About 6 months ago I made the brave decision to purchase a drone. I say brave because, with the exception of toy soldiers with a parachute and the odd paper plane, I’ve never flown anything in the air before, certainly not anything controlled by a device in my hand. When you throw in the fact that this device that I was sending hundreds of metres into the air — at times beyond my own view — cost several hundred dollars AND the fact that my default demeanour is the typical Aussie “she’ll be right” attitude, you don’t need such a blog post title to tell you that it ended in disaster.
The time around which I bought the drone I had been tossing up whether to buy a shiny new GoPro or the DJI Spark and I made the on-the-spot decision to buy the device I thought I would use more. I maintain that I still think the drone would get more use and would yield cooler results.
Crescent Head: My first steps
The first time I took my drone out of the box was in Crescent Head. I’d read the manual and watched a few instructional videos and feeling tentative but comfortable, I took it out the back of our unit to a wide open space. The DJI Spark took off and even though it only hovered a metre off the ground, it was actually exhilarating. I held the lever to take it up a hundred metres and then right back down. I practised my takeoffs and landings and started getting the hang of it. Before I knew it I’d ripped through my 2 batteries (they only last 15 minutes each) and that was my first day.
The following day I walked up to Crescent Head Lookout. The Lookout is my favourite spot in Crescent Head because it just has incredible views of the town, the cliffs, the golf course and the beach on the opposite side of the hill.
The third day out was a glorious autumn day. The sun was out and we headed around to the other side of the creek to play in the beach. We visit Crescent in a large group and some of the group stay in the block of 8 units by the creek (pictured below). I took the drone out and captured some really cool images from 400 feet of Crescent Head Beach, Killick Creek from above, the town itself and some video of the gang playing and paddling up and down the creek. I remember saying around the time that very few people ever would have seen Crescent Head from this perspective. That’s the beauty of drone photography; it has opened us up to a whole new perspective.
Watch my video of Crescent Head from the air below.
Motorbikes on a property near Newcastle
A couple of months later our extended family had a weekend away on a property about an hour from my house in Newcastle, the property is called Rosewood. It feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere; no mobile reception, no traffic, no TV, and a huge shed on a huge property. The property also has motorbikes on site, which we are allowed to ride (because we know the owner). This sounded like a great opportunity to get some photos of the fam flying around the field on bikes from a perspective I’ve never shot from before.
Lemon Tree Passage
Another weekend away in June took us out to Lemon Tree Passage, where our friends’ family has a holiday house. The house is right on the Port Stephens waterway and was a great spot to fly. The tide goes out really far so I actually walked out onto the wet sand to launch.
Redhead Beach, Newcastle
One of my favourite beaches in Newcastle is Redhead Beach. It’s wide, it’s long and there’s always plenty of space. There are also rocks that we used to climb on, which happened to be a great subject for top-down drone photography. I went out one day with my son and it was a phenomenal day to be outside. I sat not far from the bluff and I flew all along the beach capturing the waves and the frivolity on their shores.
Awabakal Reserve, Newcastle
Having had such a great and successful day at Redhead, I was reminded that right next to it is a reasonably large nature reserve called Awabakal. I took the family out there for a walk. It was mostly covered so we had to walk for longer than I expected to get to the clearing but when we did and I took the Spark up, I ended up with probably my favourite drone shot I’ve taken yet. It’s now my phone background (sorry kids). It was another cracking day but was a little windy at 400 feet and when you get wind warnings and you can’t see the drone, you get a little worried so I did cut this one a little short.
Minoo Park, Japan
When I was invited on the #sqaudSQ trip with Singapore Airlines, I thought that both Singapore and Sri Lanka would be great places to take the Spark for a spin as I’d be visiting some great nature reserves. The first time I took it out I was in a small town called Minoo, about half an hour from Osaka. It was a lovely walk, about 45 minutes to a waterfall and I had these grand plans to get some sweet aerial photos from above the waterfall. Unfortunately, as the drone got closer to the waterfall, the wind from the gushing water started blowing the drone off course, I lost control of it, and before I knew it the thing was in a tree. It actually still turns my stomach just reliving it. I spent an hour looking for it in the brush but to no avail.
I downloaded this one photo from the drone to my phone while I was searching for it stuck in the tree. I’d only taken about 3 photos so far and they were all pretty much the same.
And that’s where my drone journey ends; in a big sad pile of leaves and mud because just a week later the typhoon to end all typhoons hit Japan and I know that it would not have survived that. One day I may buy another one, but that day is unfortunately not one that I can see in the immediate future.
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