I have had my Spark since last July and have slowly buuilt confidence with it.

One of my friends contacted me and asked me if I would get some aerial footage of his business for their new web site. I agreed and went along. When I got there I found they had cleaned the entire site - a HUGE recyling centre covering 4 gigantic warehouses - and had washed and scrubbed the fleet of 30 trucks. They wanted me to film the trucks as they left for the morning and had held them back so they would all leave together. None of this had been agreed in advance - I just thought I would just be causally flying about and getting a couple of video clips.

I had a briefing with the drivers and fealing like Cicil B DeMille told them to park at the far end of the site and have the lead driver toot his horn when they are ready, then wait until I get the drone in the air and give them a signal to set off. There would only be one chance to get the footage.

This was all fealing quite high pressure and I was shaking like a leaf. What made it worse was the huge amount of metalwork and reinforced concrete gave me constant compass errors - I gritted my teeth and ignored them. I'm a nervous pilot and NEVER normally fly on after receiving warnings. There are also loads of wireless transmitters and heavy machinary around the site. The place could hardly be worse for flying a drone. But once I got it about 4 meters up the errors stopped and it settled down. I gave the lead driver the thumbs up and with the theme from Convoy going through my head, they set off.

The Spark behaved PERFECTLY and my friend is delighted with the footage. When I landed it after the trucks had left my hands were shaking!

These kinds of experiences really help build my confidence in what is an amazing piece of technology.

Excellent Video, keep it up Mate !

DMX_MT Posted at 2018-7-27 04:48
Excellent Video, keep it up Mate !

Thanks DMX. I know it's not much compared to what others are doing, but it was a big deal for me...

Nicely done!  Doesn't look like you had ANY shake in the sticks!  Nice and smooth!

StarFishUK Posted at 2018-7-27 04:54
Thanks DMX. I know it's not much compared to what others are doing, but it was a big deal for me...

You did a Great Job, concentrate on what you do, just use other videos to get inspired with different ideas. Every Single Artist is different, and you really have a Talent. Keep it up Mate !

Nice one StarFish.  

Nice work. I like how you also were able to show the trucks on the road.

cool video, thanks for sharing.  Would have been much nicer if you had downloaded the original from the spark.. just saying

Sparky_17 Posted at 2018-7-27 05:41
cool video, thanks for sharing.  Would have been much nicer if you had downloaded the original from the spark.. just saying

Considering it looks great on my screen and plays in YouTube at 1080p I'd say this was an original file pulled from the SD card and not a low-res file pulled from the phone cache, if that's what you are getting at.

sorry, didn't mean to offend.  It might be my connection here as the video looked blurry as though it was the phone version not the raw file from spark.

Thanks for the clarification.

Sparky_17 Posted at 2018-7-27 06:07
sorry, didn't mean to offend.  It might be my connection here as the video looked blurry as though it was the phone version not the raw file from spark.

Thanks for the clarification.

Thanks everyone! Sparky_17, you certainly didn't cause me any offense, and those kinds of points are always worth repeating. In this case it was pulled from the Spark itself. Thanks for the reminder, though.

Nice work!  I would've been super nervous too!  With all of those people - and trucks (that's a lot of trucks!) - I totally feel your nerves!  And then don't forget those errors!  Great job!  Also, did you see that you got buzzed by a bird around 0:47?

that's a convoy!
nice!

StarFishUK Posted at 2018-7-27 04:54
Thanks DMX. I know it's not much compared to what others are doing, but it was a big deal for me...

For me confidence is what helps propel you to your next level.

Also I am a big proponent of finding your own voice. If you like the work you did that is all that matters. I liked the video. I think this is a good forum to see and learn different styles so that you can see what you like and then create your own stories from there.

Keep doing what you are doing and be sure to share your creations. For me I still get really nervous when I fly.... Am I going to do something dopey that causes my drone to go off the rails....

Sidd

very nice  

Superb, congratulations that's a great result!