It has been forever since I last wrote a post in this community. I was at this point where it was a daily thing and I was shooting things like mad with all kinds of cameras. But a lot of that has died down as storage became a bigger problem and I was focusing more on my videography side of things to build a portfolio. The stills took a bit of a dive around that time, and I've noticed I don't pick up the camera and share those pictures as often while the drone is my main focus. It still is, though. But I haven't been taking all that many photographs with it, I love the video side, capturing all kinds of scenes and areas of life with it. Stills can be fun, but the real fun side of the drone is navigating through a space and seeing how you can capture it in that crisp 4K resolution. Here and there I take a few shots though. And this here is a post on some of them. The other day I wrote a post on how I passed out on the bus. I had spent the day roaming through the city in search of things to shoot with the drone, and I had neglected food and drink as a result. The moment I stepped on the bus to get home, I felt off. And moments later I dropped to the bus floor surrounded by confused strangers. These photographs were the last ones I took that day, of Mother Georgia overlooking Tbilisi from the mountain.
I had walked up the mountain, up metallic and steep on stone steps to get to a viewpoint in which I could take off and land with the drone without interrupting the hordes of tourists above the mountain, as well as avoiding the nearby cable cars and their station which took people up the mountain. As I mentioned, I had walked up, but not all of the way. It was exhausting with the backpack and a hoodie, to which I had been wearing in the totally wrong weather as it had been raining the days before, and was threatening to still that day. But the sun was more intense. I set up things around the halfway point of the mountain, and flew the drone up and around the statue, taking a few photographs from different perspectives, as well as a few video shots which turned out astonishing. You really get a senes of scale and how important of a symbol the statue is when it's standing out on the mountain, looking down at Tbilisi like some overseer of all things. It's a Soviet built statue and it's no surprise that it holds such magnificence over the city with the stance it holds. I'm not sure what it holds in one hand, but in the other it holds a sword.
This is a pretty normal thing to see in this part of the world. Armenia's Yerevan capital has its own version of this, also Soviet. When flying the drone up and around it, you can really see the size it holds, the details and the way it was put together. Almost like it was sliced up into pieces and rebuilt. Which to some degree is true as you can see the lines that run through the structure and how it was placed together, almost like a huge Lego structure. It really towers above, really feels massive. I knew I wanted to get some shots that showed that scale, ones that showed the way it overlooked the city and the mountains behind it. Just behind the statue is the Botanical Garden which I had been visiting the days before, on rainier days. A massive garden full of dense forestry and beautiful sights as autumn comes rolling in. I decided to go up to the mountain at the end of the day to capture the sunset scenes. The colder autumn blue hour that was present. I timed things well enough, but at the same time it did start to pick up with the wind, darker clouds came above. A little drizzle here and there. So I was quick with the drone, took what I needed and started heading back down.
Little did I know I had overdone things. I had greatly overestimated my strength and had pushed myself a little too hard this time. All in the attempt at capturing the world in various beautiful ways. But that's the fun of creating things, isn't it? There's a little bit of sweat, blood, laughter, or even tears in the process. And that's why things like photography and videography can never really die off: each has a story behind how and why it was taken.
The pictures came out nice! But maybe don't risk life, limb and health quite so much for the shots otherwise you won't be able to take any more and that would suck ^_^;