Aerial Photography

Something I have been considering lately is to get into aerial photography. There are many quadcoptors on the market nowadays, and it's not that difficult, or expensive, to make one either. Some of the RTF (ready to fly) models come with cameras already built in, but they're typically not very good quality. You can get some great kits that come with good camera mounts, but most only allow for smaller cameras like the GoPro camera, which would mean more money spent on the camera. I could build one that would allow me to use my current camera, a Nikon D90, but I would have to spend upwards of $3000. I do not have any experience with flying a quadcoptor, so what I think I'll do first is build a cheaper one, around $200, just to get experience flying it. I found a great site about it at oddcopter.com, and I have options after I get used to it to attach a smaller camera if I want to go that route, or, if I have enough expendable money, I can always build one of the high-end kits. Right now I'm waiting on my tax return to start this so I have time to do some more research, but I'll post on here as this project progresses. Hopefully I'll have some aerial photos to post on here by this summer, but in the meantime I'll be getting out this weekend to start taking more pictures around here, and I'm setting a goal to post at least 5 more pictures on here by sunday evening.

Just a few of my first pictures

The first pictures I have decided to post are images I took while on vacation in Washington, DC with a good friend of mine. I also used a picture I took while on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle range for my background.

This first picture was taken at Arlington National Cemetery.

These are some of my favorites from an amazing night we walked all over DC. We had so much fun, even when we had to rush back to the hotel when it started raining. For anyone looking for a great trip to take some amazing pictures, or just a place you should go at least once in your life, I would highly suggest Washington, DC. None of these are touched up except to resize.

Just the start

As I said in my blog earlier today I'm now focusing on photography. This is my first post dedicated to photography only.
I'm currently trying to find my style. What do I want to focus on? Nature, animals, people, buildings? Being in the military the pictures I take for work obviously focus on our training, but that is not what excites me. I want to find something that "gets my artistic juices flowing" so to speak. I love being out in the woods and nature in general, especially animals. I would love to find a great place close by that would give me a chance to capture wild animals in their own habitats, but that can be extremely time consuming. As I start to find my focus I'll post more, and include some of my early work. Any comments, critiques, tips are appreciated.

Another, even bigger, change

I have realized a couple things lately. One, my brother is a much better author than me. And two, I'm a much better photographer than writer. Considering these realizations I have decided to focus on my photography. It helps that I am now my companies photographer too. I will still be doing things within the writing community, but it will revolve around my brother's writing. I have been helping him since he first started, and I really enjoy just being able to give him my opinions. He's finished the first draft of a novel and has got pretty far into the second draft. I believe that he will be a very popular author once he releases this first novel. He has a blog at http://drivelingon.blogspot.com/ where he sometimes posts about it.