How do you decide on a place to fly your drone?

[Eye in the Sky LLC]

@Eye in the Sky LLC I lived in Albuquerque for a few years, if I was you I'd take a look at the Jemez Springs area. It's a bit of a drive, but it's a beautiful spot if you've never been.

Are the Sandias a NFZ? If you flew up the face by the tram that would be pretty epic too

The Sandia's are outside the NFZ area. I have gone to a couple of places at the base of the mountain and taken some videos. There was one place where a tight rope was stretched across a ravine and I caught a video of a girl trying to walk across it and she fell, and the rope she had on her waist stopped her fall and she got back on the wire to continue trying. It was cool

 

[Eye in the Sky LLC]

You may want to see if there is a drone MeetUp in your area. I'm in Delaware and belong to the South Jersey Drone Flyers MeetUp. We try to get together once a month at a park to fly for a couple of hours.

I actually did a message asking about that, but no one has replied yet

 

[Drgnfli]

You see something that makes you feel "I gotta get that"
Like the back side of "The Skillet Knob" out my way.

How many can say they have seen the back side from the road???

I am no expert by any means but I think you could have cut this video in half the time. When you film a video, you like it because you did it but folks watching get bored really quick if it doesn't "explode" with new views or interesting shots... IMHO...

 

[bheiser1]

Interesting question. I’ve had mine a short time, but so far finding legal places to fly has been the biggest challenge, especially close to home. I live in a small town in a rural area, just over an hour from Yosemite. Between the park being off limits, and 150 foot treed forests with few open areas, it’s been challenging. There are open non-forested areas, but they’re mostly private property surrounded by barbed wire fences. Ultimately I want to sell my photos, and that makes even the nearby national forest lands a challenge, due to the rules around permits being required for commercial drone work.

Not to be all gloom and doom, lol, I’ve found some neat pockets where I’ve been able to fly, and will likely find more as I continue to look for places with this new perspective (of flying rather than just walking). What I find interesting is that it doesn’t take all that much space to fly. Keeping the M2P within VLOS means keeping it close-by.

 

[Dmascot]

Currently I enjoy filming large ships on the move. I also enjoy Bridges and trains. With shooting videos I like to focus on things that have moving action, ie Bridges-cars, ships-people working on board. For me it makes for a more interesting shot. Right now the weather is not cooperating for flying, cold and snowing.

 

[LongRifle]

Are you sure this is not Death Valley? Looks a lot like Artist's Drive / Mosaic Canyon area.

It’s not. I’d like to go there, but it’s too far out of the way to Vegas.

 

[Dmascot]

The only limit is your imagination. You don't have to go far, but as someone mentioned sunrise and sunset will give you the best lighting. I took this in my neighborhood. Even places you've been multiple times can still be interesting from varying perspectives. I've learned a lot about aerial photography since joining this forum.
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This one was taken not far from home. Honestly, this was more of an accident as I went there mainly for video. I didn't know I had this little gem until I got home.View attachment 87884
This one was taken on my way to Vegas. Stopped by on the side of the road. Like I said the only limit is your imagination. Happy flying!

Long rifle, where is the island with the two buildings? Very cool. Looks like they have everything they need there. Is that algae in the water keeping it green?

 

[HBJLR714]

I mostly like coastal locations with rocky headlands. The landscape is always interesting but taking pics and footage of board riders in the surf is also a lot of fun for me.

Agreed. I like to take off from the cliffs above huntington beach. It keeps a nice line of site on the drone and it's at a reasonable altitude. I'm still working on my piloting skills but occasionally get some good footage of a surfer catching a wave. Lol

 

[LongRifle]

Long rifle, where is the island with the two buildings? Very cool. Looks like they have everything they need there. Is that algae in the water keeping it green?

It's called East Brother. It looks like it's in the middle of nowhere, but really close to shore where I launched the drone. The green is mostly from Photoshop processing.