Thanks to the help of a couple of friends I have had the pleasure to enjoy flying fpv drones for almost a year now.
I started with a simulator (like everyone) and have now flown in all kinds of situations: In parking lots, around abandoned churches, in the mountains, cinematically, acrobatically…
I have a lot of fun flying and, since I started University almost a year ago thus having less time for it, I’ve been flying around campus occasionally.
Many of the times someone comes to you in public when you’re flying around is to complain or to threaten you (I have had one too many Karens bother me), so imagine my surprise when a young man approached me in campus and told me that he wanted to hire me to film an event!
After asking him for the details and ensuring I didn’t already have any work that day, I agreed and he told me he’d pick me up at my place (I still don’t have my driver’s license, unfortunately).
I had no idea of what kinds of shots they wanted, so I brought ALL my drones that could shoot in HD: A 5 inch with my action camera (Which was the biggest sensor I brought), a 75mm Tinywhoop with the DJI digital system, and two stabilized drones (My father’s DJI Neo 2 and my own Neo which had extra batteries).
My reasoning was that I’d probably have few opportunities to do FPV shots since it was supposed to be a wedding shoot (not a venue one), so I planned a couple of shots with the Neo/s.
When the day finally came, he picked me up with his girlfriend (shocker) and we proceeded to go down a treacherous dirt path where we got lost more times than he’d like to admit. It was there when I first suspected that the job’s organization was not the best, but we kept moving.
After getting absolutely slopemogged by the rough terrain that led to the wedding and calling the staff thrice to ask for directions, we finally arrived at the wedding an hour and change left with very little light left.
That was but a small inconvenience for the videographer and even less trouble for the photographer, who had sensors the size of post stamps, but it was a real problem for me, who had really small ones.
My only real options were: The tinywhoop (if I flew it immediately upon arriving and did so close to light sources), the Neo 2 (Since the Neo 1 has a noticeably smaller sensor) which only had one battery worth around 12 minutes of actual flight time, and (obviously) my action camera, which had pretty decent low-light performance.
In that order, I proceeded to start filming.
Firstly I did a couple of flights with the tinywhoop not only because of the lighting conditions, but to help people get around the idea that there would be drones flying around and filming them for a while. I got pretty risky with it mainly because it poses almost no risk: I flew low and between the guests, trying to get more intimate shots that would prove impossible using any of the other drones.
Then I moved on to what I think was the star of the day: the Neo 2. I decided to get the most stable shots with it because... well, because it's a self-stabilizing drone. I got up high and waited for people to stop staring at it (which would ruin the footage) and I started to do some slow pans across the event. One thing to keep in mind while panning/rotating is that you should almost always go slower than you are for the following reasons: You can always speed it up without losing frames, which you can't when you go too fast, and you're excited (because you presumably like your job) and perceive everything as slower (That's really useful to avoid crashing the drone but harmful when it results in unfit footage).
Next I got up really really high (hoping the wind wasn't too strong) and got a few still shots pointing the gimbal straight down to capture the movement of the guests wondering around the various tables.
Having acclimated the guests to hearing/seeing drones, I moved on to the big boy with the big camera. With the 5 inch I mostly did shots from afar trying to move as slowly as possible.
I was using very crappy LiPos, so my flight times were both short and unpredictable. One of my last packs dropped almost instantly and I had to emergency-land the drone. This was no problem for it as FPV drones are built to be thrown around, but what did bother me were the "Oh! The drone has fallen!", "Hey! You've crashed" comments that i heard on my walk of shame while retrieving it. People also stared at it way more than any of the others, the kids more than anyone.
All in all it was a pretty cool day and I got to experience a new way of flying that involved getting money instead of losing it every time I hit "Arm". I am looking forward to any future professional opportunities that await me!