Is it a bird, is it a plane?

[F, Calla & Luca]

Today, which was cool and mostly overcast I took the doodles to see the cherry blossoms in Branch Brook park in Newark. Newark gets a bad rap, much of it deserved, but it has had some major new projects in the last decade. Branch Brook is very old but it is being renovated. It was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park in NYC. The park has the biggest number and variety of cherry trees in the US.There is a well know cathedral, The Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart, the fifth largest cathedral in the US, near the park. 

Okay, my pictures were pretty awful, a combo of doodles and poor settings. But I will fix some up eventually for the April Assignment. But what really captured my attention was this photographer.

I commented about all his gear and we started talking. He opened his giant backpack and oh my doodle. He had a video drone.

Ad off it goes:

Here's what he was shooting, the people are watching the drone and you can see the cathedral in the background.  I suspect Calla, Luca and I are in some of the footage too. He is doing local sights for a cable company documentary but unfortunately not the company I use. I hope I can get to see it somehow but his information was very sketchy.

As soon as the photographer left, the whole sequence of setting up , shooting a few stills, launching the drone etc., was only a few minutes, a red tail hawk arrived. I wonder what it would have made of the drone. Would he have been frightened, would he have attacked it? I imagine drones are pretty pricey : )

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Wow - great pictures

[F, Calla & Luca]

You are too kind. My photos today were really not good. Well, with my lenses I never can get birds but many shots were really noisy. I have to check out my settings. But I was so excited about this. Not in my future bag of tricks though : )

[BG and Gavin]

Cool story F!

[F, Calla & Luca]

I loved seeing it!

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Very cool. They are becoming more and more popular. We had a photographer with one, photograph a house we were selling in Houston on a lake. They came out spectacular!
Another guy at a car show last weekend....he showed us the footage.....really sharp and clear and a great way to view the show. And you are right, watching people watching the drone was the best! ;)

[Lonnie & Libby Lu]

Wow, this is amazing and talk about NO privacy!  LOL

[F, Calla & Luca]

I always figure they can watch us whenever they want. Whoever "they" are.

[Camilla and Darwin]

So cool! Drones are intriguing, I hope you end up being able to see the footage!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Me too.

[DJ & Chance]

So interesting.  It is fun to imagine that the hawk was just waiting in the wings until it could own the sky.

The more expensive drones have sensor to keep them from crashing into birds and other flying objects.

[F, Calla & Luca]

That's interesting. but do birds have anti drone programming : )

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

We heard the guy at the car-show telling someone how very difficult it was to fly/maneuver one. He said he had lots of practice before attempting to flying over many cars, worth many thousands of dollars. One wrong maneuver could be disastrous!