Little Things That Make You Smile 6: Nowhere To Go But Up

[kryss]

For pity's sake dust those grills, you savage.

I'm not going to show you mine...

[Atticus]

Love pop-up books @QC ... that Alice one looks brill

[QualityChimp]

Love pop-up books @QC ... that Alice one looks brill

Honestly, it's amazing.

You turn the page and the whole Mad Hatter's Tea Party pops up, including table, silver tea cups and animals with fur on them!

[Golgo]

That does look amazing. Might get that as a treat to myself.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Thinking back to the time my mate called jizz ‘bollock yoghurt’. Still gets a good laugh at work.

[Neon Ignition]

Radio 2 just played The Village People's Go West.

I just realised how much I know this song based on the Pet Shop Boys version... TVP's version is better than YMCA

[QualityChimp]

We accidentally left a load of the kids' clothes when we visited Folkestone last week, so I had to go back to get them.
It's about a 3 hour drive, so my wife said I should spend the day there and drive back in the evening.

I got up fairly early and had a lovely run along the sea front, then showered and went back out the beach for a coffee and ice cream.
Mates said Sunday would be a scorcher and the relative who owns the flat said I should stay longer, so I asked and got the green light from the wife to come back Sunday night.

So, I then went down to the quay to film the lighthouse with my drone, but the place was heeeeaving. They've added loads of street food eateries, so I left it for now.

Instead I went and got a pizza in this lovely place doing sourdough bases and got a voucher for the homeowners to say thanks.

Wondered up through the town, hitting CEX for some films, then Chaos Cards to look at the boardgames.

Popped back to cool down and have a shower, then headed back to the quay when it was quieter, which was as the sun was setting so it was beautiful.

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Then a guy came up to me and I thought he was going to tell me off (drones attract jobsworths), but he asked me if I would photograph his house as he's moving and wanted some pics for posterity. So he gave me his card and we agreed to meet on the Sunday.

I finished filming and walked back for something to eat in the warm summer evening.

Sunday! Met up at the guy's house, only to find it's amazing Victorian mansion with sea views and it was the first house with a flushing toilet in Folkestone. Took a load of footage for him and we had a good natter in this beautiful garden.

Then I headed out to the other side of the quay. Beach was crammed (lockdown is finished, the virus has gone, apparently), so found a quiet spot and filmed the bay.

Climbed the hill to the Martello Tower, overlooking the town for the last bit of filming.
You could hear the footy fans singing the National Anthem across the bay in the outdoor screen!

Headed into town for food and found a great burger joint. My mates joked I'd be hitting on the yummy mummies whilst their blokes are watching the football, and hilariously, the next table was a load of yummy mummies, so I politely asked for a selfie and they agreed, then I sent it to my mates.

Headed back along the sea front, listening to tunes for a final coffee and ice cream at my fave teashop, then packed and left for the journey home listening to an audiobook and then some rock cranked up.

It's so weird having kids because you never really have much time to yourself, just a couple of hours before bed, so it was really nice to have a weekend of just milling about with no real agenda. Bliss!

[wakka]

What a lovely serendipitous weekend that sounds.

I don’t even have kids and never do stuff like that.

[fuse]

I note he didn't even mention the part where he forgot to pick up the clothes so he has an excuse to do it again next weekend

[randombs]

Don’t you see? The clothes were a metaphor!

[gunrock]

Hey QC, sounds lovely. Was that photo with the drone? If so, what have you got?
Looking to get one.

[gunrock]

Curse of the doulbe deacon-dipping post!!

[QualityChimp]

Hey QC, sounds lovely. Was that photo with the drone? If so, what have you got?
Looking to get one.

It's a minefield, but very simply, I have a DJI Mini 2, which is under 250g, so bypasses a lot of the current laws.
You can fly near and over (empty) buildings, fly over involved people on purpose or non-involved if necessary.

The main no-nos are flying in restricted airspace or over crowds and always keep it in line-of-sight.

Honestly, it's like withcraft, it's so clever. You have this 4K 1080p camera on a gimbal, so the shots are always rock steady even in a sea breeze and there are a load of clever features like return to home if there are any issues and each battery lasts about 20 minutes.
I keep it in normal mode, but there's a cine mode for even more stability during filming and a sports mode to zip about faster.

Other bigger drones may have a few more features, but it's been great just rocking up and taking some footage.

It wasn't cheap, but 2020 was rubbish and my wife wanted to get me something special for Christmas.

I've got some more footage coming, but here's the stuff I took just after sunset, all edited in the drone's app.

[gunrock]

[MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION]: that is amazing quality. My interest is simpler and might not stretch to that kind of outlay.

My mum died last year and I couldn't get back to the UK, but now it is urgent as we have to clear the house to sell it, as the government require it to be sold near the valuation price or face capital gains tax. However, it's our childhood home and I wanted to be able to take some footage of the outside and inside and tie it all together with old photos, since it will be someone else's house one day and I wanted to capture it, largely unchanged since my Dad dies in 2015.

So I need something with good image quality and fairly fine controls.

[QualityChimp]

@QualityChimp: that is amazing quality. My interest is simpler and might not stretch to that kind of outlay.

My mum died last year and I couldn't get back to the UK, but now it is urgent as we have to clear the house to sell it, as the government require it to be sold near the valuation price or face capital gains tax. However, it's our childhood home and I wanted to be able to take some footage of the outside and inside and tie it all together with old photos, since it will be someone else's house one day and I wanted to capture it, largely unchanged since my Dad dies in 2015.

So I need something with good image quality and fairly fine controls.

So the quality is better than that video because I used the streamed version of the footage in the app to edit, rather than download the higher res footage from the drone and then YouTube squashes it further.

I've taken the SD card out and watched some of my footage on a monitor and it's lush for the size of the drone!

I was also experimenting in photography more, using a mode that takes 3 photos, so you can edit the highlights and make a component photo.

There's a standard mode too for just snapping.

There are cheaper drones if that's what you're after, especially 2nd hand.

Funnily enough, the guy who asked me to photograph his house is also moving, so wanted the photos to remember it with and show all the work he's put into it over the years.

Obviously, you don't remember it from the air, but helps put some context of where the house is in a town.

I can relate. My mom died last year and dad died in 2015 and we're selling her house too and I took the drone to film the kids doing an Easter egg hunt together as I know that's the kind of thing she'd have loved to know they did on their last time there.

Hope you get things sorted, but it sounds to me like you deserve a treat too and if the house sells, it'll more than cover the cost of a drone.