Friday, July 5, 2019

Independence Day on the KLR

5:30 and out the driveway; summer riding as it should be executed.

Breakfast at Pier 4...haven't been there in ages...




Pigs were here.....


The Drone Road....


I practiced some of the drone's flight modes.....


Coffee at the Arcadia Kwik....


Photo stop on Bakken Road....


Lunch at the River Cafe in Trempealeau.....a couple road in on the Zero and the KTM.



 Quite literally the end of this road...2nd time in a week I rode through flood waters.


The end of another road in the Trempealeau backwaters...



Lock and Dam #6....no Pooling, the water's running straight through until the levels go down.





The Tremp' boat launch..... extra work getting backed in deep enough.



Whitman Deering Road...had to take it today considering I was on the KLR. It's such a pretty MM road.



Taylor Hill Drive...you can't lose here with either fork.


The ride....


A summary of the day....


4 comments:

  1. Nice riding for the 4th. The drone mode video was interesting....seems to follow you fine? I could see a drone being good for those high altitude scenic shots but what's the largest image size that it shoots at? Is it all video or can do you individual pics?

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    1. Dom, there are 2 forms of 'Follow'. One follows the control, the other tracks an object that I draw a box around. In this case, it's using optics to follow the bike; I could have left the control where I started, potentially "Home". I was curious about how well it could/would keep up. I made a point of checking the speedometer, would have kept going but the drone was off slightly to my left and that's where the upcoming trees were. It has obstacle avoidance but I'm content to wait testing that another day.

      A drone joke here..."I sent my drone Home and it returned to China..." There's a moral to the story, be careful about choosing a "Home" location, a place adaptable to requirements.

      Image size of mine is 1080p which is all that I can reasonably handle, certainly while traveling, one of the criticisms of the Spark. Everything about 4K is impractical for me, even at home. Upload speeds, file space...just not worth it, compounded while traveling. I do have control over white balance, shutter speed, ISO, etc. The more expensive (larger, much less travel friendly) quads allow setting control equivalent of the better DSLR's.

      I can and do take images as well as videos. Depending on wind, the gimbal is able to do a very good job of stabilizing a photo image and if I choose, a bunch of manual image settings can be made to increase initial quality.

      Look for an upcoming Post about post processing....it won't be a tutorial. :)

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  2. Doug, that drone is amazing - you certainly don't need any higher res than the 1080 it's putting out. In the clouds? Any concerns on small plans at that altitude? Looks like some great roads - we've eaten at The Ponderosa, and bought plenty of gas at that station in Arcadia!

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    1. Roger, only recently have the rules become more strict regarding the drones. Every time I start the drone the App pops up with warnings about legal fly zones. We're close enough to an airport that there are restrictions here. 400' was the ceiling for recreational quads in many places, my ceiling is set at 100 meters and I've only 'topped out' a couple of times. Most of the video/images that I'm looking for will be better without being so high.

      Those clouds that I was in were exceptionally low and I accessed them on one of the ridges. The height requirements and limits are relative. In our valley I could be flying at 250' and run into the hill behind the barn.

      I thought I remembered you folks talking about the Ponderosa; I've not stopped yet.

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