Hello fellow Canuck!
Indulge me for just a few moments while I tell you a little story. I started with a
Phantom 4 Pro four years ago and frequented an online urban planning type forum in Toronto. There was a guy there that used to post all sorts of shots of construction and city skylines and we messaged back and forth since he got a
P4P same time I did. The rules subsequently changed in Canada making it very difficult for me to legally fly my
P4P in the areas I used to so it sat in the box.
Fast forward to Spring 2020 and covid. Got laid off from work, had a nice tax refund and bought myself a mini. Flew it during the honeymoon phase of having a new toy. Fortunately got called back to work at end of June. I watched the guy on the forum post photos almost every day some from other cities like Montreal and Ottawa but most were literally taken up the street from where I lived and also close to where I would drop by the office.
Life got busy and my wife went back to work after her mat leave a few months later and I permanently starting working from home while looking after our daughter. It was hard. I felt like I had no life since I would work at night and on the weekends and look after the little one during the day. The mini sat on a bookshelf. I continued to look at the photos the guy was posting on the forum and it was a great escape for me.
First weekend of May last year I was literally heading out the door to drop by the office and suddenly decided to take the mini. I charged up the batteries while at work and decided to fly over a transit construction project about a kilometre away simply because it was there.
A couple of days later I noticed no new photos on the forum and a note from the administrator that they were made aware of the guy's passing. He had committed suicide the morning I decided to take out the mini.
After that I decided that life was short, I wasn't going to waste any time and even though I might only have an hour or two a week to fly I am going to take advantage of it when I can. I photograph these two buildings under construction not far from me because they change a lot during the year and day from lighting effects. I post a lot on that forum now since I know that there are many people that like the photos and unique perspective a drone can give.
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The point is to get out and fly - even if it is just to spin up the props. That one or two hour escape keeps me going. There was a period of time in March where I could hardly fly since it seemed every day that I had time it was either too windy or cold or there was precipitation falling. That nearly killed me.
The bonus is that one developer saw some of my photos on the site and bought them. I had more than enough money to buy a new
Mini2 FMC.
There is no such thing as a boring city. All cities change, have life and movement to them and change over time. In Canada we have four seasons (some say just two - road construction and winter) so that makes for interesting lighting changes.
Please get out and fly!
