“Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards.” – Leonardo Da Vinci
I was, without a doubt, a bit nervous before my flight today. It essentially went against all my protocols up to now. Got some pretty epic footage though. Be on the lookout for the marketing videos coming out from the airport soon.
Sometimes you drive an hour for a shoot. Totally worth it.
Through some pretty intense back pain I still managed to get out on Saturday to shoot the Battlefield Half Marathon. Although I wasn’t as mobile as I was the previoius two years, I still got some great Fall colors and an awesome sunrise. I suppose I should have taken it easy, but I’m just stubborn that way I guess. After all, I got the shot!
Great day to fly – yeah, I’m a geek, so.
The weather finally cooperated with me – just wish the foliage would, too. | Order a print of this image.
It’s certainly not for everybody and I’ve seen it done with great success, but the “painterly” style is definitely different.
Shenaodah University’s Halpin-Harrison Hall as the Fall foliage sets in. | Order a print of this image.
Photography is one of those things that can truly have an organic component to it. I often venture out with a specific shooting goal in mind and almost always become inspired on site to be creative based on whatever situation presents itself to me. It’s simply part of the creative process. I gotta figure out how to teach that in the classroom.
I was there to shoot Fall foliage.
I always wondered what BFE looked like – now I know. What an awesome place. A bit of a hike to get there, but so worth it in the end. Look for more images like this hitting the marketing material of visitwinchesterva.com.
Sunset from Eagle Rock along the Tuscarora Trail right here in Frederick County, VA just west of Winchester. | See more like this here.
Ok, now that I’ve done the “heavy lifting” to be allowed to fly a sUAS legally it should be as important for you (the consumer of photography and video) to complete your due diligence. Make sure the person/company you’ve just hired to shoot your video is also legally allowed to perform the sUAS work for hire. It concerns me that anybody can walk into Best Buy or Target or Wal-Mart or hop on Amazon or any number of other online retailers and purchase these flying machines. And young kids these days are seeing the proliferation of drone videos and YouTubers flying with reckless abandon that it seems glamorous and risk-free. It’s certainly not risk-free, but kids tend to simply plow forward without a second thought. It worries me to no end that a very young middle-schooler recently proudly announced to me that he just got a DJI Phantom 4 – a fairly expensive flying camera. Yeah, kids are amazing at video games and technology in general these days, but the decision-making skills are simply not there. It’s comparable to a drivers license. There are reasons that teens go through a process to earn a driver’s license which includes an age requirement. Decision-making skills folks. And I’m certainly not saying that you have to hire me – just make sure the person/company that you DO use is qualified and legally allowed.
Ok I’m done. Enjoy this image of Fall colors knocking on our door.
Fall colors are popping up quickly. My goal is to get this shot with much more Fall color in the next couple weeks.
Alright, so at the very last minute I really got going and created a pretty horrifying scene apparently. It doesn’t hurt that I have a fairly professional lighting kit to dip into. Plenty of kids came up the walk and immediately turned around after seeing our greeting. I guess I’m still into Halloween.
This is what greeted the kids as they walked up the sidewalk to our house. It helps that the front door is somewhat removed from the street. Next year’s gonna be awesome!
I’m not as much about Halloween anymore as I am about the Fall colors. I read a blog post just now commenting on how Halloween is “an adieu to Fall.” Really?! Fall is 3 months you know and we’re only really 1 month in. Come on. Go outside, kick some leaves up and have fun today. Happy Halloween Fall!
No, not the year of the British Invasion. It’s the year that D-Hall was built on JMU campus. I saw this picture and thought, this is probably not too far from what it looked like then especially the concrete tables built into the landscaping (perhaps didn’t have handicap ramps either). Love it.
The controversy over D-Hall was that it wasn’t consistent with the rest of campus. It was round and didn’t use bluestone in its construction.
I end up shooting almost as much of the location at cyclocross races as I do of the race itself. The Luray caverns cross race has some very cool buildings and old farm equipment on the property. Lots and lots of character and textures. Just really cool to shoot there.
It’s a real race to get in position for the sunset these days. The last buses from the school day haven’t even left the school, yet! It’s worth it though. I’m flying from the comfort of a heated vehicle these days. I wonder how easy it would be to fly from a moving vehicle. I suppose I should be even more careful now that the FAA is gaining ground with the NTSB, huh?
This one’s on my gallery site, too.
So I was driving down the interstate highway and got the urge to take this photograph. So I did. Its pretty colorful along our section of 81.
Our colorful section of I-81 near mile marker 309.
I passed this sign as I was walking (aha, see what I did there) to a meeting yesterday from the parking garage in downtown Winchester. Watch out for walkers tonight (haha, did it again).
Are you a “Dead” fan?
So it’s tough enough to handhold an HDR image, but given a choice between handholding and aerial HDR – I choose handheld. Even with the 3-axis gimbal guiding the camera, the aerial cam just can’t hold still enough. I probably spent about 20 minutes trying to eliminate all the ghosting in this image (and could have easily spent another 1/2 hour). Enough’s enough. This will have to do. I think I’ll just stick to the one image post-processing using the raw data straight out of the camera.
I just realized that was an incredible amount of technical geek-talk. It’s late at night – thanks for listening. Now just enjoy the image.
Fall On The Mall – Old Town Mall in Winchester, VA.
It’s nature’s color palette. What a great time of year to be a landscape photographer.
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“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
– Albert Camus
The peaking foliage over Abram’s Creek in Winchester, VA.
“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Cedarmeade Studios 