I just picked up my Inspire 2 Monday and couldn't be happier to have it. After working with a Phantom 3 Advanced and Professional for about a year and a half, this new drone makes all the difference in the world.
I posted about Matt's work a while back, but during the past few months he has been working on creating and directing his new film, "Thump." The film is about a little boy who becomes more and more worried about how his heart may stop beating after watching his grandfather pass away from a heart attack. The idea alone is powerful, and after watching some of Matt's other work, I can see this film really being one of his best.
As most of us know, DJI came out with the Phantom 4 Pro a few months back and decided to add a few collision/infrared sensors to it along with putting a larger sensor inside of the actual camera itself with a mechanical shutter to allow for more control of the camera. After my buddy, Vin, got his Phantom 4 Pro, I realized this whole sensor size thing was no joke. I expected better quality when compared to the Phantom 3 Pro, but not this much. I decided to run a few tests comparing photos and video with the two drones going head to head.
The past couple of weeks I have challenged myself to keep up with my own personal blog on my website. I felt like this would be a good way to document my life and stories about photography so I decided to give it a go. Last year I wasn’t to fond of this whole idea but looking back, I feel like I was just being a bit lazy and making an excuse not to have one or keep up with one. Now however, that has changed and I encourage people to go out there and start their own blogs, or pick up on one they have already started.
The Inspire 2 came out a few months back and is a drone any aerial photographer would love to have because of it's portability, set up time, and overall quality compared to other high end drones on the market. I remember when this drone first came out and I was right by my computer to watch it be announced along with its little brother, the Phantom 4 Pro. I was blown away by the specs on the Inspire 2, however when both of these products came out, there was no video content to see aside from what DJI had produced because no one had access to these drones quite yet.
I've been following Adam Krowitz on Instagram for some time now, and I saw him post this a while ago but it wasn't until last night that it really had me thinking and reflecting on the past year. The entire video was put together so well, the quote worked perfectly, and I was drawn into the video the whole time I was watching it. My favorite part of it all is the old man and how he is pretty much looking back and reflecting on his life. Thinking about all that has happened in 2016, this video was a huge inspiration to me and makes me look forward at what's to come in 2017.
For about a year now I have been shooting with my DJI Phantom 3 and it has really been an eye opener for me. I have shot people, cars, landscapes, real estate, and so much more. Learning how to fly and shoot from an aerial perspective was probably the harder part of things, which is why I needed a place I could go to fly freely. Luckily, I went to school at Monmouth University in Long Branch, New Jersey which is only about a mile away from the beach.
My entire senior year of college, I would take my drone out in the morning, day or even dusk just...
Photography has a different meaning to almost every photographer. We may learn from one another but it is our style and vision that makes us unique to the the others out there. In this video, Paul Zizka travels out to Greenland to photograph the beauty of the "big white island," a place that not many get to see.
Yesterday was a really muggy day here in New Jersey and my partner and I both had off. We came downstairs to the office and worked on a few things when I realized we should be going out in this crappy weather and making something of it. We thought of a few ideas together and one stuck with us over the others, that was to shoot a car video using our Sony a7s ii and DJI Ronin M.
As work slows down for me in the off season, I wonder where I can go to create something new. For me, traveling is an awesome thing, and being able to explore our world is really amazing. After watching some of these aerial videos on Vimeo, I am really interested in flying across the country with all my gear and creating the most memorable trip I have ever had. Even though this may not happen soon, there are plenty of places that are within driving distance that I myself can go explore. I am going to make these trips a more common thing not only for the sake of creating new content, but for the sake of seeing more of the beauty in nature.
We have all heard about drones being used to spy on people. Which is extremely difficult, as most drones don't even have a zoom lens;,unless we invest the money into a drone that can use different lenses or one with a larger resolution to crop the image. After hearing about the GoPro Karma failing to fly, and the awesome new announcements by DJI, this has nothing to do with any type of drone news aside from a little humor.
It's been a few years now since DJI has come out with a new drone for high end filming. Today is the day they released the Inspire 2, a newer, much better version of the Inspire 1, has taken people by shock. The Inspire 2 has a sleek build with tons of added features, and also a new camera with some amazing quality and lens choices.
I never really used to take photos on my phone; in fact, I used to be really against it because I never thought the camera was good enough to capture what I wanted. Of course, it's great to always have a camera on you so you can take a photo, which makes the smartphone one of the best tools around. With today's technology, these cameras just keep getting better, and I am finally beginning to use my phone's camera just to work on my composition and angles when I see something of interest.
A photo series to me was always just another project in school; whether it was for my digital photography class or film photography class, there was always something that had to be done in a series. Being done with school and not having any projects assigned eliminated the need to think about creating a series of work, but now I realize that a series of photos can be a pretty cool personal project. So one year out of college, I challenged myself to start working on a personal aerial series. This time there was no project that needed to be done, no deadline, no rules, I was free to do whatever I wanted to do. The only hard part was actually doing it, but I do believe that this is something that can help any photographer out.
While there are many insurance companies that are out there for photographers and drone pilots, Verifly is the first drone liability insurance company that protects pilots and allows them to pay on demand. I recently interviewed Verifly CEO Jay Bregman to find out more about his new company and what they are doing to help drone pilots all around the country. One of the first things you will see about Verifly is that they cover up to $1,000,000 in liability within a flight radius of a quarter of a mile with any drone under 15 pounds. All operators have to do is select their area, after which they are instantly approved and provided with on-the-spot insurance to fly and proof of coverage to show to anyone who needs to see it.
I've been shooting real estate for about two years now. Today, I am shooting for my company, Simply Visual Productions, and another company, Jump Visual, which has been around for many years, and because of them, I have learned so much about working in this field. I have shot hundreds of homes and met many new people and worked with them to create photos that sell a home or space. I think it is funny that I do this because when someone thinks photography, I feel like real estate photography is the last thing they would think of. Aside from the photography aspect, I see aerial and video becoming more and more popular, which is one reason I have such an interest in it.
In the past week or so we have seen a lot of big things happening in the drone industry. It seems that there is almost a battle for portability, where drones should be able to be used anywhere by anyone. That being said, GoPro came out with an awesome new system that packs into one slim bag and can be brought and flown just about anywhere. The GoPro Karma folds up and packs into one small bag fitting the drone with the props on, the batteries, the remote, and the camera attached to the gimbal. On top of their drone idea, they decided a consumer may not always want to fly, but might still want to film some stable footage. In this case, they made the gimbal on the Karma removable so it can also be hand held and steady.
Sometimes we receive weird messages or threats through social media, email, or text, but it's not all the time that we look into them. Maybe they are fake, maybe they are real, but this is the story of one filmmaker who looked into things a little bit deeper.
After owning the DJI Osmo for about six months, I’ve come to realize how handy it can be when filming certain things. Usually a steady shot requires a huge gimbal or rig but with the Osmo it becomes simple and doable with just one hand. For me it is ideal for real estate and other little side projects I do, however it isn’t much of an everyday camera. DJI now introduces the Osmo Mobile, the Osmo handle with gimbal that can hold your smartphone.
After watching this video, I realized this concept applies to so many different things and so many different types of people in life.
