Eastern Railroad Discussion > First Drone photo

Last month I broke down and made a somewhat whimsical drone purchase - a Bwine F72GB.   After toying around with it with a handful of test flights around the house, I finally took it out trackside Sunday and captured 257 at Cove, PA.    It's going to take a lot of practice to operate the drone and still take DSLR pics, but I managed to do so on my first attempt, though I thought I might lose the drone on my first outing.

I'm wondering if any of the drone photographers on here would mind sharing some helpful hints, and if anyone has this actual model, if they have any advice on its capabilities and whether they give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.  Thanks all. 

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Nice catches Sam! 
Good luck on earning your solo flight pilot's license.
I look forward to your future flights.
Gonut

The easiest way I've found to work both the drone and DSLR is to hang the drone controller around my neck, and put the camera on the tripod with cable release plugged in and live view turned on.

Well done - How different scene one would look from the ground.
Bob

Great results, first time out. I like the lower angle, "portable overpass " drone shot. 

Don't shoot the drone photo at the same location as the DSLR photos. Fly either up or down the tracks to a spot, shoot there and then put the controller down and focus on DSLR.

For this spot, I would have flown behind you about to the old location of the signal bridge, taken the DSLR shot first and then worried about the drone shot. 

- Chris

You are about to open up a whole new world of possibilities, especially where you are in the east where tree growth has obliterated so many classic angles. My advice would be that you will find that if you try to do both the DSLR and drone at the same time, more often than not your overall results will suffer and you are FAR more likely to have an "unplanned re-entry event" with the drone that will result in a "water landing" or a "rapid unscheduled dissasembly" upon contact with the ground. (Ask me how I know).

If you have a drone in the air it is really best to focus on controlling the aircraft. Also keep in mind that if you are chasing a particular train, you will now need to lave much more time in between shots in order to activate the drone, let it do all the things it needs to do to be ready to fly, and then get it into position. Then of course there is time on the back end to fly it home...and none of this is easy to do in  a rush. Have fun!

teach me, some day i'll pull mine out of the box, the warranty has expired

Congratulations! You will love it, it makes fanmiliar scenes new again. I have never tried the DLSR and drone at the same time. You need to practice, practice and do things slowly.