Video: I Flew My Drone in Venice, Twice. This Was the First Time.steemCreated with Sketch.

in #dronefeed6 years ago

Making This Video Made Me Nervous as Hell:

Venice is like a big life size maze. I don't know how anyone navigated the place before the time of Google and Apple Maps. There's no straight lines, the largest canals require a boat to cross and most walkways only fit a few people shoulder to shoulder in width. So where the hell was I going to take my drone off from? I spent my first day there figuring that out.

I usually don't have a very hard time scouting out a spot to launch from. A few things I look for:

1). Lots of open space.
2). No people.
3). No people.

Unlike my still photography, I don't mind humans in my drone shots. I just don't want to draw a lot of attention to myself as I launch a mini aircraft into the sky. Not only that, I need the space to do it and the satellite signal available to launch all the way up into the air. There's very little open space in Venice and of the few spots that exist, most of them are swarming with people.

Luckily I am not discouraged easily. After walking miles upon miles, back and forth across the small island, I found a spot. It wasn't perfect but it was out of sight for the most part. I set a marker in my phone and went on with my day, enjoying the food and sights Venice had to offer.

The next morning I did my usual. I got up at 4:00AM and ventured out with my camera, my tripod and this time my drone. After taking several long exposure shots along the way, I got to my launching spot. I pull out the drone, set up my remote and lift off. When you watch the video, that's the first shot you see. Me. Nervous as hell.

The only problem, I didn't have any satellite signal. When this happens the drone won't go any higher than about 10 feet above the launching point. I wasn't going to see much from that height so I brought it down. Luckily I had a black up plan. I moved over to spot number two and launched from there. Success! I was up in the air and off I went.

Part of my nervousness was the weak signal I had. Due to the towering buildings and limited open space, if I want too far I'd start to lose my connection to the drone. If you don't know anything about flying drones, just know that usually you have a clear image on your phone or tablet to show you what the camera sees. With a weak signal, every so often I'd lose image and have to slowly bring the drone back to where I was, hoping I didn't hit anything along the way.

The second part was that the birds HATED this drone. I usually get a few circling it when I fly. Small ones. But these things were swooping on it. Big massive birds. They were straight up losing their mind over it and I was worried they'd take it down somewhere over the city or, even worse, over one of the canals.

My last concern was, once again, people. Even that early in the morning there were people out. Not many but some. And I came across a few of them. But what I discovered is that they were just as memorized with my drone as I am. One man was quite impressed as he walked his dog and stopped to look on the screen of my tablet. The next day, when I flew it again (from the same spot) I had children running to my side with pure excitement to see what I was seeing. Everyone wanted to see what they couldn't: Venice from above.

For me it's moments like that which bring about a better connection with humanity. It gives me a little more empathy or understanding of a culture I know very little about. Suddenly it becomes clear that most people are good. Most people admire beauty and love life. When it comes down to it we all really want and enjoy the same things. In general I think people are more like each other than different. I think people, as a general statement, are basically good. And that, ultimately, was what helped to dissipate my nerves.

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This is awesome. Thank you so much! I really appreciate the exposure.

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Thanks, yo! I appreciate all the love.

Beautiful view from height, I love the close view to Santa Maria de la Saluteans and Piazza San Marco. I was wondering the birds did they try to attack your drone as I saw few flying around it. Also the satellite signal if there is no signal will the drone crash or continue to fly. That was something I always wonder. I think making video in such busy place like Venice the best time really early morning otherwise it is really full.

Hey, thanks for commenting! Yes, the birds were absolutely attacking it. I was lucky in that they never came in contact with it. But the drone has sensors so if you fly it near an obstacle, it will stop the drone from moving forward and running into anything. Well the birds got so close to it that several times the drones sensors went off and stopped moving forward to prevent it from running into one.

As far as the satellite goes, I've lost full signal before. And when that happens it can be very scary. You literally lose all image and all control of the drone. Luckily the drone has a built in function to return to the takeoff location. Most the time this is a saving grace as it's the only way to get it back. But if you're not careful, and not high enough, it can fly straight back into a tree or building. I was lucky enough that this didn't happen.

I was really trying to make it to Piazza San Marco and what you see in the video was as close as I could get. But my signal was very weak and it was hard to see until I got it back to look at the footage.

But yes, early morning is really where it's at. There's less people and less chance for mistakes.

Thanks again for commenting!

Awwwn, amazing video and I love the fact that you finally came to a conclusion that people in general people are good people and we all have same similarities than we know.
Let's spread positive vibes always!

I couldn't agree more with you. I'm all about spreading that positive love. I think if everyone had this outlook it would make the world a much better place.

Thanks for commenting and reading through my post!

Whoah, Venice indeed look crowded! But you did great in taking that video and thanks for haring it because it somehow gave me a feel of Venice. 😊

Was that you panting on the background of the video at around 00:04 to 00:07 time? I thought I heard gasping breaths there. Or is it your music effect?

You know, if I had any audio recording of myself while I was flying, I'm sure you would have been able to hear me breathing hahahaha

But no, that is a sound effect in the music track I used. You can listen to the full thing here:
http://ccmixter.org/files/Robbero/43749

Thanks so much for watching and commenting!

Oh yes, I hear the panting on the music track! With all the worries you mentioned about taking the video, I can imagine that was indeed your heart gasping for breathe. 😃

Hahaha it most definitely was lol

That's awesome! The footage is amazing. You are brave, I don't think i'd have the balls to fly my drone in venice.. It is technically illegal to fly a drone in venice, although I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble before.. knowing my luck it would happen to me if I tried! lol

Thanks so much! Yeah, I wasn't sure of the laws but I was pretty sure it wasn't kosher for me to fly over Piazza San Marco. It definitely contributed to my nerves while flying. I generally don't want anyone seeing me fly and that's one of the reasons. But to my surprise, every person who saw me doing it was more interested than alarmed. I think that was partially due to the fact I found some local, less touristy, areas to take off from and everyone I interacted with seemed to live there.

Now Rome is a different story. I'd never fly in Rome. I've read about someone getting arrested for flying over the Colosseum. But that seems like a no brainer hahaha

Thanks for checking out my post and commenting!

Oh yeah i can imagine. I wouldnt fly there either.. just like here at home I wouldnt fly over the castle.. its still an active army base and the last guy who flew a drone over it was arrested under suspicion of espionage! i think later he was just fined and told not to be so stupid.. but i bet it scared him at first!

Exactly. And that's the thing with Rome, there's military covering the entire city. They have outposts everywhere watching over all the national monuments. Best to stay out of the air when there's military around hahaha

for sure! the military guys can be scary at the best of times, best to stay away! :)

I haven't been to Venice yet as I've heard it's quite smelly there because of the canals. Don't know if it's true though. It looks like a beautiful city from above. But to be honest, I haven't seen a city in Italy that wouldn't be beautiful yet :)

It looks like you faced quite a few challenges with your drone. It's strange that the signal is weak there. I would expect the coverage to be good in the city, regardless if the streets are narrow or not.

I didn't know that birds can have such issues with drone. I think they were just figuring out what kind of weird bird it was :) Never seen something like that before :)

How cool that people would stop by and watch what you're doing. It must have been a lot of fun to see for those kids.

It's a great short video. Thank you for sharing!

You know I've heard the same thing about the canals but never experienced it myself. I've always gone at the beginning of tourist season (I've been twice now) and I've never been overwhelmed with any kind of smell. Not many places in Italy aren't beautiful but Venice is definitely a spot I wouldn't want to miss.

Buildings are a tricky thing for drones. When you have a lot of open space, there's no problems and the signal remains quite strong. Part of it is keeping a line of sight with the drone. So although I had an ok signal, I couldn't get too far away. The second trip I found an even better spot to fly from and had no problem with signal.

Birds on the other hand are always attracted to it. I assume it's because I'm invading their space (unintentionally). Small birds usually circle it but that's about it. I've experienced two or three different times, and usually near water, where seagulls hate the thing and definitely try swooping on it. It's really crazy to watch.

It was a great experience overall and I always like to show off the drone, especially to kids. Mainly because I'm just a big kid and I'm looking for some friends hahahaha They were quite entertained by it though.

Thanks for reading, watching and commenting! I appreciate it.

Beginning of the tourist season would be April/May? I could try it then :)

I didn't know you had to pay attention to many details while flying a drone. I thought you just send it off and watch it on your device. Good to hear as I wanted to get a drone but as you can see I don't know much about it.

Seagulls are crazy in general so I'm not surprised they try to attack this thing. I never feel comfortable around seagulls :)

Kids are the best friends! Actually, right after dogs :)

It was my pleasure! I'm looking forward to seeing more of your drone adventures!

May/June is when I've always gone. I think if you got in during April you'd be a little ahead of the curve, which isn't a bad thing. I imagine there'd be less people.

There's a lot of things you have to pay attention to but to be completely honest, it's really not that hard once you get the hang of it. Drones these days will hover in one spot without you even needing to touch the controller. So if all else fails you can stop movement and recollect your thoughts on your flight pattern.

I'll be sure to keep posting! Thanks again for sticking around.

To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.

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This is awesome! Hahaha thank you so much for doing this. Really cool.

In a minute, art. That's what I love most about the arts, the ability to compress beauty, great shots, and very good editing brother, the bird is key. Hahaha greeetings.

Thanks so much! It's one of my favorite things to do. Go out and shoot for hours, get back and compress the best stuff into a small but packed punch of beauty. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!

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