Tag Archives: DronePhotography

Skywatch Friday – Cold Snowy Spell

From the Front Porch

It has been a week! We have had some wicked cold weather and a little bit of snow.

Last Friday, my brother got sick and we spent hours in the emergency room. Turns out he had covid. So they bundled him up and sent back to his residence where he is being isolated for a while. I went home and tested negative but have been self isolating for five days. So stay at home, no gym nor anything else where people are. Low single digits inhibited me from doing anything outside so I’ve been a couch potato.

I had this bright idea of taking the drone out to various places around town and launching it. First though the batteries were all low and it took hours to charge them up. I went on a little test run in the back yard and I got just a little ways up in the air and the drone went crazy and one of the motors started barking. The screen on the controller said “Too Cold” so I nixed that but I got a few photos showing the snow in the neighborhood.

Normally with as sunny as it is our one inch would be gone but it is sticking around because it is so cold.

It took me about 20 minutes to push the snow off the driveway and walkways. If I didn’t it would turn to ice. Now that is really fun to deal with, especially when you are 68 years old!

So tomorrow I’ll self test and I’ll be free again!! (If I test negative) Plus it will be warmer outside. Probably going to be too muddy to go hiking ethically but I’ll find something else to do. Don’t you worry!! And my brother is doing okay as well. He is apartment is kind of small and he is going stir crazy. They will be testing him and if negative, he’ll be free as well! Being free is good in my book.

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The other thing that happened last week is that I got notified by the internet company that hosts my blog that I had way too much traffic on it and it wasn’t coming from my friendly global blogging friends. It was coming under attack by evildoers! Traffic was up by a factor of 47,000!! They said fix it or we are going to shut you off. They were nice about it though. They sent a bunch of data on what was happening and gave me seven tasks I could do that would probably work.

Hey, couldn’t go anywhere, so the next day I went through the seven things with a sense of dread. Computerspeak is like a foreign language but with the links they provided I was able to tighten up security and upgrade things and it only took a few hours so I asked them to evaluate again and they said I fixed it and complemented me on how quickly I got-er done. Whew, big sigh of relief. My motto on the blog is if it is not broke don’t fix it. Turns out that is not too smart.

So that is about it for this week! I am linking with Skywatch Friday and My Corner of the World.

Skywatch Friday – Dronephotography Sunsets

For a while we had weeks and weeks of either clear blue skies or heavy overcast with rain, neither one of which lends themselves to using a drone to take photos. Lately though we have had some interesting skies so I have been launching it a little bit to see what I could find. I did all of flying over my backyard.

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Looking southwest over the local elementary school. Some pink in the skies.

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On another day, looking straight west

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Another day looking west. That tall building on this and the previous photo used to be Oral Roberts University’s hospital and medical school.

Looking northwest from the backyard.

An overcast day, I launched the drone anyway and got this shot. The clouds were too heavy for color in the sky so I just got some brighter sky further up.

More color in the northwestern sky.

Another view of the northwest sky.

I have a lot of fun flying my drone although I don’t develop much flying skill just going up and down from my back yard.

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday. Come check them out.

Skywatch Friday – From the Ground and the Sky

A late afternoon hike on Turkey Mountain, I love hiking there when the sun comes down.

Another front porch skywatch shot.

We had some weather the other day. I didn’t get my drone too far up in the air before the old warning alarm about too much wind. Looking west to the sunset.

One day we had tornade alerts off to the east. So this is a sunset looking east. Kind of a backlit storm. Glad we were were on the west side of this storm.

Another day, another sunset, I love color in the western sky at sundown, and low winds so I can fly my drone. It’s very light and I’m very careful with it. I noticed on the local Next Door, some poor guy got a brand new drone. He charged up the batteries and took it outside and launched it and that was the last he ever saw of it. I felt sorry for the guy but how could he be so clueless?

I’m linking with Skywatch Friday.

Fiery Skies in Tulsa

We’ve had some pretty good sunsets in Tulsa lately. Late day weather helps with the clouds in the western sky. One evening I launched my drone and went up about 50 meters. Not much wind which is rare for Oklahoma.

Another day I was taking son somewhere and we had good skies so I was taking shots as I safely could while driving. This is from our house looking west.

And at our church a little later.

And the drive home.

Another day I had to get my car serviced. We live only 0.8 miles from the mechanic so if the weather is good I walk back home. So this is an early morning shot to the east. I have to confess that since I have retired I have not seen very many sunrises.

I am linking with Skywatch Friday. Check it out, lots of great posts there.

Skywatch Friday – August Happenings

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The heat is down just a slight bit nowadays so I took a walk around Lafortune Park. I’ve taken around a thousand pictures of the pond with the trees in the background. The water was clear and still and there were some clouds and some decent reflections.

I’ve been launching the drone again from the backyard. This is looking west.

And on another day looking north.

The software on my drone is a bit of a nag and very bossy. Like when our previous president flew into town for his rally the drone wouldn’t even get off the ground. Good thing to as the guy had Air Force One make a slow and low pass over south Tulsa before landing at the airport. I bring it because one recent evening it was pretty dark out but still some color in the sky and the drone wasn’t really in the mood. Said it was too dark so I had to affirm that I was flying at my own risk before it let me send it up. I liked the result.

And on another day it fussed at me again but I still sent it up and got another decent shot.

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And this is not my photo. It is a jigsaw puzzle that I put together on my ipad. It took me weeks to complete. About drove me crazy. What I love though is that there is a tipping point in a puzzle where you have enough pieces down that the remaining pieces go very quickly. My next puzzle is going to be of the Mouton Barn at Grand Teton National Park.

Anyway that’s it for this week! I’m linking with Skywatch Friday – come join the fun!

Skywatch Friday – Droning On

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We finally got a break in the windy spring weather and I launched my drone. I generally just go straight up 50 meters or so from my back yard and look around.

Not much to see if the skies are clear but if there are clouds things get a lot more interesting.

Another day we had some rain, that makes for dramatic skies.

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And I finally got this jigsaw puzzle finished on my ipad. I had been working on it for several weeks. I love doing them.

I’m linking up with Skywatch Friday. Lots of talented bloggers there, go check it out.

Skywatch Friday – The Skies Are Back

So lately our plain jane skies have spiced up a little bit, especially at sunset. So I have been flying my drone quite a bit.

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There are even interesting skies on our dog walks.

One day we had a spectacular sunset to the west and…

to the East we got a nearly full Wolf Moon rising.

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And a big thank you to Klara. Her excellent moon shots reminded me of my humble Wolf Moon shot for this month. Go check the link and see what she did with the Wolf Moon. Truly Spectacular.

Happy Skywatching to you! I am linking up at Skywatch Friday.

Skywatch Friday – Loving the Cloudy Skies and Rain

We’ve had lots of rain and cloudy skies lately. Kind of hard on the hiking but great for growing stuff and taking skywatch photos. I launched the drone from the backyard for the above photo. The controller was squawking at me about the high winds and dark skies but I sent it straight up over the back patio and straight back down. This is the view to the northwest of our backyard.

Wednesday I went back to Philbrook Museum for the first time since they shutdown last year. I really missed hanging out in their gardens. I took this photo with my cell phone. Everything looks scrunched up.

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For contrast I took a similar photo with my Nikon. It’s more realistic looking with more depth in the photo. Cell phone cameras in my experience do a lot of flattening the perspective.

Crow Creek Reflections

Crow Creek winds through the gardens of Philbrook on its way to the Arkansas River. I loved this tree reflection in the creek.

Rock Poetry

Out behind the Timpietto they had a poetry rock garden so I gathered up a few and made me some rock poetry. The Philbrook gardens is my happy place. I’ve spent hours there over the years and taken hundreds of photos and always find something new to see.

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Meanwhile, back at the house. I think rainy overcast days are my favorite for breaking out the macro lens and taking photos of flowers. These are some of Heather’s zinnias that she planted last week.