Ebike Sunday ride and with sunshine forecast, I took DJI Neo for some more drone practice. Mostly successful, but a few user errors like loosing the phone signal if I went too far without it, and having the camera facing the wrong direction.😂 Unfortunately the wind really picked up, and was gusting too strongly, so any filming was done at head height.
We set off from our usual parking spot near Chievely and set Neo up for a "spotlight " shot, which means it would rotate as we passed it. I wanted to have it reasonably high, so needed to fiddle in manual control on the phone app, to set it up.
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| "Spotlight" shot as we left the carpark and the camera rotated to follow us. |
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| Had to come back to retrieve the drone, so this would now be our film closing shot. 😇😅 |
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| Passing through Winterbourne alongside the stream and the Willow is just about to burst into colour. (All "follow shots" done on medium height /distance settings today) |
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| Continuing straight on after Winterbourne, we pass the amazing sculpted hedge at Kimber Cottage with the Silver Birch trees growing thorugh. |
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| Just around the bend from the sculpted hedge I switched it to "direction track" mode, which means it is Supposed to go ahead of me. |
Once more, that wasn't too successful, as it tends to veer off to the side. Which is fine, except if there are trees and hedges...which there were. Time to land it.
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| To land it when in Direction Track mode, you need to stand still and then it gets the idea that you want it to land. Very clever. 😊 If you keep moving towards it, it keeps moving further away. |
I thought it would be fun to set it up as a static "tripod shot" through the trees alongside the river in Bagnor. To do this, I used manual control via the phone app again. (peering at a tiny screen withthe wrong glasses on.) So having set it up, we backtacked slightly so that it would capture us riding passed. Not until I got home, ad saw the footage, did I realised that the camera was facing the river, and not the road. 😂 Anyway, I filmed a swan on the river.
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| Oops, camera facing the wrong way for this take. |
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| And now, manually flying it back to me. John filmed the drone coming back with his phone camera.  |
No more filming for a few miles, since we hadn't got very far. Passing The Woodspeen, we took the left turn into the steep Snake Lane and doglegged at the top to cross the B4000. Then another dogleg over the A4, to head on a fast downhill to Marsh Benham. All easy going for a while on this low lying area, before a gradual climb to West Woodhay. John's battery went fairly swiflty to the next battery level today, so he had to be careful not to use it to much. (More hills to come!).
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| Arriving in West Woodhay, the church was looking lovely in sun. Don't get the chance for this photo once the foliage is on the trees. |
I had thought a nice shot for the drone would be to set it up opposite West Woodhay House, with us passing below it, but a dogwalker was there, so didnt bother to wait. Decided to do it at the next big property just before we climb into Inkpen. That property had a horse right next to the roadside!!! So couldn't do that either.
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| Busy in the Honesty Cafe, Inkpen, and only one member of staff. ( As sign of the times of too expensive to employ people). |
Very nice tea and Orange Polenta cake for me, and Victoria sponge for John.
Next bit of filming was to be a "Dronie" shot, which goes high above and away from you, then returnes. This was to film us as we got ready to leave. But I've never seen so many cables overhead in one place! So that idea was scrapped too!! A head height "Tripod " shot instead, whilst we got helmets and gloves on. Then as I was about to leave, reaslised I hadn't unlocked my bike😂😂😂
A big downhill to Inkpen Church, where I thought we could do something. But it was really windy now, so I chose to have the drone "floating" just under the Lychgate, to pick us up on "spotlight" mode as we passed on the roadside. I focused it on John this time, and it held focus on him as we backtracked, so that we could return facing the camera from behind a hedge. I think that may have confused it, but it seemed to pick him up again as he got closer, but then a CAR decided to come out of the drive next to the church at exactly the wrong time Grrrrr. We have been here many times, and NEVER seen a car.
A bit of a change of plan as we pushed out bikes passed the drone, which turned to track us as we walked under the lychgate.
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| Coming towards the church lychgate, where the drone was waiting. |
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| And off John goes down the hill, where we turn right at the junction, heading to Cold Hardbour and Hungerford Park. |
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| Some nice light at times on our way to Hugerford Park. |
We crossed the Cattle grid into Hungerford Park, and I would have loved to have flown the drone here down the tree lined avenue, but much too windy now. But a photo instead of the view to our left.
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| inside Hungerford Park. |
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| Starting to drop down to cross the K&A canal. |
And passing the old Mill House at the River Kennet, before a climb up to cross the A4, and a steep climb to Denford Park. (I did all this route with the Breeze ladies on my gravel bike last year, so remember the tough hills. )
We passed the Hamlet of Clapton, with "Winding Wood" House and soon come to the vineyard, and at a T Junction, a left turn to face our next big climb on Church Lane to Wyckham. This is where we cross back over the B4000, and this time drop downhill and under the M4 in to the valley road approaching Welford.
This never a busy road, so a chance for a bit more filming. I decided since it as a bit wider, to try following the drone one more time, but within seconds, it veered of to the side, for some profile shots. Fine. Until a parked car, so I thought best grab it... just incase.
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| Welford Valley road, and the drone was meant to be infront of me. |
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| Welford Valley Road. |
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| Come on. Landing again. |
The road from Welford undulates a little, before it flattens as we come into Boxford, with "The Boxford" restaurant our left. Lots of cars the today, so business is doing well.
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| Dropping into Winterbourne, with just 2 miles to go. |
