights from my 2017 camping trip to Nevada and the Mojave desert, part of my ongoing quest to photographically document old mines, mining camps, ghost towns and other abandoned or historic places. (I’ve been doing this for 30 years now!) This year I had a new tool at my disposal, the Mavic Pro camera drone.
I still have a lot more video from this trip, so I’ll be posting more as time allows. It takes time to edit this stuff, and I also have plenty of still photos to go through too. Be sure to check out my website to see more pics and info about ghost towns, mines, etc: www.raydunakin.com
Please let me know what you think of this video. Constructive criticism would be especially appreciated.
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That video was GREAT Ray! The use of your drone really took it to new levels.
Chris
Thanks! I also got new editing software, Final Cut Pro. I still have a lot to learn on it but already I can do more with it than on iMovie.
Something happened to the drone! All I see is static and a note that an error has occurred. Did something happen to the YouTube file?
Something happened to the drone! All I see is static and a note that an error has occurred. Did something happen to the YouTube file?
Well third try is the charm! This time the drone flew beautifully! Very interesting country. And a cool perspective of it. Thanks for sharing
Eric Schade said:
Something happened to the drone! All I see is static and a note that an error has occurred. Did something happen to the YouTube file?
Well third try is the charm! This time the drone flew beautifully! Very interesting country. And a cool perspective of it. Thanks for sharing
Error in viewing come up. Later RJD
I finally finished getting all the photos and video from my 2017 Nevada and Mojave trip posted. Here’s the full report:
http://www.raydunakin.com/Site/Nevada_Trip_2017_Part_One.html
Here’s a list of the ghost towns, mines, and scenic places I visited:
Osdick Road Mines, CA
Osborne Camp, CA
Rainbow Hills, NV
Fish Lake Valley, NV
Sawtooth Ridge, NV
Gabbs, NV
Downeyville, NV
Hess Ranch, NV
Petersons Mill, NV
New Pass Mine and Mill, NV
McCoy Mine - Wild Horse District, NV
Home Station Well, NV
Dome Butte, NV
Stokes Castle - Austin, NV
Ruby Hill, NV
Belmont Mine, NV
Belmont Mill, NV
Hamilton, NV
Nevada Northern Railway Museum - Ely, NV
Taylor Mine, NV
Lake Valley Marsh, NV
Ely Valley Mine, NV
Pioche, NV - Mines
East Belmont, NV
Clayton Valley, NV - Lithium works
Bar Double 9 Ranch, NV
Mill Site Well, CA
Crater Sulfur Mine, CA
Cinder Mines, CA
Boulder Pass, CA
Castle Mine, CA
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The drone shots make a big difference in your articles. Thanks for all the effort to put it together.
If I may ask, what research material do you use to pinpoint your locations. I use sites such as Western Mining History, Find a Grave, Ghost towns, etc.
Then I plug my Garmin into my computer, load an app called Basecamp, and go to work finding the point of interest sites. Also have Google Earth loaded to actually determine the Lat and Long of the sites, and to see if the mine, building or cemetery is accessible. Once I find one that is accessible, I can down load the route back to the Garmin and save it as the point of interest name.
We don’t have near as many sites up in N Idaho, Mont or Wa. as you do, but its is another “hobby” of mine.
Again, good job!
This was my source when I was investigating local mines and deciding which would be interesting by mineral…
John
John Bouck said:
The drone shots make a big difference in your articles. Thanks for all the effort to put it together.
If I may ask, what research material do you use to pinpoint your locations. I use sites such as Western Mining History, Find a Grave, Ghost towns, etc.
Then I plug my Garmin into my computer, load an app called Basecamp, and go to work finding the point of interest sites. Also have Google Earth loaded to actually determine the Lat and Long of the sites, and to see if the mine, building or cemetery is accessible. Once I find one that is accessible, I can down load the route back to the Garmin and save it as the point of interest name.
We don’t have near as many sites up in N Idaho, Mont or Wa. as you do, but its is another “hobby” of mine.
Again, good job!
Thanks! I use a lot of online resources, including Google and the ones you’ve mentioned. On thing I like to do is use Google maps, satellite view, to check out places I’m interested in. That way I can see if there are any standing structures left, or if there’s nothing but a few holes in the ground. I also get tips from other ghost town junkies, and from websites some of them have created.
Here’s a really good one:
http://www.forgottennevada.org/sites/index.html
I like this one a lot because it has very accurate, detailed histories of the places. They also show the date of their visit to each place, which is helpful. There are some websites that don’t do that, and the photos and info they post is many years out of date.
This year, for the first time, I had a smartphone with good GPS app that uses USGS topo maps and even satellite photos. In the past I’ve wasted huge amounts of time searching for sites in the dark, and often not finding them at all. It’s great to see exactly where I am in relation to the place I’m looking for. Unfortunately, although I bought off-line maps, there were times when I was beyond the limits of the maps I had, and without cellular service. I still haven’t figured out how I’m supposed to know what off-line maps I have or how to buy additional maps.
Thanks for the link to Forgotten Nevada Ray, I have bookmarked it. I have commented on MR Forum about your fantastic trip. Ore cars are often mentioned in posts, so anyone wanting an old time mining scene and ore cars has a wealth of choices from your photos. Getting all those coloured rocks could be a challenge (without going to NV and picking some up!)
Ray, using a Garmin 600 series GPS (what I have), loaded with a 24K topo map SD Card of your particular state you are exploring, plus Garmin base camp software, you can plot a route to your waypoint (Point of interest). Basecamp also lays the route on Google Earth, so you can check the road/trail for obstructions. Basecamp and Garmin Topo maps are not perfect: Sometimes they plot you where a road is not even there. That’s why I send it to Google Earth before saving it my Garmin GPS unit. If at some time, you ever want to return to that point of interest, you can archive the route in your Garmin for later re use.
You have the drone, next comes a Garmin 600, and if you don’t already have one, a good metal detector. What a fun hobby, eh?
Well, I finally got a chance to take a brief trip out to the desert Sunday night! First chance I’ve had to do anything since my Nevada trip in July. This was just a “out and back” trip, staying overnight and returning Monday afternoon. Didn’t do any major off-roading, just some mild trails, but it sure felt good to get off the pavement and immerse myself in the desert.
I got out there late, sometime after midnight. Tried some night sky photos but wasn’t pleased with the results. I picked out a couple of the better ones here…
Megaweapon lurking in the dark:
My campsite in the morning:
I had some fun flying my drone and got a lot of great footage. It’ll take me a while to get it edited and post some of it on YouTube. In the meantime here are a couple stills:
A couple more shots of Megaweapon on the trail:
That’s all for now – enjoy!
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Awesome videos Ray, I really enjoy exploring the desert through you videos and website.
Thanks Dan!
Being from the eastern part of the country, where it’s green most of the time, seeing all the barren browness is fascinating.
