Droning at the Yuba River

Yuba River

On March 25th I took Ben and my Syma X5-SC up to the Yuba River off the Bowman Lake Road just below Spaulding Reservoir.  My intention was to make a full video of the whole event, not just the drone video.  I ended up going thru five batteries and about 8 drone videos and about the same number with my Cannon and Lumix cameras.  It was rather worrisome flying near the Yuba canyon with the main concern being, what if I couldn’t get the drone to rise out of it, or if I lost contact and it fell into the raging waters.  After this trip I have now decided to invest in the more professional drone, the DJI Phantom 3 advanced version.  It should come in the first week of April and I am really looking forward to it.  So I imagine I will be putting up more aerial photography once I become acquainted with it and confident I won’t lose it or crash it.  Too much invested to risk.  Here is my amateur video (Note: if not HD in lower right of screen, then click gear icon and select 1080p HD):

Here is where I hiked to do the filming. Note Spaulding Reservoir off to the far right.Yuba River and Spaulding Res.

Author: Geoff

Quick rundown: Grew up in Lombard, Illinois, went to Arizona State University, worked as a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co, then Laventhal and Horwath, then Rolling Stones, then Heron International, then Goodby Berlin and Silverstein in San Francisco. Moved to the foothills in 1990 and traded futures and designed websites. Married to Kate Stewart, now living in Colfax, CA. We have six grandchildren. I enjoy camping in our RV, hiking, kayaking, fishing, droning and cross country skiing Also conga drumming, photography and dogs.

One thought on “Droning at the Yuba River”

  1. Dear Brother Geoff
    I’m so very impressed with this drone video over the steep canyon with the rushing Yuba River at the deep bottom of the canyon. This was definitely a “high risk” video as you mentioned. If you experienced flight problems & the bird went down, your challenge to recover the craft would be extremely difficult. When you had the unfortunate crash, it was by a miracle you were able to make the recovery you did. The actual video was very magnificent with River & the steep canyon walls plus the river was rushing with an extremely high volume of water. The video was truly high quality & your drone flight techniques plus skills & photographic ability ending with beautiful pictures all in total were truly beyond belief.

    All I can say is that you are not only a fantastic photographer, but you have also become quite an accomplished drone pilot. I can’t wait to see the videos you create with your new, high tech DJI Phantom Advanced drone. Those films should be awesome.

    Your Brother George based in Las Vegas, NV. Creating videos with drone camera adds a entirely new dimension to your nature photography.

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