It’s like 32 degrees! It’s not going to look cold… We are in a sunny forest in the middle of
Georgia. I want to show you how to take your drone
flying to the next level. Let’s do this! Whooo. Ok! So, isn’t this an amazing forest? Actually, maybe it’s hard to see with the
sun, let me turn it around. Uh. This is going to take you maybe an hour or
two – a few flights – to get your head wrapped around this one. And you’re going to need a drone. So, zero dollars if you have a drone. If not, it’s going to take you a drone.

Got that out of the way. The reason I’m doing this is that I have noticed
that a lot of people when they first start flying have a few common mistakes. Often times they fly high. They fly like they’re flying a controlled
airplane. They’re not flying it like a vidoegrapher
might. Can I just say, I was going to do this a month
ago. We are going to fly drones today! In fact, I went to my friends house to try
and teach him how to fly and and just take it to the next level. I was going to do the whole thing there and
them midway through that whole discussion, I ran into a tree and crashed the drone, so
I had to cancel that shoot. Then I went to Sweden – in which place there
was amazingly huge winds – so I couldn’t show you all the techniques up there. But, I got some cool shots. I’m the king of the…

Whooo! I got It! – You got the caribou? I got it! The caribou? Yes! Yeahhh! Most epic shot ever. I was like gooo gooo, aaahh. Hahaha. It was so frickin windy. I know. Like it was like my drone was about to crash. We were like oh sh-t. Where’s the drone. Caribou couldn’t even stand up. They were like slippin on the ice.

So anyway, now I’m in the longleaf pine habitat
and it’s amazing. And, it’s a perfect place to show you some
of the examples I think are going to take your drone flying to the next level. Alright, #1 is I think you can start flying
low and through the trees. It’s not something a lot of people start with,
because they’re a little sketched out – like is it going to crash or is it not. What I do in a forest like this, I will get
right behind my drone and then I’ll fly it in a straight line, right! Sometimes, straight and up or backwards and
to me. But basically you want to be able to see line
of site for your drone and just fly straight backwards and forwards. You don’t need much in a shot like this, and
sometimes you walk right underneath it, like if you’re in dense canopy cover, you can navigate
around the trees, but it’s going to take a little bit of like staying really close to
your drone.

Also, unless you’re in a big open canopy like
this you’re going to have to turn off the automatic sensors that are going to prevent
it from hitting the trees, which I know people can be scared about, but even if you hit a
tree, chances it will kill your drone are fairly low. Now, I know saying that isn’t going to give
anyone comfort, but I have crashed probably a dozen of these by hitting random branches
here or there. And this is over years and hundreds and hundreds
of flights. I’ve only totaled one of them, but only one
was my fault. Anyways, these blades are replaceable and
so I think that’s the first tip that I have. Second one.

Try a low orbit. And that’s basically moving in 360 degrees
around and object. Now, high orbits, they’re the place to start
with this. You’re basically moving right while you’re
moving and yawling to the left. Right. So it’s a move with two of the joysticks. It’s not that difficult to do but it takes
some practice. Now the reason I say a low orbit is that takes
it to the next level. Right. If you’re getting really close, say around
a tree trunk and you’re moving around that tree trunk really slowly, you can either do
things like adding graphics, or it’s just really interesting to see the reveal as you’re
doing that.

So that’s number 2. Number 3 is get somebody or something into
the shot. Obviously you can take beautiful landscapes
without people but because we’re humans we’re attracted to those figures walking through
the landscape, and I think they add an important element to it. Like, take this for instance. I was here in the forest and this is an amazing
shot. But I thought, why don’t I just walk through
it, and I”m here alone. So, I just sat down the controler and I walked
into it and I walked out of it, and I think it made for a better shot.

Now, obviously you don’t necesarrily need
people. You could do it with animals or you could
do it with other things – just ofcourse make sure you’re always being really safe. That allows you to take it to the next level. Number 4 is start doing three-way moves. Now, what I mean by that is not only are you
moving forwards, that’s one way, but maybe you’re moving forwards, down, while you’re
panning up. That would be what I call a three way move. And there is some finese involved.

The jist is you’re doing more than just a
simple movement, you’re doing a fairly complex movement, but you’re doing it in a way that’s
giving a pretty cool shot. Now for number 5 – I think maybe the most
controversial one. I kinda recommend that people send up the
drone in less than ideal conditions. With that said I want everyone to be safe
and fly smart and follow the rules, but these are absolutely amazing and you can actually
fly in conditions that you didn’t think you could. I have a lot of people that if it’s a little
bit breezy and I’m talking even with any little bit of breeze, they don’t send up the drone.

I recently flew last week for instance in
an arctic storm, like it was 50 mile and hour gusts even going straight forward at times
it was blowing the drone backwards. It could not keep up – and that’s in sport
mode. And, I knew there was a risk of crashing it. It got some amazing shots. You could send it up when there are lightning
bolts – that’s a cool shot. You could send it up when it’s starting to
rain a little bit. and if you’re flying backwards you can capture that rain it won’t get on
the lens and beginners don’t do that. So if you want to take it to the next level,
that’s one of hte tips. I guess with all of this let me say also,
I’m not responsible for your crashed drones. You’re going to crash some drones if you start
getting the cooler shots. But, once you crash a few drones you’re going
to start to know the limits. And I think I trust people more if they’ve
crashed a few drones. If they’re beginners and they’ve never crashed
a drone, I get a little worried because they don’t know the capabilities of that drone
– when it’s going to be too sketchy and when it’s not.

And I’m always really safe when I fly – that’s
one thing I would say. Again, follow the rules. Make sure you’re doing it right, but I hope
that this helped in some ways. They’re not the typical advice – that’s why
I gave them. Thanks for following 52things guys. A big thanks to the patrons out there who
are always hepling support the education we are doing because not only is this filmmaking,
it’s also supporting the biology content we’re creating on our other site so, links to that
down below.

I’ll see you guys next Tuesday..