Scenes of San Francisco

[Hauptmann]

Spent last weekend in San Francisco. Here are a few shots. Used a LumeCube to extend VLOS--we could see the strobe .1.5 miles away!

 

[Thomas B]

Great shot of the Golden Gate in the fog, also liked the Transamerica tower.

 

[PointJoe]

Beautiful work. Hope to have the fortitude to trust my drone on a similar mission some day. How long have you been flying? We’re you concerned about the legality of flying in an urban area.

 

[Hauptmann]

Beautiful work. Hope to have the fortitude to trust my drone on a similar mission some day. How long have you been flying? We’re you concerned about the legality of flying in an urban area.

Been flying about two years. As to legality, we did our research. For the east side of the GG Bridge, we took off from the parking lot just behind the Palace of Fine Arts--a legal location. For the west side of the GGB, we took off from the cul-de-sac on 25th Ave. just outside the fence to Baker Beach park (also legal. Inside the park itself is a no-no). For the south side of the Bay Bridge and Port of Oakland, we take off from the wooden pier at Middle Harbor Shoreline Park (legal). To shoot the north side of the Bay Bridge and the SF Financial District, we take off near the dog Park on Treasure Island--also legal. For Alcatraz, you can take off from the walkway between the two halves of SF pier 45. But watch out for the seagulls--they'll make it hard for you to land on the trip back to pier 45! VLOS is a problem, though. We use LumeCubes (1,500 lumens) which is extend VLOS to over 1.5 miles

 

[PointJoe]

Awesome! Great skill. Did you take single shots or extract from video?

 

[AMann]

Kind of surprised, there’s an elephant in this room that nobody has mentioned yet...

 

[Lets Fly]

The legalities were asked about, waiting for the elephant?

 

[PointJoe]

The legalities were asked about, waiting for the elephant?

He gave a detailed response. What else do you need?

 

[Lets Fly]

He gave a detailed response. What else do you need?

I know, that's why I am asking what's the elephant in post #6.

 

[AMann]

Ok, actually there’s a few elephants. The towers of the Golden Gate bridge are about 750’ high off the surface of the water, and it appears in the photos that OP was flying close to just above the fog level, which is a cloud clearance issue. the Transamerica building is in a high density urban area with lots of pedestrians below, and is about 850’ high. If they maintained the required less than 400’ distance from either the bridge or building, it would be legal to fly up to 400’ above them, but based on the angle of the Transamerica building against the buildings next to it and behind the point, it looks more like he was over 400’ from the base and (by Google Earth) flying at about 1300’ AGL, but surely higher than the 850’ top of it.

 

[Hauptmann]

Awesome! Great skill. Did you take single shots or extract from video?

Both, actually. We sort of lucked out with the fog. We were shooting in the East Bay, and noticed fog coming in near Twin Peaks. So we hot-footed over to 25th Ave, from which we shot the bridge tower in the fog. We'd like to do it again sometime with less fog--maybe with humidity in the 45-50 % range. We never actually had to fly thru fog.

Loved the shot, so I posted it. There will always be those who find fault.

 

[AMann]

Both, actually. We sort of lucked out with the fog. We were shooting in the East Bay, and noticed fog coming in near Twin Peaks. So we hot-footed over to 25th Ave, from which we shot the bridge tower in the fog. We'd like to do it again sometime with less fog--maybe with humidity in the 45-50 % range. We never actually had to fly thru fog.

Loved the shot, so I posted it. There will always be those who find fault.

They are nice shots, and it looks like you had a good time seeing parts of the city that most tourists don't get to see also. Don’t fret too much about what I posted, always accept critique - it is a way to learn more about your own work than what you could get from the accolades.

 

[PointJoe]

Both, actually. We sort of lucked out with the fog. We were shooting in the East Bay, and noticed fog coming in near Twin Peaks. So we hot-footed over to 25th Ave, from which we shot the bridge tower in the fog. We'd like to do it again sometime with less fog--maybe with humidity in the 45-50 % range. We never actually had to fly thru fog.

Loved the shot, so I posted it. There will always be those who find fault.

He's from SoCal ...

 

[AMann]

He's from SoCal ...

Uh yeah, and grew up in the Outer Mission part of the city.

 

[PointJoe]

Uh yeah, and grew up in the Outer Mission part of the city.

You're OK then ...

 

[AMann]

You're OK then ...

And I actually went to college and took classes and labs at MLML before the Loma Prieta quake, too.

Anyways, I didn't mean to sound so hard on OP. His photos are nice, but It’s just that we all are feeling the noose getting tighter on this hobby/profession and its frustrating to see people (not necessarily the OP) doing stuff you’d like to legally do but can’t anymore because other people have been pushing it and causing issues with their drones- smashing into building windows, falling on people, getting too close to aircraft, etc. some here have started posting “Fly Safe” on their signature lines, a good idea.