One of my former bosses used to call Friday, “Friyay.” She was a big fan of the weekend. I was able to get into the Friyay spirit myself after a long slog at work this week and weather that felt like more of the same. It didn’t make it above 15C today, but the sky came back to life, the wind quieted down to a pleasant breeze, and the air was full of birdsong again.
The lack of wind meant it was worth a try at getting some reflection shots off of Lower Gray Pond, which is across the irrigation canal from our home. I flew the drone over and aimed it southwest, where the majority of the character in the sky was, and away from the sun that was dropping lower on the western horizon.
The Mini 3 has a nice feature where you can toggle the camera’s orientation sideways for vertical shooting. It takes more shots to complete a pano, but the final composite image is at a higher resolution. I am enjoying the results. Also worth noting is that the Mini 3 hovers over water properly now without slowly sinking because the bottom sensor can’t read the surface well. The shooting is much more worry free as I can concentrate more on the photography and less on watching the altitude to make sure the drone doesn’t go BLOOP in the water it is hovering over.
There were also rain clouds in the afternoon when the temperature was at its highest, with a few short showers that weren’t in the forecast. Our front lawn loved it and it is even greener this morning. I’m pretty sure I even heard a bit of thunder.
Along Thomas Drive, Strathmore, AB,
2024-05-03 (Canon EOS 50D)
AB, 2024-05-03 (Canon EOS 50D)
The evening ended with a trip to Upper Gray Pond in Gray Park with the hope of some spectacular sunset images. The sky looked so promising that I dumped the poor cat off my lap to head out with a camera hoping to get some sunset action. I got punked. In Harry Potter terms, I was hoping for a Mad Eye Moody sunset but I got Professor McGonagle instead. Argh. I did the best I could with what I had and came back home.
Wherein I apologized to the cat for interrupting his sleep for a mundane sunset.
Todays cameras were: Canon EOS 50D with the Canon 17-40mm EF L USM f4-5.6 lens, a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, and a DJI Mini 3 photography drone.
