Enjoying A Bird’s Eye View

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The drone flew about 80 feet above our heads, sounding like a swarm of irritated carpenter bees. My daughter Meredith and I were standing in an empty soccer field on a Saturday afternoon. We craned our necks upward as the drone, measuring about two feet across with the four propellers attached, darted to the right, then to the left, then rotated 180 degrees so its camera was pointed to the complex where I spend my work days.

I was operating the joysticks of the controller, seeing what the drone’s camera saw through the drone app on my brand-new iPhone. The Phantom 3 Standard was a Christmas present from My Beautiful Mystery Companion and our daughter Abbie. It was a most unexpected gift, one that I did not request but deeply appreciate. They remembered my fascination when we came upon a young man flying one in Boston’s Back Bay a few years ago, controlling it with an iPad. We stopped and talked to the guy and his girlfriend for a while as he deftly maneuvered it on a side street.

Then, two years ago, I went on a week-long trip to Chihuahua, Mexico and up to Big Bend on a story for World Wildlife magazine. One of the photographers on that trip brought along a drone, about the size of mine. He shot some compelling footage of farmers riding horses in a dusty pasture at sunset, and of the Rio Concho at a canyon just south of where it feeds into the Rio Grande. That’s where a wind gust caught the copter and sent it crashing into a canyon wall. The photographer picked his way down the canyon wall, against our entreaties, and retrieved his bird. When I came home, I am sure I bored my peeps talking about the drone and the great photos and video it helped produce.

It turned out my old iPhone could not operate the drone app, so I ended up spending nearly a grand on a new phone, which cracked my BMC up. “So, you spent $1,000 to operate this drone on which I spent less than half that amount?” Yup, I did. Boys with toys. She inherited my old phone, an upgrade from what she was using. My BMC keeps threatening to go back to a pay-as-you-go phone. She is not nearly as enamored of technology as the other two humans in this household. Rather Luddite, actually. I like that about her.

Drones are the new rage. I was browsing a real estate website the other day and noticed about a fourth of the photos of homes were shot with drones — or a really tall ladder. So I have no illusions of building a new business doing drone photography. I just want to become proficient enough at this to have fun with it. I went online and learned that sales of drones are predicted to hit nearly 68 million in four years, while prices continue to fall. Soon drones will be nearly as prolific as iPhones.

On the app, if I tap beginner mode, the drone cannot get more than 100 feet up or 100 feet away. This is like when your dad installed a governor on the throttle of your first car, so you could not go faster than 50 mph. (I realize that allusion will likely go right over the heads of anyone under 55.) Plus, this cool drone app has a button entitled “Go Home.” When I press that, the quadcopter obediently heads back to where it launched and gently lands within a few feet of the takeoff site. This is some cool stuff if you are a geek — and I have a broad geek streak.

I shot photos of the CrossFit gym that our non-profit is creating out of an old dormitory, and of Mere and I standing together as the drone — named Jules to honor my wife — hovered a few feet above the ground, of the roof of an adjacent apartment complex. I am still learning, and looking for someone with drone experience to give me a few lessons.

For now, I am having tons of fun, dragging the drone out for baby runs. Once I find someone to really teach me how to use Jules, I’ll branch out and see what interesting photos and footage I can produce.

I love having a bird’s eye view.

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