Dean Read's Audio & Video Blog: Forest Wild Camp

In this video I head up to the usual forest armed with my DJI Phantom 4 to meet Ray and Jay aka GoonieBushcraft. I’d been wanting to take the drone with me for some time but the weather hadn’t been kind to me in the past. Even though it was pretty windy I managed to capture some aerial footage of the area on my way up to the forest.

I walked via Ogston Reservoir and got a shot that I’d had in mind since I saw the early models of the DJI Phantom. I was never really convinced by the early models that required you to buy a gimbal and use a GoPro, things changed however when they started to come with a built in camera… Anyway, I digress. There was a strong cross wind during this first flight but I was surprised at how well it faired and the footage came out smoothly. There is a snippet of video where I have the camera looking downwards towards the reservoir overflow and you might notice the drone is turning to the right ever so slightly… the wind was particularly strong at that point.

After walking past Ogston Reservoir I walked in the direction of the forest, there was another shot that I’d wanted to get and today was the day. I had discussed it with Jay and Ray in the weeks before, I’d fly the drone towards them and get close enough to see them waving back. Due to the strength of the I didn’t want to get too close just incase a strong gust took the drone and slammed it in to the ground. Jay rang me beforehand and warned me about how strong the wind was so I was extra careful. Thankfully the stability and agility of the Phantom 4 was more than a match for the conditions and I got the shot that I’d envisaged.

It was really great to see the forest and the surrounding area in a different way, we have been going up and sitting on that cliff edge for more years than I can remember so it was great to look back at it from a different perspective. Later that evening I flew above the forest during the sunset sequence and you can even make out the lonely spider tree in the image below that has fallen in the clearing.

We had a really great night in the forest and it was nice to get up there relatively early so we had the afternoon to relax. I love autumn but the daylight hours are reducing at a worryingly quick rate and it will soon mean that it is dark by 17:00.

The sunset was absolutely breathtaking, I managed to take it all in after flying the drone for a while. In the video you will see the sequence which includes some fireside timelapsing and star lapses. Many thanks for watching the video if you have, if you haven’t why not click play now