High perspective, shark attack
Last night had a nice combo of activities that I find enjoyable. I wanted to do the bar dip version of this month’s BB challenge but I wanted to do it from a different perspective, overhead. To do so I mounted my new GoPro on the Phantom.
To mount the camera I actually used the waterproof mount that came with the camera, the mount that comes with the Phantom is actually a little big for the Hero 3+ which is smaller than the Hero 3.
I also utilized my moon gel. I put one piece under the foot that attached to the bottom of the quadracopter and then another under the camera inside the waterproof mount. The combo seemed to work very well, there was very minimal distortion in the video. I still need to balance the props, the audio from the flight make the props sound quite “buzzy”.
So anyway, I figured with the very wide field of view the GoPro has and the ability of the Phantom to more or less hover in place without pilot input, I should be able to film my attempt from above. Mounting the GoPro in the waterproof case actually resulted in the cam being upside down. Luckily the GoPro has the ability to flip video on the fly just by telling it that UP is the other direction.
So I got the copter in the air and positioned it so it looked like the GoPro was more or less pointed at the pull up bar. I set the transmitter on the table and got to work. The copter drifted around slightly due to wind but with the wide angle lens it didn’t matter. I think it turned out quite well, I will surely dig deeper into this video recording method in the future. Here is the finished product.
After the challenge was over I flew around some more, capturing some more cool aerial footage. I am having ideas float around in my head of some future uses of my flying aerial rig that could be pretty cool.
My enjoyable night was rounded out with some gaming time playing both WoW (dinged 90 with my second toon) and Hearthstone (kicked some ass with my Warlock & Hunter). It felt good to have a night of doing nothing except what I want to do instead of things I have to do.
I had a weird dream last night.
I was back at the house I grew up at in Gouglersville. I was walking down the road near the bottom of the hill with my dad. We had Sadie along. Dad had her on a long extend-a-leash. The creek that runs along the road was much bigger than I remember, looking more like a small river.
Sadie, as she often does, was far ahead exploring. She headed down the slope that lead into the creek/river and started wading in. Before I knew it she was a good 15 feet from shore with my dad still holding the leash. I yell to my dad, “You shouldn’t let her go in there, there are sharks!” “I know, I know” my dad said in his mildly dismissive tone. Dad is never one to take much heed to potential danger, confident that he will always somehow fall outside the odds.
Well as soon as my dad gets done speaking I see two large shadows moving quickly in the water which was no more than knee deep. As my eyes focused I saw it was not one but TWO sharks and big ones at that, 7-8 feet long at least. I scream at my dad, who was now in the creek/river himself as Sadie pulled along, about the sharks. He says he sees them and starts “running” as fast as you can in knee high water, pulling Sadie back behind him.
As Dad is hauling ass towards the bank the sharks pass directly in front of him, I was sure he was going to either step on them or trip over them. He somehow avoids them and makes it to shore, however he momentarily forgets that Sadie is still in the water. I run towards him and yell, “GO, GO, GO” meaning he needed to pull Sadie out the rest of the way.
My eyes widened as Sadie was moving towards land, both sharks had swung around and were hauling ass straight towards her, like twin torpedoes. As Sadie came out of the water the sharks shot out of the water, missing her barely before they both roll back into the river/creek.
Sadie had no idea anything was wrong at all, standing there with her typical dog smile after she shook off the water. End of dream.