This is one of those situations where people seem to have a weird irrational reaction to a word. You almost always get a more positive reaction/conversation with people when you talk about quadcopter compared to drone. People are weird. Anyway, regardless of what you want to call them they are awesome, and it really unlocked a bunch of composition options when I moved to my first DJI model back in 2012 or so. Back then there was a bit of guess work involved where you had to attach a GoPro and then send the quadcopter up in the air to capture the images without any real way of knowing what you’d captured until you viewed the results on the device. Here’s one such image from Beijing. Shortly before I spent a little time in Chinese prison…

Quadcopters… not drones

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-01-09 06:40:09
• CameraHero3-Black Edition
• Camera MakeGoPro
• Exposure Time1/30
• Aperture2.8
• ISO210
• Focal Length2.8 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

This is a fun one perspective wise!

China 2014-4

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-25 04:02:21
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time2.5
• Aperture4
• ISO100
• Focal Length24.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

Continuing the theme, this time with a total guess shot from a go-pro hanging off a quadcopter.

China 2014-3

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-01-11 03:28:21
• CameraHero3-Black Edition
• Camera MakeGoPro
• Exposure Time1/950
• Aperture2.8
• ISO100
• Focal Length2.8 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

Next up from China 2014…

China 2014-2

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-31 15:16:26
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/1600
• Aperture4
• ISO200
• Focal Length25.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias

It seems, looking back, that I might have been on a bit of a silhouette kick back in 2014. Both yesterday and today’s images go down that route… weird.

Silhouette Phase

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2014-05-25 19:08:31
• CameraILCE-7R
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/2500
• Aperture9
• ISO125
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramAperture-priority AE
• Exposure Bias-2.7

Here’s one of those shots from back in the olden days of early quadcopter flight when it was a case of strapping in a GoPro, sending it up there and guessing the best shots as you could only see the results when it returned to land. Turned out not too bad this one!

Airbourne Guesswork

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2012-01-07 18:21:40
• CameraHero3-Black Edition
• Camera MakeGoPro
• Exposure Time1/120
• Aperture2.8
• ISO107
• Focal Length2.8 mm
• FlashNo flash function
• Exposure ProgramProgram AE
• Exposure Bias

I was reading about that new Sony a7CR, compact full frame model. It reminds me a lot of the old NEX-7. I had some awesome adventures with that, it never let me down (e.g. the image below). So I can only imagine the full frame equivalent being fantastic… maybe it’s time to step away from the standard R series… hmmm…

Compact Captures

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2013-05-25 09:43:45
• CameraNEX-7
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time6
• Aperture8
• ISO100
• Focal Length10.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

There’s something interesting about some of the buildings throughout China and here in Beijing, especially. They have some of the craziest and most interesting architecture in the world, and the vast majority of it comes from Western architects. The Chinese educational system has lacked an emphasis (in the past) on the creative arts, so there was a dearth of innovative architects for many generations. But some city planners decided to make statements by bringing in Western architects that were really able to experiment.

Beautiful Shapes in Beijing

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2018-06-11 21:55:48
• CameraILCE-7RM3
• Camera MakeSony
• Exposure Time1/800
• Aperture4
• ISO200
• Focal Length16.0 mm
• FlashOff, Did not fire
• Exposure ProgramManual
• Exposure Bias

Here’s another one of the images from my 1000 Stories from 1000 Places NFT drop. It sold out in minutes, but they are now available to trade on OpenSea and X2Y2, etc so be sure to check them out.

This little taxi reminded me a bit of those crazy Burning Man cars! It parked here for just long enough for me to grab a photo. After it left, I realized that I think wanted a ride in it… but I was too busy getting lost in taking the photo to keep my wits about me.

Ornate Taxi in Beijing

Photo Information

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• Date Taken2010-09-29 05:37:06
• CameraNIKON D3X
• Camera Make
• Exposure Time0.7
• Aperture6.7
• ISO200
• Focal Length14.0 mm
• Flash
• Exposure Program
• Exposure Bias