This past Spring Break my family spent the week at our Water's Edge town home that is an easy walk from Center Street and a convenient eight miles from Charleston.
I enjoy the convenience of being able to work remotely no matter where I am with family, and on this trip I found one more reason to get outside and enjoy the salt air. I brought the drone quad-copter, to further my skills in aerial photography and videography.
I got up around sunrise in order to catch the morning light and walked toward the beach. What's my visibility and how fast are wind speeds? No doubt pioneering aviators Orville and Wilbur Wright asked the same questions. Planning what I wanted to video, at what angle, and altitude had me thinking in a new way - more like a Hollywood cinematographer.
Power on controller. Power on drone. Place cell phone in drone controller. Wait for controller, drone and phone to sync with each other; the "Ready to Fly" illumines green. We're a go. I pull back on the joysticks which sets the propellers whirring and up on the left joystick and the drone rises. Checking the cell phone screen I see a birds eye view from the drone camera. I send the drone forward down the beach slowly. A flock of seagulls are alarmed by the presence of the unknown intruder and they fly below. A man walks along the surf edge and picks up a shell seemingly unaware of the drone's presence.
Satisfied with my brief tour down the beach and up and around beachfront homes, I walk briskly to the fishing pier while the lighting is still good. The drone is sent from the beginning of this breathtaking 1,045-foot long pier. The drone, aloft again, is sent toward the end of the pier. Watching the still calm ocean waves slipping toward my view as I flew over the pier provided a moment of serenity. However, as the drone was now out of visual sight and likely over the ocean, my adrenaline quickened. A check of battery life left indicated it was time to bank around and return the drone home.
I hope you enjoy this brief drone video of Folly Beach as much as I did in putting it together.
MyRentalButler offers services to Property Management and vacation property owners. Drone photography and videos is one of the many service offerings of MyRentalButler.