Mine building - Hingston Down Quarry, St.Anne's Chapel - Gunnislake

For this test shoot we wanted to practice flying close to a building and discover the potential for surveying buildings in the future. We knew about a great old mine building near to St.Anne's Chapel and Hingston Down Quarry. We were aware that the quarry was near but it wasn't until we got up in the air that we found out how close it actually was and it was lot bigger than we thought! That's the beauty of a drone, seeing places you haven't seen before. We hope by sharing our photos you will also get to discover some previously unknown sights from the local area, so don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any locations you think might make for some great photos!

Flight Case - Storing and Transporting kit

Its not normal for two people to get excited over a box - but we are!

Today a new Flight Case arrived for transporting and storing all our kit safely. 

Made by B&W International it is a heavy duty case with specialist foam cut to fit all parts of our kit perfectly and most importantly, securely. Having a case of this sort should be highly prioritised when owning a Drone as they are vulnerable to damage when transporting and storing. Its such a great bit of kit as it fits our drone inside with all the props still attached as well as the GoPro and stabilising gimbal. With extra space for spare battery packs, our flight controller and our FPV monitor it really has us covered on all bases and with Lithium-Polymer batteries being as volatile as they are, it really puts our minds at ease knowing they're safe and sound!

Honey Fair from the Sky - Callington, Cornwall

We wanted to try flying in the dark to see how well the GoPro preforms in low light, with a Fun Fair being in one of our local towns we decided this was a great opportunity! We took off at sunset so that there was still a bit of light for a safe flight and also to capture a bit of the surrounding town. The results were amazing and the GoPro Hero3+ Black edition has surprised us yet again! There was not as much noise as we had expected, with it only being noticeable in a few spots on both the video and photos. At times when a photo was taken whilst the copter was moving it created a blurred image, which is expected due the camera compensating for the low light by slowing its shutter speed. However when the copter was just hovering we were able to capture some really great photos! 

Don't Forget to scroll down for the video!

Flight: Minions, Liskeard, Cornwall

The weather this September has been amazing with a few weeks of beautiful weather. A perfect way to finish off the summer, and of course perfect for flying! 

We decided to take a trip to Minions near Liskeard, Cornwall. We've tried flying there several times but have never been lucky enough to find a day that isn't too windy. Minions and the surrounding area are home to some really interesting topography and architecture, with authentic Cornish Tin Mine Engine Houses, historic Tors and a miniature stone circle, it's a really interesting place to explore, especially from the sky. 

This filming is part of a small personal project we are working on showcasing historic architecture local to Kite Vision. Keep your eyes peeled as there will be a video from this shoot coming soon! 

Our new addition to the GoPro

Along with Kite Vision's Phantom 2 Quadcopter is our small, but very clever camera, the GoPro Hero 3+ Black Edition. It may be small but the quality of its aerial images always seems to amaze us! Whilst the Phantom 2 was made to fit this camera we have noticed a slightly strange thing occurring on the footage from one of our shoots. This takes the form of horizontal black lines moving along the screen when the camera is positioned towards the sun and in particular when shooting in the midday sunshine. This is a result of the cameras filming speed picking up the shadows from the sun beaming down on the props. Each prop casts a shadow upon its rotation over the lens of the GoPro.
 This video below shows the lines appearing for a few seconds on our test footage of the Tamar Bridge.

                                  

Although this is a fairly rare occurrence especially when using our First person viewing monitors, we are perfectionists so it was a priority to try and stop this from happening on future shoots. After a little bit of google searching we found that this is a fairly common among drone flyers and luckily there is a brilliantly simple solution! We got a bit of black card, cut it into an appropriate shape and stuck it around the lens with strong tape to create our very own lens hood. This simple correction enables the shadows to be blocked from the lens, consequently putting a stop to any black lines appearing on the footage.

Since taking these photos the lens hood has been tested several times and been adjusted slightly, and its working great! Due to the high sensitivity of our stabilising gimbal any extra weight can cause issues, so this super lightweight and more importantly cheap and convenient fix is perfect.
A simple problem with a simple solution, High Five!

Tamar Bridge Flyby

We managed to find a break in the cloudy weather a few days ago so took the opportunity to shoot something we see all the time but from a new perspective. He is a short edit of our Tamar Bridge flyby.

Enjoy, like and share!

Whitsand Bay Flight

Here's a short edit of an early flight test we recently did on the picturesque Cornish coast. Being only a short trip away from where we're based it seemed like the perfect location to capture some shots of some of this country's most beautiful coastline. 

Flying (this time) without a monitor to provide a live feed from the camera, we were essentially flying blind and so there was a bit of guesswork when it came to framing our shots. This being said we were still pleased with how these turned out.

Enjoy!