Rosedale - East mines

Seems a bit dull at first but second half is good.
If I go over there again will go lower especially over the ruined houses.

Old Canon 300D file

I've been quite impressed by how nice these can be made with Lightroom and PS + more knowledge.

Unfortunately I didn't always save the RAW files as in those days 20mb are whatever seemed huge and filled the 20gb drive up to fast!

 This lower part of Blakey near Hutton-le-Hole was in a Ford Transit advert early 1980s and has been used on Top Gear.
You can see why, but to make it look like this is slight deception by zoom lens.

I didn't like the 300D with original lens but an inexpensive Sigma 18-200mm transformed it - much sharper.  Unfortunately after 5 years or so unused I found the camera had got fungus on the sensor so practically unusable.
After owning the 5DMkii for a while it felt like a toy but being much lighter is a good thing.

 With hindsight I would manage without the SLR and buy (now) something like Sony RX100 iv.
The 5D is still good but so bulky and heavy even in car it's inconvenient.
My tiny S100 does RAW and is almost as good as the 300D was a lot of the time.
Also it's nice to be able to do decent video preferably 4K.
The 5Dmk2 was more or less the first SLR to be able to do video too, but only 1080p and it can overheat apparently.
The results are nothing special - requiring quite a bit of processing later - and you can only use it more or less static on a tripod, a it won't change focus automatically during recording.

Whorlton Castle again

Not the best light for this last week, but still much improved on 2014 Vision Plus version.
The close-ups of upper levels worked well - however wind suddenly hitting it near top of walls inside the gatehouse was worrying!

Seated Man Rainbow

Unfortunately only a segment but still a nice moment - though you can barely see where 'he' is.

It is becoming apparent that the number of visitors is excessive and it would not be surprising if it has to be removed before planned date of 2022 due to erosion.

From home we can see it on the skyline and for weeks now there is a small crowd circling round it every minute of the day.

Hutton-le-Hole quickie

Not the best lighting for this but I especially liked the part coming back to Barmoor where we used to make extra hay in the late 1960s. (when living at Wheat Ends)
A nice thing about flying at Hutton is there are several quiet(ish) places to take off all around with a bit of elevation and you can circle round without going over the busy bits.

Having said that where I parked someone pulled in alongside halfway through and looked a bit stunned when I reached out of pick up window and Mavic landed in my hand like a hawk :)

Heather time again

Been experimenting with new aproach to settings on Mavic.
There is a school of opinion that if you use lower than +1 sharpening automated noise reduction starts to kick in first in darker areas then in lower light all round the outside.
I've definitely seen this e.g. Seated Man Video but in good light you often don't see it.

My experiments with +1 on 4K video looked pretty horrible to be honest, but then I tried it on 2.7K rendered for youtube at 1440p and must say it does seem more reliably good crisp footage though needs a bit of gaussian blur to take the edge off unless light is fading.

Annoyingly weather has been dreadful if not impossible for flying it until yesterday when I did these two and am quietly impressed with the overall effect especially viewed on smart TV.

The Seated Man

A painted Bronze sculpture by Sean Henry and commisioned by the David Ross Foundation.
The three metre high artwork overlooks Westerdale from Castleton Rigg, contemplating the expansive view.
It is to be removed after five years.