2nd DJI Phantom 3 Professional Flight - February Vlog

That is right guys! I recently got a UAV for aerial photography, videography, and also for flying around for fun. Hopefully this machine will help me take some great photos and videos from a new perspective. This vlog was shot on 2/29/2016. This was the second flight I have ever done on any UAV so I really apologize for the lack of quality in the smoothness of the video and in exposure. I was mainly just flying it for fun and to get some practice flying this thing for the video, so I shot the video without any goal in mind. The park I filmed at is called Pleasanton Sports Park in Pleasanton, CA. I flew there because there are really big grass fields with nothing to crash into.

Blog post from my flight here.

Note: The reason this got published in April now is due how much stuff has been going on in my life. During March, my old computer broke, my wisdom tooth grew out and got infected, and I had to spend time building a new computer. It delayed things by a lot. I still hope you enjoy it though!

Warning: Hateful, rude, anti-LGBT comments will be deleted, and you may be banned from my channel.

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My second drone flight!

If you saw the blog post I posted yesterday, you will know I got a new DJI Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter!! This was a Christmas gift from my parents. So, expect new and exciting aerial photography from Sunny! :) These photos on the blog post will not be on my portfolio or anything as this was just a casual shoot with the quadcopter. I was mainly just practicing how to fly this thing, my focus wasn't photography. I just shot off a few random photos for fun and as a special treat today, I also shot video for vlogging (this will come up later this week if I finish processing it). The photos were shot in RAW and processed in Photoshop. Trust me, the JPEGs straight from the camera was pretty below average, however the RAW data is good! I was able to get a ton of detail out of that.

What are the results today? I brought a blanket as a helipad for this thing. It made take off easier and made sure nothing touched the camera gimbal while the quadcopter was grounded. Also I managed to successfully land the drone on the tiny piece of blanket, not once, but twice today! Yes, I'm starting to get the hang of how to land this thing on a very small target. That was a success. I'm also learning a tiny bit on how to fly FPV so I can fly it a bit further while it is up really high in the air.

The photos (again) are shot at Ken Mercer Sports Park in Pleasanton, CA.

Full Resolution Photos: If you want to see full resolution photos of any of the photos you see here, use the following links. If you wish to purchase prints of any of the photos, please contact me here. To view my best aerial photos for 2016, use this link. To see all of my random 2016 aerial photos, use this link.

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed viewing the photos! Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family members! Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Pleasanton Sports Park Birds and Squirrels

Last month our church had a picnic at the Pleasanton Sports Park. I was one of the photographers for them. :) (Yay! Talent finally recognized by a group of people. LOL) Anyways, I thought it would be great for me to utilize the time I was there to also take photos of the birds and squirrels there. I didn't take too much photos when I was there because:

1. I was taking photos for the church event.
2. There wasn't many birds or squirrels at the park.

So the church photos I took for them went to the church, and the other photos I took, I'm here to share with you! I hope you enjoy viewing these photos! Pleasanton Sports Park is located in Pleasanton, CA.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Pleasanton photos of 2012, use this link. To see my best wildlife photos, use this link. To see all of my Pleasanton photos of 2012, use this link.

Quick Photography Lesson: See how the background is out of focus and has lots of circles? In photography, this is called the bokeh effect. Generally you will need some light source (don't have to be strong) to achieve this effect. To take a photo of this effect, you will have to shoot with a wide aperture (small f-stop number), and the part you want the effect to be has to be out of focus (use manual focus). On cheaper lenses, the bokeh may be a hexagon or some other shape instead of a circle. This is due to the less rounded cheaper aperture blades in cheaper lenses. Some people may even use this effect to do special effects. One of the most popular type of DIY effect is taking black construction paper and cutting a shape on it to change the bokeh. You can find out more about this by using Google and searching "diy custom bokeh". 

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

Stupid bird didn't turn around so here is a photo of its butt. 

The black phoebe standing on a fire hydrant in the middle of the park. 

Looks like the only bird I got a photo of in the park was the black phoebe... There really wasn't much wildlife there. Maybe they are hiding from all the people. 

The only squirrel I saw in the park that day... I saw a lot more back then in Fremont Central Park. Maybe not enough people are feeding them at this park... (Please don't feed the wildlife...)

This is all the photos for today! I hope you have enjoyed viewing today's post. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family! In the next post, I will begin my Monterey photos. I know a lot of you are looking forward to those so please check back often! I generally do one post every two to three days. Again, those times may change as I said in a post of mine before, college is starting for me, so I have been pretty busy.

Backyard and Pleasanton Trail Birds

As the title suggests, today I have bird photos I took in my backyard and on Pleasanton Trail (Arroyo Del Valle Trail). Well it was actually the Pleasanton Sports Park, but I'm going to call it Pleasanton Trail anyways because it was kind of the border between the trail and the park. LOL So anyways, if you are new here, the trail is located in Pleasanton, CA. (Duh!) So here are the photos! I'm going to start off with my backyard photos.

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best bird photos of 2012, use this link. To view my best 2012 backyard photos, use this link. To see all of my at home and backyard photography shots of 2012, use this link. To see my best photos of Pleasanton in 2012, use this link. To see all of my photos from Pleasanton in 2012, use this link.

Black Phoebe (Sayornis nigricans)

The black phoebe really loved to perch on my bird cage (the one I'm not using). There are a lot of bird poop on the top... If you are new here, I used to have a lot of pet birds. 2 died and 1 flew away. Now I only have 2 parakeets left, which I keep in my smaller cage now, which I can bring indoors easily. I don't use my big cage now. My big cage is located near the nest, and the black phoebe enjoys using it as a perch before flying up to its nest. 

Nom nom nom... HAHA It caught a bug...

Well anyways, here is the story of this family of black phoebes. The family nested in my backyard and had baby birds. Now they flew away because the babies hatched. I enjoyed their company though. I got some great photos! :D

That looks like a dragonfly in its mouth. Nom nom nom... 

 Another photo of it perched on top of my bird cage. My big bird cage had a small bird play gym at the top. 

 Fence post got in the way of this shot... That's the thing in the bottom right corner. I was taking these photos indoors to not startle the bird. I temporarily removed my window's mesh screen to get these photos.

The bird standing on my wire vine crawler thingy I stuck in my flower pot.  

You know what bugs me... How a bird can grip such a thin round piece of wire and not flip upside down. LOL

The black phoebe was from my backyard. The rest of the robin photos are from the Pleasanton Trail/Pleasanton Sports Park border...

Looks like it found a worm. 

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

This is all the photos for this post! I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Next time, I will have some bird and squirrel photos from Pleasanton Sports Park. After that post, I will begin my Monterey photos! :) I know all of you have been looking forward to those, so 1 more post before I start! Please don't forget to share the blog posts with your friends! Also, if you would like to get notifications next time I post, you can "Like" me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Google+. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.

Augustin Bernal Park Birds

Today I will be posting the bird photos I took at Augustine Bernal Park. Augustin Bernal Park is located in Pleasanton, CA. The hiking trail I was on is only open to Pleasanton residents and their guests. I sometimes go there for exercise as it is near my house and the whole trail is pretty shady due to the trees. It is very good place to go during the summer. (And yes, I did copy the intro I wrote in the last blog post. I changed 1 word.)

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best Pleasanton photos of 2012, use this link. To see my best bird photos of 2012, use this link. To see all of my Pleasanton photos of 2012, use this link.

Hummingbird on a branch. Doesn't this look like one of those Chinese watercolor paintings?

This photo of the American Robin (Turdus migratorius) was taken after sunset in a shady area. I had to use a tripod. No flash was used. Here are the settings used:

Aperture: f/5.6

Exposure: 1/2 second

ISO: 800

Focal Length: 275 mm

 Black-headed Grosbeak (Pheucticus melanocephalus)

 Acorn Woodpecker (Melanerpes formicivorus)

As I was hiking, I saw a group of acorn woodpeckers flying around and climbing the trees.  

I'm sorry the birds look so tiny in the photos. They were too high up for my camera to get. You can click the photo to view the full size.  

One of them flew down just a bit. Slightly better photo. :D

Not too sure what bird this is due to the motion blur. :/ If you have a guess, please leave me a comment below. 

Western Scrub-Jay (Aphelocoma californica)

Thank you for looking at my photos! I hope you have enjoyed viewing them. Please don't forget to share the blog post with your friends and family! More photos are to come. In my vault of photos, I still have a few more Augustin Bernal photos (scenery, flowers, etc...), some front yard photos, Pleasanton Sports Park photos, and my Monterey, Big Sur, and Point Lobus photos! So please check back often for more beautiful photos! I think the one you will be looking forward to is my Monterey, Big Sur, and Point Lobos photos because those places are a bit more famous than my nearby regional parks. I will be posting those once I finish posting my other photos. Also, if you want to get notifications when I post up more photos, "Like" us on Facebook or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. These links can also be found on the top of the right sidebar.