Aloha from Hawaii!

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Hi all,

My name is Keoni Ahlo, I'm a 50-year old native Hawaiian born and raised on Oahu. While I'm "old" to 1/8 scale RC racing trucks and sports photography, I'm as NEW to drones as they come! So I was walking into Best Buy on Christmas eve to buy my son a spare $20 GoPro battery as as stocking-stuffer, and the first thing I see is that 3DR Solo bonus package on sale for $299! I couldn't believe it--I had been looking at buying a DJI or 3DR drone for my son and I for about a year, but it was always a bit more that I wanted to spend. So needless to say, I snagged one of the kits. We took the Solo to the park on Christmas (my son was blown away by the give, btw!) and we practiced until both batteries died. Then again the next day. I was hooked! I went back on Bestbuy.com and bought one for myself--and while I was there, I noticed that the batteries and backpack were deeply discounted, so I grabbed two bags and 3 batteries for each of us! After that day, we've been hiking and taking the drone with us on the weekends. The video below show some highlights of our 4th outing with the drone at Banzai Pipeline. I have a lot to learn about controlling the exposure on the GoPro, but we're learning every time we fly

I look forward to meeting more of you here in the forums. Aloha!

Pushjerk · Jan 24, 2017

Howzit, Keoni!

Dude, not bad looking footage! Waves were pumping! Moving subjects are not easy to capture. Just a tip, embrace your camera tilt presets and timing wheel - play around till you get some silky smooth tilting of the camera to follow those guys as they get closer to you. This is a capability that not everyone is aware of.

Don't know if I'm considered Kamaaina, but I've lived 10 out of the last 15 years on Oahu. Moved away last April to WA. Regretfully, I didn't start flying my Solo till we had left HI.

Aloha. Keep the foodnfootage coming.

Spectre95 · Jan 24, 2017

I can only hope after less than a month to grab such awesome footage. That is simply solid..

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Spectre95 said:
I can only hope after less than a month to grab such awesome footage. That is simply solid..

Thanks, Spectre95! It helps to have clean 15-25 footers rolling in! My son was flying and I was co-piloting to notify him of surrounding drones...there were up to 8 at a time hovering in the same general airspace. But that's what happens when Pipeline is firing and there are no contests running. Between battery changes, I shot some surf from land...and yes, this surfer is flashing "the bird", probably to a photographer friend in the water. Or he's been pounded at Pipeline and this is his way of seeking "revenge" LOL:

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Pushjerk said:
Howzit, Keoni!

Dude, not bad looking footage! Waves were pumping! Moving subjects are not easy to capture. Just a tip, embrace your camera tilt presets and timing wheel - play around till you get some silky smooth tilting of the camera to follow those guys as they get closer to you. This is a capability that not everyone is aware of.

Don't know if I'm considered Kamaaina, but I've lived 10 out of the last 15 years on Oahu. Moved away last April to WA. Regretfully, I didn't start flying my Solo till we had left HI.

Aloha. Keep the foodnfootage coming.

Mahalo, brother! Of course, you're kama'aina! LOL Yeah, I was showing my son the tilt presets, but he was so nervous flying around the other swarm of drones that he kind of felt more comfortable concentrating on just staying away from an accident. But YES, I will be practicing with that feature--right now, A is = 0 deg, B = 90 deg. Is that how you set yours? I was playing with the dial speed to see how the timing would work. Oh, and we tried Medium FOV, then Linear, then Narrow. Narrow worked best, as it allowed us to stay a safe distance from the backwash (sometimes shooting up water 40' in the air, could have easily hit a drone whose operator wasn't paying attention!

Anyway, my son took his drone back to San Francisco with him (college), so I'm about to open mine up this week. I already have Alfa antennas and the mRo GPS upgrades in the boxes waiting...Wifi cards and ND filters on the way

Wish I could manually control shutter and aperture on the GoPro--if there's a way to do this, I'm not seeing it!

Aloha,
Keoni
www.keoniahlo.com

Bilge · Jan 24, 2017

Ke,

Great footage for first time out....are you kidding.....enjoyed watching from beginning to end.......if only San Diego had waves like that.....

Keep on filming....

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Bilge said:
Ke,

Great footage for first time out....are you kidding.....enjoyed watching from beginning to end.......if only San Diego had waves like that.....

Keep on filming....

Thanks, Bilge! We have a ton of footage, but I pulled out a handful of waves to make a quick video. BTW, I'm always flying up to San Diego--my daughter is an SDSU Cheerleader! Go Aztecs!

Here's a video my son put together after our second time with the drone, our first "planned" day out filming on the east and north side of Oahu (part 1 of a winter break instagram vid series that he likes to do every school break). Whales were breaching, but we couldn't seem to be able to orient our drone in the general area. Anyway, we got some cool shots:

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Sorry, that previous video was Part 2 of his winter series. Here's Part 1. Less drone shots, was our first day out shooting:

Bilge · Jan 24, 2017

Hey ...thanks for sharing......enjoyed those 2 videos.....as well as your photos on your website......you have quite the talent for shooting.....
Have fun flying & shooting....you live in a beautiful place for that.....

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Bilge said:
Hey ...thanks for sharing......enjoyed those 2 videos.....as well as your photos on your website......you have quite the talent for shooting.....
Have fun flying & shooting....you live in a beautiful place for that.....

Thanks, Bilge--but in all honesty, my son is doing most of the shooting in these videos. I wanted to shoot more, but we were working with his drone first and learning together. And he was having so much fun, I just let him run with it. But a few of those shots are mine

Bilge · Jan 24, 2017

what about your photo website......I am assuming that is your talent....is that right ? Nice pics there

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Bilge said:
what about your photo website......I am assuming that is your talent....is that right ? Nice pics there

Thanks, yes, those are all mine

I enjoy video editing too--most of my work is related to my kids' sports. Lots of college recruiting highlight reel stuff. Got to cut my teeth on FCPX when it first came out, which was kind of painful LOL!

Pushjerk · Jan 24, 2017

all great stuff Keoni! I regret not having Solo when I lived out there, though price was still inhibitively high.

I did do plenty of flying though - I'm a fixed wing FPV flyer before MR. Loved me some mountain surfing in Waimanalo, Waianae, wherever there were remote ridges and peaks to shred.

Not to high jack your thread, but here's a sample.

BradG47 · Jan 24, 2017

Awesome video work and thank you for the great look at your beautiful state. I am heading to Oahu in June and I'll be bringing both my Solos, loads of batteries, GoPro camera set ups and such.

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Pushjerk said:
all great stuff Keoni! I regret not having Solo when I lived out there, though price was still inhibitively high.

I did do plenty of flying though - I'm a fixed wing FPV flyer before MR. Loved me some mountain surfing in Waimanalo, Waianae, wherever there were remote ridges and peaks to shred.

Not to high jack your thread, but here's a sample.

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Awesome! I grew up in Kailua on the windward side.

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

BradG47 said:
Awesome video work and thank you for the great look at your beautiful state. I am heading to Oahu in June and I'll be bringing both my Solos, loads of batteries, GoPro camera set ups and such.

Cool, hit me up when you get here! There are some pretty nice places to fly here. Imagine how nice Kauai would be! Consider stopping by that island if you can, if anything for some epic footage.

BradG47 · Jan 24, 2017

keoniahlo said:
Cool, hit me up when you get here! There are some pretty nice places to fly here. Imagine how nice Kauai would be! Consider stopping by that island if you can, if anything for some epic footage.

Well as luck has it, we are staying the first week in Oahu and second week in Kauai.

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

BradG47 said:
Well as luck has it, we are staying the first week in Oahu and second week in Kauai.

I'm psychic! Haha, wow, I didn't see that coming! You're gonna love shooting in Kauai, I plan on heading over one week in the near future. The only place in Hawaii that might top Kauai right now is the active volcanic eruption on the Big Island. Take a look at the DJI Phantom 4 Pro promo video and you'll see what I mean. It's pretty insane--I don't think I'd have the balls to fly my Solo that near the volcanic heat...not to mention all the soot and sulfur in the air that might damage the motors. But then again, for $299, WHY NOT?!

dji web player

Bilge · Jan 24, 2017

Shooting video & flying on any of the Hawaiian islands will be ideal......

I wish I had my drone on my past trip to St John, U.S.V.I. What a beautiful place that was......

keoniahlo · Jan 24, 2017

Just be careful if find yourself at a surf meet, they get pretty crazy about non-event drones flying around (like how concerts restrict cameras). Have fun and watch out for the surprise rain on Kauai!