Beautiful nature by Drone 

I have always loved to be and exercise in the nature. In recent years, I have liked photography and the most pleasant subjects for photography have been the miracles of nature. I have been able to combine nature and nature shooting in hundreds, or rather thousands of different images, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not.

As a little bit technical person, I have followed the development of drone photography and dreamed of purchase my own Drone, while considering whether it would bring a new perspective to the photographing. I have proceeded slowly with the decision to buy my own Drone because I was not sure I'd learn the technology of Drone. After all I have had a lot to learn with the system camera, too.

In the last summer, however, I found a great Drone offer and decided to try and start shooting from the air as well. At the same time, I began to dream how wonderful it would be to shoot autumn colours in Äkäslompolo. I arrived in Äkäslompolo with both the system camera and the Drone well charged.

On the very first day, I packed both equipment with and went through Varkaankuru to look for good locations. The colours of the earth were great and there was plenty to shoot. With the system camera, the basic photography went smoothly and for the Drone I was looking for a windproof location. This was a more difficult challenge, as there is often windy in the Fells and gorges. I walked down the Kellostapuli gorge and decided to find a place sheltered from wind behind of Fell Keskinen Laki. There I was trying with the Drone first time, but because of the wind, not in high. On the way back, I photographed Kellostapuli gorge, and then I was hiking up to Fell Kellostapuli. Because of the wind, I stayed behind the Fell and photographed only shortly. As I walked down from the Fell, I was still trying to photograph the sunset and the ground colours. At the same time, I understood that the equipment comes with a lot of small parts, which are somewhat challenging to assemble and disassembly in the windy weather. Without worrying this, I returned to Äkäslompolo at evening twilight.

The next morning the sun was shining, and I thought I'd go back and take photos and videos in the same places. When I reached the edge of the Fell Keskinen Laki, I found a good place for the Drone take off and again put together small parts (shelters, wings, battery) and a Drone cable on my mobile phone. For a while, I was looking about 10 cm long cable, and unfortunately it was missing. It was a pity, because without that cable, I could not do anything and I had to came back without pictures or videos, even if the wind were suitable for shooting. It was an annoying setback and I wondered if I had left the cable on the kitchen table.

The cable was not on the kitchen table or anywhere else in the apartment. I searched for it for a couple of days and ended up with the fact that I had either forgotten or dropped it to the Fell Kellostapuli. I knew it would be impossible to find so small cable from the Fell and purchased a new cable for 11.90 euros from a web shop. Fortunately, the cable was cheap but also it was annoying because I was not able to get a delivery to Äkäslompolo in time.

In the evening of the same day, when I had already ordered the new cable, we went for an evening walk on the same routes. While I was walking, I was still worrying about the cable, and I was wondering if I'd get lucky enough to find it. On the other hand, the finding of the cable seemed hopeless on the Fell, as it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, we returned along the same routes to previous shooting places and searched for that little black cable on the ground. But miracles happen in the Fells,  because there the cable was waiting for me. What an amazing luck!

After the cable was found, the Drone was within the next day's bike ride (Tunturijärvi-Ylläsjärvi-Keskinen Laki-Kesänkijärvi-Äkäslompolo) and behind Keskinen Laki I tried to take off Drone in a quite hard wind. I got the Drone in the air, but I was scared to see if a strong wind would throw it into rocky Fell. I was able to film something, but not from high up again. I tried to fly the Drone against the wind, but the Fell wind was stronger, and the Drone stayed almost motionless in place. I did not even dare try to get downwind, because the wind would have taken the device too far away.

On our last day of autumn holidays, we walked route Fell Keskinen Laki and we were in Tuomikuru. There we found the most reddish colours and suitably calm winds. Behind a one tree, I found a bare, a stoneless and flat ground where the Drone was able to take off without any problems. What a really great place to film and one of my dreams came true. I was happy to pack all the little pieces back in my bag (a couple of times checking that everything is definitely involved). I found that putting all the little parts related to the Drone together and dragging equipment to the fells is worth all the effort.

The drone delivers amazing quality video and photos. The file sizes are huge already in the minute-long video, so they still need to be processed after shooting. But that is not the problem at all.  You can find the very happy drone owner on the right with bright blue jacket  😊

 Ps. I have seen from other Drone user a landing pad and this could be useful in the fells as well as elsewhere. First, however, I could test if the old Trivial Pursuit game board could be used as a landing pad. It would be a good recycling, too!