Drone, Photography

Low Tide in Edmonds – Beachfront Aerial Photo

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On September 8, 2022, Edmonds, Washington, had a low tide of -1.7 feet. That happens frequently, so it’s nothing too exciting. Except this day we had sunshine and I had my drone up in the air. Lots of people were out enjoying the beach, and it seemed like the perfect time and place for a few photos.

The ferry was at the dock. At these low tides, it is possible to walk under the ferry dock without getting your feet wet (at least not very wet – wear boots).

Update April 22, 2023:

I have moved my website to a new host, and now have additional capabilities. Before, I could not embed a 360° photo in the page and had to link to a different site to display it. Now I can embed it directly here, as below. Click and drag in the 360° photo below, use your scroll wheel to zoom in and out. Or click the small square in the upper right corner to view it full screen (which I highly recommend).

Drone, Photography, Useful Things

Drone Photos Without a Drone

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Last year when we were in Tucson, staying at the Lazy Days KOA, I wanted to take a decent photo of our campsite. The best shot would have been from a drone, but I didn’t think the KOA would allow me to fly my drone there. Not to mention that campground is in the airspace of a commercial airport and two(!) military airbases. There really was no chance of getting permission to fly a drone there!

So, what to do? I did some searching, and found photos that looked like photos from a drone that were taken without a drone. How did they do it?

One person that had some pretty interesting photos had taken the photos with a 10′ “Selfie” stick. That’s right, 10 feet! That sounded great to me, so I purchased one. Click here to get your own from Amazon (this is an affiliate link).

OK, it’s not really 10 feet. It’s actually 3 meters, or about 9.8 feet. It’s a carbon fiber pole that extends in sections, so you don’t have to extend it to the full 3 meters. When collapsed it’s only about ~18″ long.

When holding this pole up over my head, the camera is about 16′ above ground. Perfect for many photos.

I attached my GoPro to the end of the pole and used my cell phone to control the camera. I could see what the camera was seeing through my phone, and snap the shot (or shoot a video). It takes a little practice to hold the pole steady and aim it where you want.

The pole seems to be made well. It locks into position and stays there until you want to collapse it (a slight twist at each section releases it).

Using this pole, I was able to get some pretty nice shots of our KOA campsite, as seen below.

Tucson Lazy Days KOA campsite
Tucson Lazy Days KOA campsite
Photogrammetry, Photography

3D Model of Ponderosa Pine Tree Bark

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Here is my latest diversion. This is the bark of a Ponderosa pine tree near Camp Sherman, Oregon. I shot 26 photos with my Pixel 5a cell phone, then processed the photos with WebODM into a 3D model.

I did further processing in Blender to eliminate a few extraneous bits and then created an animation of the model.

Below is the animation I created using Blender. Click on the image to start the video, click “f” to view it full screen. Press “f” again to exit full screen mode (I suggest viewing it in full screen to really see it):

This model can also be seen in Sketchfab, a 3D viewer. Click on the image below, and after the model loads, click and drag to see it in 3D. Same as for the animation, press “f” to view it full screen and “f” again (or escape) to exit full screen mode: