Drones and FAA Registration

So this weekend I wanted to write about something a little different, drones. Drone have become more and more popular especially in photography because they offer a unique new perspective, allowing photographers to photograph from up high or in areas hard to reach by foot.

One of the most popular drones for photography these days are the DJI Phantom series and with good reason. The company that makes this particular drone has done everything in their power to make their drone the most intelligent model on the market. With smart take off and landing capabilities, “follow me” the ability to upload pre-determined way-points for the drone to follow, they have made flying this model kind of “idiot-proof”, so that you can concentrate on taking amazing photos or videos and not worry about keeping the drone in the sky and stable.

Now, of course with drones and their ability to go and photograph basically anywhere, they have caused some controversy, especially when it comes to people’s personal privacy and where drones should and should not be allowed to go and photograph or shoot video. So, now the FAA has stepped in and set up rules and guidelines for the use of drones, also known as Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) for short. For now, the FAA has set up registration for drones that are being used for hobby only via their website. For those that use them for business, you need to obtain a special exemption as they will not have the complete rules, regulations and registration system in place for business use until mid-2016.

Now as far as registration is concerned, it is officially open as of Monday December 21st, 2015 and is fairly basic. All you have to supply to the FAA is your name, address and email address. No information on the make or model of your drone or drones. When you register, you will receive a unique FAA ID number that you must put on ALL of your drones so that they can be identified. They will also email you a certificate that you MUST carry on you at all times when operating your drones, either a printed copy in your wallet, or the ability to pull up the digital copy on your smart phone or tablet is fine as well. The registration is only $5 for three years and if you register by January 20th, 2016, the $5 fee is refunded.

Under the new UAS laws and regulations, you cannot legally fly your drone without having it registered first, to do so you face up to nearly $300,000 in fines and 3 years in prison. Your drone only has to be registered if it falls between the weights of .55 pounds to 55 pounds. You can read more information on the rules and register your drone here,
FAA UAS Registration Page there is also a PDF document with some of the most common models of drones listed and whether or not they meet the registration guidelines.

So, now that you know more about drones and the new FFA registration and rules, get out there and makes some awesome aerial photos and videos and be sure to post them on PSPN!

Comments/Questions

Should I Upgrade My Gear?

So many times I get questions on whether or not a student should upgrade their gear. “Should I go buy the latest body or lens or upgrade my entire camera platform with a new brand?” If you are asking these questions then the answer is NO.

The T3i (now T5i) camera that students get through the Art Institute is an awesome camera and the 18-55mm lens that comes with it although one of Canon’s inexpensive lenses, takes awesome photos. When it comes to gear if you need a fast 70-200mm F/2.8 to shoot sports of your kids then you will buy it, providing you can afford it and the spouse doesn’t say No.

One of the greatest hangs up that photographers have is always wanting to upgrade their gear when it’s not necessary. They think they need to have the latest and greatest at all times but if you play that game you will be broke and spend less time taking photos and more time learning your new gear.

Now, if you are rich and want to always have the latest gear then by all means, go for it, there’s an old saying, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” But if you are asking me or anyone else if you need to upgrade your gear than you are just looking for an excuse to buy something that is not needed and trying to justify the expense with your significant other.

I personally shoot with older gear myself. Why, because I love to shoot full frame and they are the most expensive bodies. I currently use 2 Canon 5D classics, a 1D Mark II, a 50D and a Sony NEX 6. All of my cameras are older, the 5D classic came out in like 2007, the 1D Mark II came out in 2005, the 50D was new in 2009 and the Sony NEX 6 was new in 2012 I believe.

                                          Female Bald Eagle, shot with Canon 50D and 70-200mm F/4 L

A lot of people have the newer 5D Mark IIs and Mark IIIs but they have more money to burn than I do. I make awesome money at my day job but, I figure, until my photography gets to the point where it pays for the newer gear, I will stick to what I have. The 5D classic, if you read up on it, in comparison, takes better landscapes than the Mark II or Mark III. The newer bodies have more bells and whistles and high megapixels, but if you know anything about photography, megapixels means nothing once you get past 6 anyways.

So, in conclusion, if you are asking “Should I upgrade?” the answer is No. Spend more time shooting, less time worrying about what the next photographer has or the hype of sales people and learn to use what you have. The quality of your images has less to do with your gear, and more to do with whether or not you know how to use it. Remember this quote by the great Ansel Adams, “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!”

Now, as my mentor and friend Professor Jill P Mott says, “get out there and make some great images”!

Comments/Questions

Photographing a Moving Target

Good Morning, AIPOD World! This past weekend I had the privilege to document the first annual retreat for a non-profit organization called Girls with Guts. These girls really do have a lot of guts to deal triumphantly with the physical ordeals they live with on a day-in and day-out basis.

One of the activities they participated in was a zip-line over a deep ravine. I stood down below in the ravine and tried to photograph each of them as they traversed it in a 16-second trip. Using my 300mm lens with my file size on Camera Raw so I got the max amount of digital file, I focused on them at the starting point, and tried to follow them across, turning as they passed overhead. It sounds much easier than it was. They started in the woods, up a stairway in the trees. This photographed best at ISO 1250 at f/19 at 1/125 sec. By the time they were overhead the camera was metering f/19 at 1/750 sec. Then they went back into wooded area and the metering changed back to f/19 at 1/125 sec.

photos by Connie Rohne

So how do you manage your camera in a situation like that. Believe me I was desperate enough to try “P” for “program” but those results were not pretty. What were the main problems? First, my camera could not decipher where to focus quickly enough, when I was set on auto focus. So that meant I had to be able to manually focus-quickly. Second moving from dark treed areas to clear sky overhead was an extremely drastic light change. I would have loved to change my ISO from 1250 to 100 when overhead, but that was impossible in an 4 second time frame, and then changing back again for the other side.

I tried the AV (aperture priority) mode, thinking I could keep my shutter speed consistent and change my aperture to control the light getting in. Setting my aperture at 4.0 was, however, a great recipe for out of focus images with subjects moving so quickly over me. The lighting concept was right, but there was too much variation in light. Also I needed the higher ISO to get more detail in the dark areas in the trees. Overhead the aperture setting wouldn't allow for enough change to control the light getting in at that ISO.

So back to M, manual, my mainstay.  I could focus with one hand, and dial my shutter speed with the other.  My subjects were traveling about 500 feet in 16 seconds, or just over 31 feet per second. Setting my aperture to f/19 gave me a good depth of field to catch them in focus. I really needed a high shutter speed to freeze their movement. I found the 1/125 sec gave me a nice crisp image. That took care of both ends of the zip line in the wooded area. When they passed over my head 1/125 second was totally blown out, you could barely see the shape of a person in the brightness. Dialing my shutter speed up as they came out into the skylight to 1/500 or 1/750 gave me beautiful blue skies and still enough details in the shadows on my subjects to capture great expressions.

This was a new challenge for me. Actually this was a week of new challenges for me. I hope to share some more of them with you next week.

Have a great day. Go out and try something new and challenging!

Sequence Photography

Good morning Tuesday aficionados and welcome once more to another Terrific Tuesday!

Today’s blog is going to be a short one, I just finished two classes that gave me headaches for the whole period and just started two more that might not be as stressful but will require a lot of time!

My last class had a lot to do with proper sequence of images in a way that will make sense to tell a story, that was the headache part.  The good part was that I was able to take a lot of images with my models and of my town.  Of course everything has another size and all the models wanted copies of the images, so I had to deal with dividing over 900 images, do post-production and copy them to a disk for the ones that went over and beyond the help that I needed at the time.

So while I was looking for examples and help in creating proper sequence of photographs for a story I came upon this site that has some great action sequence photography and I wanted to share it with you.

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-beautiful-examples-of-action-sequence-photography/

Some of the examples of this type of photography from the site can be seen here:

 

Jordan | mr.ainsworth

 

Greggins Jumping green water | ivotedforkodos

 

Have any of you ever done anything like this?  If you have, I would love to the see the images and I am sure the rest of the readers would love to see them too!  I am going to way until this weekend and I might try to find some kid on a skateboard and try this sequencing photography it seems to be fun.

Ok, so you might be wondering how to do it, right?  Well, check this site, it provides some instructions in how to do it, it has two parts but you can access the other part through the site.

http://www.digital-photo-secrets.com/tip/234/how-to-get-killer-sequence-photos-part-1/
 

Well, that is all for today, if you have some images to share, go ahead and let us see them.  Until later then, this is your Tuesday Ambassador wishing you a great shutterspeed day!

See you around cyberspace!

Tuesday Ambassador