Hi everybody welcome to another episode
of Exploring Photography right here on
AdoramaTV. I'm Mark Wallace and in
today's episode we're going to be telling
you about some “Do’s and Don'ts” of
traveling and making travel videos with
a drone. I've had my DJI Matic Pro here
for about seven or eight months I've had
it in Europe and through Asia and now
into Australia and I've made a lot of
mistakes when shooting video with this
drone and I've learned a few things and
so I think I can save you some pain by
telling you some of the things that I've
learned and I break that down into two
different sections. The first is how to
fly to get better looking footage and
the second is some of the gear that you
might not have thought about getting, so
you can take that along with you as
you're zipping on your adventure on your
vacation or your family holiday, whatever
it is that you're documenting. Some of
the do's and don'ts that I've learned
I'd like to share that with you, so I've
shot a bunch of footage we're going to be
looking at some of the things that I've
done and the mistakes that I've made and
so the first thing, the number one thing
I think that I've learned is to do hold
your shot. You need to hold your shots
for a lot longer than you might think
and so I think maybe as a photographer
I'm flying this guy up I'll see a
beautiful scene and then I'll just once
I see it zip off to the next scene I'll
move the drone around and that is a huge
mistake. I can't tell you how many times
I've been wanting to make videos and I
find some beautiful scenery maybe
something in Austria with beautiful
boats and I've got a wonderful shot but
when I plop that into my video editor, it
just, I keep moving the drone and so I
don't have a consistent shot.
So get your drone, fly it to where you
want to be and then count in your head
maybe 20 or 30 seconds, something like
that and get a nice slow consistent shot.
If you're going to do a camera move if
you're flying forward or to the side
just keep that movement going and count
maybe count to 15, 20 or 30 so you have
one consistent shot, so when you're
editing your video you don't have all
this herky-jerky or drone zipping all
over the place, it's really frustrating
and something that I found myself doing
over and over and over. So number one if
you don't get anything else from this
video the number one do is do hold your
shot. That's a big do but there's another
do not that I also learned, that is do
not annoy the locals
and the tourists. So a lot of times are
going to be in a place like Byron Bay or a
different city, some kind of vacation
spot and you're going to be one of those if
on fly over the city or the beach or
whatever but just don't do that because
nobody wants to be on vacation and have
some drones zipping over their head ten
feet away. So if you're flying make sure
that everybody's cool with where you're
flying and if you want to get some great
shots of the beach or something like
that you can fly a little drone like
this up to about a hundred feet a little
bit higher maybe and they basically
disappear. You can't see them, you can't
hear them and so that's what I suggest
that you do get some shots higher up in
the air. If you want to get some of those
all-encompassing shots of a city or
people moving about don't get too low,
stay above about a hundred feet, now you
can figure out what the distance is for
your drone just by getting into a nice
quiet field somewhere and then flying up
until you can't hear it anymore and then
you can look and see exactly what that
distance is and you know where you need
to be. So don't annoy the locals. Don't
annoy the tourists and be respectful of
where you are and speaking of not
annoying the locals, a big do is; do check
to make sure you're legal to fly where
you want to fly. So I've learned that a
lot of the world heritage sites you
can't fly a drone, they don't allow that.
So if you're in Siem Reap and you want
to go to Angkor Wat and zip around where
you can't do that or maybe if you want
to be at Machu Picchu some places like
that, you're not allowed to fly a drone.
I'm sure you can get away with it but
don’t. Be considerate of the place and
the culture that you're in. The other
thing to consider is if you're in a
capital city like Moscow or Phnom Pehn,
I discovered in both of these places not
only is it illegal to fly a drone but
had I flown the drone, I could have gone
to jail, in fact some people have gone to
jail in Phnom Pehn because they flew
over some government sites and they were
jailed for espionage and it's not a light
deal, they're there for quite a bit of
time and you could be imprisoned for
weeks for months it's a serious offence,
so don't do that.
Don't try to film the Kremlin or the
White House or something like that.
Don't play your drone in a stupid place
because you can get into a lot of
trouble. Another in
important do is do pay attention to the
gusty wind warnings of your drone. Now
the small drones like this Mavic Pro or
the Mavic Air and even some of the
smaller drone’s
they're fantastic because you can fold
them up. Stick them in your bag. They
transport very well. They're just these
tiny little drones that you know years
ago you couldn't even conceive of having
a drone like this. Problem with them
they're very light and so that means
that the wind can blow them around in
the sky and so when you see that warning
that says gusty winds, pay attention to
that. So I had at least two or three
occasions where my drone was almost
blown out of the sky because I was
getting wind warnings and so I could see
the drone sort of moving but what you
don't realize is that the winds come in
gusts and so if a wind knocks your drone
over like this, it can't recover and it's
going to plumit right out of the sky
and that is a very expensive mistake so
if you're in a place, specifically over a
beach or something where winds tend to
be a little bit gustier, pay attention
because you can make a really, really
costly mistake. I almost had my drone
blown out of the sky in Novosibirsk and
so luckily I was able to make it back.
The same thing happened in Budapest and so
really, really pay attention to what your
remote is telling you about your drone.
Right I have to confess to something
that I've done with my drone that you
should not do. Do not do this but in
several cities in Europe I learned that
the hotel windows are really big and
they open right up and you can fly
a drone out of your hotel window and get
some really cool shots but do not do
that. The reason for that, there are a
bunch of reasons that you shouldn't do
that. One is that if you crash your drone
outside your hotel window which is sort
of likely because to get it through that
window is tough, you're going to be falling
onto a sidewalk where people walk, you
can really hurt somebody, you can
potentially kill somebody, so don't do
that but if you do do it, if you just
happen to do this I'm not saying that
you should but if you do one of the
things that you'll find out with a Mavic
or Mavic Air or one of these guys
because they have forward-facing
collision detection and so they won't
fly back into the window so you can get
it out your window but when you try to
come back, it won't fly through the
window because it thinks it's going to hit.
What you're going to have to do is, you're going
to have to reverse the drone and back it
in and that's how you can get through
your hotel window. When you're not flying
your drone out of your hotel window, so
again I'm saying don't do that because
you can really hurt somebody and so
don't fly your drone out of a hotel
window. Alright one more thing we need to
talk about, in fact probably the first
thing I should have talked about and
that is do find a big open field and
open space when you first get your drone
to learn how to fly it and so it very
the very first time if you've never
flown anything, if you're not a flight
simulator kind of person, it can be
confusing learning the joysticks and all
the different controls and the things
that you need to do and so you really,
really need a big wide-open space. Now I
didn't think this was going to be very
important for me because I've done a lot
of RC stuff and flown different things
and you know I grew up on video games
and flight simulators and stuff like
that but it turns out that it is
important, so when I very first got my
drone I was in Germany, I found a field
in the owner of the field said it was
cool for me to fly around and a lot of
times I got things confused and so I
thought I was going to go forward and I
was going up or I thought I was going to go
back, I was going down etc. and so find a
big open space and practice. There's
no shame in learning and if you're in a
big open space and you make some
mistakes, it's a lot easier to land your
drone safely and to use some of the
features on the app just to get your
drone back. You can learn how to do the
navigation and all the different
features so do that first and then start
doing some of the other things. It’s a
great way to learn. Alright so let's
refresh our memories; do hold your shot.
Make sure you hold that shot for
longer than you think you need to, so you
have some great footage to edit. Make
sure, do make sure that you check, to make
sure that you're legal where you're
flying. Do not annoy the locals. Do not
annoy, annoy the tourists. Do not fly in
world heritage sites. Make sure you get
permission and do not fly your drone,
absolutely do not fly your drone out of
a hotel window, to get some spectacular
shots. Don't do that. Alright now that
we know some things about flying our
drone talk about the gear because the
gear turns out to be just about as
important of learning how to fly this thing.
Now I highly recommend if you're getting
a DJI Mavic,
one of the Mavic Air something you get
to fly more package because regardless
of which brand or which drone you get
you need extra batteries while traveling.
You're going to run out of battery right
away. These things last depending on the
drone 25 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes
depending again on if you're flying in
wind or not and so if you want to fly
around a little bit more than just one
flight up and down. You need several
batteries and so The Fly More package
actually comes with three batteries. I
really, really recommend that and I have
used, every time I take my drone up, I use
all three batteries and I drained them
completely. The other thing that I highly
recommend that you get is a charger like
this guy right here.
Again this comes with The Fly More
package and so if you get that you're
just everything sort of, taken care of,
but you can charge up to four batteries
at once and so the way this works as you
plug in all your different batteries and
you just zip on here like this. The other
thing that's really cool about this is
that not only is it going to charge up
all your batteries but this has USB
ports on it right here and so not only
your charging your batteries but you can
also charge up your remote and you can
charge up your iPhone or your iPad
whatever you're using. The tablet that
you using for your remote so you can
charge all of that stuff with one plug
and so you can plug that in and this
also comes with international outlets
and so you have this one for Europe you
have different ones for the United
States whatever and so you don't have to
get the adapters. That works really great
so get that if you're considering the
Fly More package or not if you're going
to go traveling get The Fly More package
and if you're buying a different brand
that doesn't have that, get whatever
package has the most batteries and the
best chargers that you can find. The
other thing you want to get when you're
traveling absolutely are these guys
right here. You need spare propellers and
the reason for this is propellers are,
they're very inexpensive. They're
extremely lightweight and you can see
I've had these sort of smashed in my bag
for a while but when you're zipping
along and you're flying with your drone,
sooner or later they're going to crash the drone.
You're going to do something minor.
You're going to hit a wall,
something is going to
happen where you damage a propeller.
Now if you're traveling and you're on the
Galapagos or in some remote place and
you damage just one propeller, guess
what? The entire drone
then is useless. You can't fly it and so if
you don't have any replacement props,
you're out of luck until you can find a
store or get back home and so that can
ruin your entire plan, your entire
plan of shooting all these amazing
videos to be ruined for just not having
a couple of spare propellers. Now make
sure these come the GGI colors come in
pairs and so you need to least buy two
pairs because if you have a really nasty
crash you're going to have to replace four
at a time so I usually carry four
pairs with me at all times. That means
that I can crash and then fly and then
crash again before I have to find
another place to replace my propeller. So
don't forget these. That's very, very
important. Alright let's talk about
flying with the drone, so before you fly
with your drone or stick it in a car on a
motorcycle - on a motorcycle you have a
good case and so I've got just this DJI
case. It works great for me. The nice
thing about this is that when this is
all folded up and again it doesn't
matter which drone you have, the most, the
most fragile part of the drone is going
to be the gimbal, right here and so I've
got a protector. Make sure that you put
that protector on it's a little stopper
to keep everything from moving around
because you don't want to have your
gimbal damaged while you're traveling
and that I know has happened to a few of
my friends, so make sure you use all of
the protection. I've seen some videos
where guys take these and they just
throw them out they don't think that
they need them. You do need this so make
sure you have that protection on there,
so that is all protected. The other thing
when you pack this into your bag, I like
to pack it in like this and then instead
of carrying this facedown
where all the weight is on the gimbal, I
try to pack mine horizontally like this
and so the weight is on the legs and not
the gimbal itself. The other thing about
traveling with your drone and if you're
flying with the drone is that not all
airlines, not all countries…
this guy, he just has to be, hey go away,
alright we'll deal with the bird. Okay
if you're, if you're flying with your
drone, so I've got mine here packed up on
my little DJI bag do not take this as a
carry-on item and if you do, make sure
you ask the airline if that's
permissible first. I've heard many horror
stories of people that have tried to
take a drone onto the airplane as a
carry-on and because of the batteries
that's not allowed and then you have to
leave it for them to check it themselves
at the gate or they'll have to send it
to you and that means that, who knows if
your drones going to show up in one piece?
So absolutely don't take this as
carry-on luggage unless you absolutely
know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it
is okay and 90% of the times it is not
okay, so make sure that you pack your
drone in your checked luggage and you
take it that way. Okay well I hope that
you've learned a few Do's and Don'ts for
taking your drone on vacation. I'd love
to see some of the things that you
create with your drone footage. I know
you're out there on Instagram or Twitter
or Facebook so make sure that you leave
in the comments section below where we
can find your drone footage because I'd
love to check that out. You can also
check out my drone footage and some of
the things that I've shot, you know not
only as video but also as skills on my
Instagram account, so my Instagram
account is right here so check that out
also make sure you check out the
Adorama Learning Center
because there are a
bunch of different videos and articles
about flying drones and doing things
like calibration and choosing the right
drone and all kinds of things that we
didn't cover in this video, so make sure
you check that out and also don't forget
to subscribe to AdoramaTV. Now why would
you want to do that because there's all
kinds of cool content that comes out
constantly, so for example I'm not done
talking about this drone yet. One of the
great things about DJI drones is that
you have all of these intelligent flying features.
One of them allows you to fly behind
a moving vehicle and so I am going to be doing
some tests on how to use a drone for
action footage in adventure travel when
I get into the outback of Australia so
I'm going to be zipping around on my
motorcycle, flying the drone around using
it as a tripod, doing selfies, doing all
kinds of things, maybe even interacting
with some of the kangaroo and wildlife
with my drone and so I'll be filming
that in about six weeks or so and so if
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Thanks again for joining me and I will
see you again next time.