It's a droner's Life now

Thanks to others, I've been bit by that nasty drone bug! The first one was a low-cost drone that was simple to fly, but didn't tolerate winds over 10mph. But yes, that was enough to hook me into the drone life, plus it did have a good camera. The second and third drones were a bit more expensive BUT during testing, after a successful flight around the park, it suddenly flew off on its own, and so lucky it didn't land in a busy street just 15.7 feet away! Both of these drones did that! They were quickly returned!

So I finally went the other route, and picked up a DJI mini 2 se. 

My mini 2 se

The newer drone was very nice. Stable. It flies in higher winds better and still get relatively good images, and quite sharp at that! I went through a few of those due to one event or another; it wasn't the drone but just me getting used to just flying a drone. It's not just getting the necessary experience flying a drone, it also takes a lot of concentration looking out for wires, cables and those long branches of any and all Trees!  

mini 2 se memory of  local parks

 

With much more experience with the controller and drone, I haven't had a lot of the many heart-pounding experiences of those earlier mishaps with the other drones, now knowing to position myself in a manner where I can eye the environment my drone is flying into: close to overhead cables or wires, Trees and its many parts that just love drones, plus signs and other things found above and on public streets and areas.  

I've only been involved with drones not even a full month, and now have an even newer drone, now my active and most-used drone - considering I still have the mini 2 se which is collecting dust. This mini 4 pro has sensors that detects obstacles near and around it, and it's very cool to see that in operation, and what things are detected and avoids! That in itself helps, but it's still and will always be the steady eye and clear observations needed to keep it safe from objects and hazards high and low.                               

My mini 4 pro at top left, old controller 
at right and new RC2 controller at bottom

I still haven't used all the options of this drone, but will eventually check out most of the options. I've played with the tracking mode, with several tests tracking me and us walking, but while the trials have been successful, later when I really want it to work, it didn't function as planned. I'll just continue practicing with it more, to ensure the tracking mode options are correct, so it should track when it's used for real again.   

The abandoned Hotel Niagara

The old Mount Saint Mary's Hospital, now abandoned for decades

The long-abandoned Tonawanda NY NG armory

Otherwise it's just me trying to use the drone everyday when and if possible, and getting accustomed to flying the dawg [my choice name for the drone, and the best thing of walking this "dawg", is never needing to pick up poop!] to build up my flight hours, which gets me the needed experience to have better uneventful flights. I've just scheduled an interior shoot soon, and along with a real camera, will be taking the drone also. It'll be interesting to see the angles and shots I can get, IF the drone is used at all!

Here's another image, tonight's cloudy upper Niagara River drone sunset.....  enjoy! 

Potter's House Christian Church, Niagara falls NY

Winter Scenes 2024-2025

Well, at least we didn't get a blizzard this time around! Still a good amount of snow to stomp around in, and of course, WE were out in the cold and snow/ice. We have electric gloves and socks, but the socks get too hot being inside a shoe, and the gloves are warm, but the glove fingers are too thick, plus the finger areas are NOT warmed, and that's where it needs to have the wires. 

During the two arctic blasts, of course we ventured out for that too! Swans were plentiful this year, as they are each year, but often need to drive to see them - we don't fly - BUT this time we lucked out, and they were quite close - so close WE could walk to see, which is always a pleasure!                                          

It's cloudy out there

Snowy Niagara Falls State Park

A Winter sunset

The Beauty of the Aurora in Western New York!

I would have rather loved to seeing the northern lights in Spain but we haven't been there since 2018! I probably have a huge hill of old mail and dust awaiting my return to my apartment! 

I'm currently waiting for a 24-240mm Sony lens and it would have been very well-used last night. Instead I took my only wide full-frame 20-70 lens and that was luckily adequate for the whole show. I would have been happier with a lens just a hair wider, and thought of taking the very sharp and lightweight Sony fisheye adapter though that would not fit onto the lens I took!

Looking across Lake Ontario to Toronto at left

         

All the people amazed with the celestial event!

                          

The structures of Old Fort Niagara under the aurora

I even turned my camera to the south, snapping this image of the aurora over the bright Moon!

On the way home, we stopped at the Youngstown NY yacht club waterfront. 

Below and above images created while at the Youngstown NY yacht club waterfront

Again it was still easy to see the aurora, again with streetlights glaring and eyes again totally unadjusted to the darkness....  or rather, the brightness of the aurora! 

After the fact and looking at the Space Weather webpage hours later, again, I think it was so awesome that unknowingly, we had arrived at our selected viewing area of Fort Niagara during its peak levels; it apparently was almost a KP9, which is the highest it can get!! When we arrived at the fort, even with UNadjusted eyes to the darkness, I could see the lights faintly, through my three times operated-on eyes!!

Over the years the wife and I have discussed going somewhere where we could be guaranteed easy viewing of the aurora borealis... Iceland which is fairly "close" to us, and northern Norway, where even my brother has been now to view the dazzling colorful displays! 

Have you seen the northern lights yet?

Who can resist the Beauty of Trees?

There's a lot of gorgeous Trees in western New York....  heck, I've seen a lot of gorgeous Trees in my travels but still, Trees are a sight to see! 

Do you love Trees too? I just can't hug a Tree....  my many allergies causing me to be sneezing year-round, plus I despise insects and ants!

All of these fabulous Trees can be enjoyed on the grounds of the fabulous Niagara Falls State Park! Really! In some of the pictures, you can see parts of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada in the background!

Wings over Batavia, NY 2024 edition finale

It's done and over with, and we really enjoyed this years edition of a favorite area airshow: Wings over Batavia. 

What we really enjoy though were the fireworks. Granted, an airshow is usually very interesting but this one has just so many acrobatic planes doing their whirls and spins, and once you've seen one planes roll and spin, you've seen them all.

 

What we DO enjoy immensely are the fireworks show that end the day's aerial event. A plane flies in the dark spewing its load of fireworks, and eventually it continues to fly as fireworks launched from the ground explode with color and sound! 

I've included a few memories of the fireworks....  can you pick out the plane? 

Enjoy these few memories!!!