After asking a lot of questions regarding settings for the camera on my Phantom, I was able to get out and have some fun shooting both on Monday night and Tuesday night. Our town of Keokuk, Iowa decided to lift the ban on fireworks so the whole town was having a blast over the weekend. Maybe it was the state of Iowa that allowed it , don't know for sure. Anyway, I have attached a link to my Google Drive where there are 2-folders one for each night. I thought a lot of them turned out pretty good.Rick's Google Drive


There is a video in each folder that has all of my videos for each night. Sorry, I didn't add any soundtrack on the videos.


For the pictures I left the white balance on auto, ISO was set to 100, and exposure varied between 1 to 3 seconds.


Videos were all on auto. I was really surprised how well they came out.


Contrast -1, saturation -2, and sharpness -1. Style was set to d-log


No filter was used on the camera, just the stock clear lens cover.
I thought I would share and thanks to those who have shared their camera settings so I had an idea of where to start out.

I fogot to mention that I did also have my front LED's turned off.

Keokuk IA.....love it. My friends and I go down there every year to golf (Deer Run in Hamilton). We stay at the Hampton Inn across from the movie theatre. What an interesting town. Been going for over 15 years.

Blackbeagle Posted at 2017-7-5 11:05
Keokuk IA.....love it. My friends and I go down there every year to golf (Deer Run in Hamilton). We stay at the Hampton Inn across from the movie theatre. What an interesting town. Been going for over 15 years.

Really! Interesting, so may I ask where you live? I have lived here all of my life. Love the beautiful Mississippi River. Actually, my parents owned an excursion boat in the 70's & 80's that ran just above lock & dam 19 here at Keokuk, Iowa, and I spent a lot of time on the river. Yeah the golf course you mention is really nice there in Hamilton , Il.

My friends and I are from the Twin Cities (MN). We drive down every April/May for golf every year for over 15 years now. We've stayed at the Hunting Lodge in Hamilton. We've stayed at the Hampton. We've stayed at the lodge in The Great River Golf Course. We've eaten at the Cellar every year. The town is interesting, but also sad as well. You go down main street and it reminds you of what home town main street is supposed to be like. But unfortunately, many of the merchants are gone, moved out, or closed. Every year, we see another business close shop. How can they compete? Now the only things open are restaurants, gas stations, bars, and Walmart. The mom and pop shops are gone.

The houses also looked worn and beaten down. We see houses with plastic tarps over the roof and garage. I feel bad for them. I'm sure a lot of the young kids move out once they graduate. So when we go down there, we do our part to support local businesses. So we stay away from the chain restaurant.

One great experience we had was at the Cellar. So we walk in on a Saturday night for dinner. We see a large group in the restaurant. They looked like musicians (heavy metal). I recall thinking, one guy looked like a Vince Neal (Motley Crue) wannabe. So we sit down and eat. One of my friends, who's a huge 80s metal fan, goes to me, "Dude, that's Jeff Labar from Cinderella".  I look and I said, "The guy that looks like Vince Neal? No it isn't". He's convinced it was. So during our dinner, he decided enough was enough. He's going over there to find out. Sure enough, he walks over and starts talking to the guy. I didn't hear the conversation, but it looks like he asks, "HEy...sorry to bother you but are you Jeff Labar"? I can see the guy nod with a smile. Yup. Jeff Labar and Jeff Brittingham were in town to play with another singer. We came over, shook some hands, took some pictures. They invited us to their show down the street. So we got to see them later that night for $10. We were like 6 feet away from the main stage.

A lot of good memories in Keokuk. BTW...I love that river and the dam. When we go to Ogios (buffet place), we always joke that carp steak, came from the river.

Blackbeagle Posted at 2017-7-5 12:09
My friends and I are from the Twin Cities (MN). We drive down every April/May for golf every year for over 15 years now. We've stayed at the Hunting Lodge in Hamilton. We've stayed at the Hampton. We've stayed at the lodge in The Great River Golf Course. We've eaten at the Cellar every year. The town is interesting, but also sad as well. You go down main street and it reminds you of what home town main street is supposed to be like. But unfortunately, many of the merchants are gone, moved out, or closed. Every year, we see another business close shop. How can they compete? Now the only things open are restaurants, gas stations, bars, and Walmart. The mom and pop shops are gone.

The houses also looked worn and beaten down. We see houses with plastic tarps over the roof and garage. I feel bad for them. I'm sure a lot of the young kids move out once they graduate. So when we go down there, we do our part to support local businesses. So we stay away from the chain restaurant.

WOW! good stories and you are right, the town has eroded away considerably. Thanks for sharing that and glad to hear you still enjoy coming to our town.
Keokuk is also known for all of the stock car drivers that came out of this town I actually owned and operated a machine-shop from 1972 thru 1992, and built engines for local drivers and did work racers all over the tri-state area, and knew all of the drivers that lived in Keokuk.
Some of these fellows have passed, but all of them make their mark either in Nascar, USAC, IMCA, or ARCA back in the 60's through the 90's.

Didn't mean to get off subject here for other readers. So, what phantom do you have and how long have you had it? I bought mine a little over 2-years ago now and have a lot of fun with it. I fly a lot over the river and enjoy taking shots of the towboats. I always wanted to take up flying, but it just never happened for me. When these things started becoming so technical and popular, and the price got to where just about anyone could afford one, I pulled the trigger and have never been happier. I have figured this is probably as close as I will get at this point, but the FPV and cameras these thing have is just about like flying yourself IMO. Anyway, nice chatting with you!

I have the P3A that my wife gave me as a bday present last year. I've flown it 20-30 times. I've also crashed it 3 times, including a long fall from 75 feet as I hit a tree trying to do a Waypoint Mission around a local race track here in MN. I had to send it in. But I will be flying a lot this summer and fall.

Down in Keokuk, I can think of many spectacular shots, including the river, dam, and the Mormon temple from above.

I'll be down again next year....
BTW...cool to hear about the racing connection. I will have to share that with my friends. I always tell them (being that I lived 2+ years in IA back in the early 90s) that the folks from IA are the nicest people you'll find anywhere. The people in Keokuk have proven, that it's still hold true.

Which phantom version is it?

Phantom 3 Advanced.

Blackbeagle Posted at 2017-7-6 10:12
Phantom 3 Advanced.

Great photos my friend

Blackbeagle Posted at 2017-7-6 05:10
I have the P3A that my wife gave me as a bday present last year. I've flown it 20-30 times. I've also crashed it 3 times, including a long fall from 75 feet as I hit a tree trying to do a Waypoint Mission around a local race track here in MN. I had to send it in. But I will be flying a lot this summer and fall.

Down in Keokuk, I can think of many spectacular shots, including the river, dam, and the Mormon temple from above.

I just had to share one of my favorites that I took of the Mormon Temple since you mentioned it. I took this right after I first got my Phantom. I flew from the Iowa shore at Montrose, Iowa at around 6:00 am in the morning. It was a mile across the river and I was very nervous, but took some phots & videos, and made it back safely!

Yeah...from the road, that place is massive. We stopped our car and walked around. Hey...can you fly your drone over Ridgewood II? It's another one of our favorite 'hotspot' to visit when we're down there. LOL.

Blackbeagle Posted at 2017-7-7 11:07
Yeah...from the road, that place is massive. We stopped our car and walked around. Hey...can you fly your drone over Ridgewood II? It's another one of our favorite 'hotspot' to visit when we're down there. LOL.

HA-HA! Yeah probably, but might not the best thing to do! LOL
Chat with ya later man. Maybe the next time your group heads down this way, we'll have to meet one another.