Today I went to PCH (Pacific Coast Highway, Hwy 1 going all the way from San Diego to Seattle) section from Point Mugu down to Malibu and took a few long exposure shots with my Mavic 3 Cine.

I have never used ND filters before for real, so this was the first time.
It was pretty bright (midday), so I figured I could use the strongest one (ND512) to get me the longest exposure. I was right.
With the bright California sun, I still had to dial the aperture down to f/11 to get into the 1"..2" shutter speed range.

The drone behaved nicely. Once the initial satellite acquisition took place (a typical couple of minutes for M3), the rest were near-instant, just 10-15 seconds.
It was quite windy (duh, Pacific is NEVER still here), so I got a few unintended blurry images, but I got a lot of nice ones as well - which is an amazing feat if you consider your camera is hanging in the air with the wind gusts about 10..20mph while taking 1" long shots.

My biggest concern was not with the winds, but with the birds. Seagulls and pelicans were flying all around, very much used to people, and the last thing I wanted was some of them getting competitive with the drone, so I tried to stay higher than them, which was not too difficult, as they hanged close to the surface.




I planned to make a few stops along my route, and  I didn't want to pack the drone/RC each time.
So I did what most people do, provided temporary easy-access storage:



An iconic PCH attraction, Point Mugu Rock. It has been depicted in dozens of movies and probably hundreds of commercials. Here I used the long exposure to effectively eliminate all the traffic. A lot of people have been driving back and forth this popular section mid-day on the President's day, but the long exposure effectively kills anything that moves at great speed (and nobody drives slow in SoCal).


A couple more frames from Pt. Mugu





A mile down South from Pt. Mugu there was a nice rocky beach




My next stop was at the "sand dune".

an iPhone shot from the ground



Same area from the air ~350ft up



You can still see Pt. Mugu Rock from here



Another rocky outcrop got my attention, so I spent some time there as well





Finally, I made all the way to Malibu, to the famous El Matador beach, another staple location for many Angelenos and especially photographers (every model photographer I know shot there more than once)

I launched while still being pretty high on the cliffs, so most of the time I stayed below the HP.





Some people are lucky to have their own private beaches - you simply can't get into this one from either side except during a very low tide:



Finally, I got some altitude and went a bit out to the sea to get a wider picture



Goodbye, PCH! See you again soon!

Thank you for looking!

Nice images, thank you for sharing.

AeroNW Posted at 2-21 16:33
Nice images, thank you for sharing.

Thank you for looking!

Great pics of beautiful places (though no sunsets ;-))Especially like the first one!

Amazing shots there. How much for the Mavic 3 carry case

A fantastic series of shots. The capture of the pelicans flying by is brilliant.

Great shots Darth,  those pelicans are very special.   

Depp Posted at 2-21 22:49
Great pics of beautiful places (though no sunsets ;-))Especially like the first one!

Thank you!
Yeah, I'm too lazy going to beaches for sunsets, especially when you have not idea if sunset is going to be any good at least till 15 minutes prior, and it would take 40 min to get there...
First one was iphone pic. They do fly THAT low.

Suren Posted at 2-21 23:49
Amazing shots there. How much for the Mavic 3 carry case

Thank you!
Lol.
I expropriated it from one of my wife grocery tours. Keep it in the trunk for the situations like this.

Blériot53 Posted at 2-22 00:09
A fantastic series of shots. The capture of the pelicans flying by is brilliant.

Thank you!
Yeah, those iPhones take nice pics. ;)

DAFlys Posted at 2-22 00:45
Great shots Darth,  those pelicans are very special.

Thank you!
I wish I was bold enough to take it with the drone, since they were doing such flybys every few minutes, but it would mean the need to land, remove ND, launch again, and risk the damn birds attacking it (and they are BIG birds), so I decided the phone pics should do.

Spectacular series of shots Darth.   So many great images I couldn't even pick a favorite.  

Very creative DIY case for the M3.  

DowntownRDB Posted at 2-22 07:45
Spectacular series of shots Darth.   So many great images I couldn't even pick a favorite.  

Very creative DIY case for the M3.

Thank you!
Sophie's choice, as always!

DarthSLR Posted at 2-22 07:36
Thank you!
Yeah, those iPhones take nice pics. ;)

Yeah. Why do we need the Pocket2

DarthSLR Posted at 2-22 07:35
Thank you!
Lol.
I expropriated it from one of my wife grocery tours. Keep it in the trunk for the situations like this.

You're welcome, good move on the box

Superb images and technique to remove the traffic. Seagulls here in the UK are quite territorial, I've had a couple of close 'fly-bys' from Seagulls.

Suren Posted at 2-22 09:56
You're welcome, good move on the box

it just happened to be the proper size/sturdiness.
And free. Don't forget free. ;)
It's all one can wish for!

ChrisJG Posted at 2-22 09:59
Superb images and technique to remove the traffic. Seagulls here in the UK are quite territorial, I've had a couple of close 'fly-bys' from Seagulls.

US ones are as well.
I'm not risking a $4K drone over some angry bird

DarthSLR Posted at 2-22 10:32
US ones are as well.
I'm not risking a $4K drone over some angry bird

Quite right too! I did see someone had stuck stickers of eyes on their drone to give the seagulls the "bird" not sure how effective it was though.

ChrisJG Posted at 2-22 11:50
Quite right too! I did see someone had stuck stickers of eyes on their drone to give the seagulls the "bird" not sure how effective it was though.

M3 already have its froggy eyes, which may only make it more susceptible to attack.

DarthSLR Posted at 2-22 10:30
it just happened to be the proper size/sturdiness.
And free. Don't forget free. ;)
It's all one can wish for!

We all love free stuff

These look amazing and I mean really amazing, I did some long exposure shots a few weeks ago at laguna Beach California and also a long exposure of a freeway at night which came out looking pretty cool, but anyway you did an awesome job taking these.  

Solidarity Posted at 2-22 14:11
These look amazing and I mean really amazing, I did some long exposure shots a few weeks ago at laguna Beach California and also a long exposure of a freeway at night which came out looking pretty cool, but anyway you did an awesome job taking these.

Thank you! I never seriously considered long exposures for drone during the day, since incould not fathom it can do such good of a job, but I guess I was wrong.
Waterfalls, here we come!

should’ve included these in my comment but can’t wait to see a long exposure of a waterfall, I know that’s going to be awesome

DarthSLR Posted at 2-22 07:59
Thank you!
Sophie's choice, as always!

You're very welcome Darth.    Have a great day and a wonderful week.

Blériot53 Posted at 2-22 08:55
Yeah. Why do we need the Pocket2

Careful there Mr. B.  

Solidarity Posted at 2-22 17:49
should’ve included these in my comment but can’t wait to see a long exposure of a waterfall, I know that’s going to be awesome

Wow, great shots!  

DowntownRDB Posted at 2-23 03:35
Careful there Mr. B.

Another observation on the shortcomings of the P2.  When shooting HDvideo rather than standard, no sound is recorded. That's another item on the wishlist for the P3.

Solidarity Posted at 2-22 17:49
should’ve included these in my comment but can’t wait to see a long exposure of a waterfall, I know that’s going to be awesome

Nice! Thank you for sharing!

Blériot53 Posted at 2-23 06:35
Another observation on the shortcomings of the P2.  When shooting HDvideo rather than standard, no sound is recorded. That's another item on the wishlist for the P3.

That could have been easily added via firmware/software on the P2.  Well, hopefully it will be included along with other nice new features on the P3.  

DowntownRDB Posted at 2-24 03:33
That could have been easily added via firmware/software on the P2.  Well, hopefully it will be included along with other nice new features on the P3.

I'm not holding my breath for any upgrades to the P2

Blériot53 Posted at 2-24 03:35
I'm not holding my breath for any upgrades to the P2

I'm not either as I'm sure DJI considers it EOL, especially with the P3 rumored to be out this year.

I would never have considered long exposure shots from a drone... but wow, those have got my mind working now, they are great shots.

Solidarity Posted at 2-22 17:49
should’ve included these in my comment but can’t wait to see a long exposure of a waterfall, I know that’s going to be awesome

Nice!

How long was the exposure on the traffic shot?

No Original Thought Posted at 2-25 04:18
I would never have considered long exposure shots from a drone... but wow, those have got my mind working now, they are great shots.

I was the same, until I saw other guys doing it

No Original Thought Posted at 2-25 04:19
Nice!

How long was the exposure on the traffic shot?

It was two 1" frames merged in PS. I guess with ND2000 you can get to 4"-8" and then one frame would be enough.

DowntownRDB Posted at 2-25 03:50
I'm not either as I'm sure DJI considers it EOL, especially with the P3 rumored to be out this year.

You would expect Tech support to continue for rather more than 2 years.

No Original Thought Posted at 2-25 04:19
Nice!

How long was the exposure on the traffic shot?

I think 2 seconds.

Fred Fred Fred Posted at 2-25 09:02
I think 2 seconds.

I was trying to make a guess based on how far the cars had travelled during the shot.. but gave up.. it's Friday and I don't need to be doing stuff like that on a Friday.. much better to just ask the question ;-)

Blériot53 Posted at 2-25 07:58
You would expect Tech support to continue for rather more than 2 years.

True, but look how quick they abandoned the P1.