Midwest Boredom. Ideas?

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As much as I've enjoyed living in the Midwest (both Chicago and St. Louis), I miss the Pacific Northwest that I grew up in (Washington State). Unlike the Midwest, there is so much geographical diversity in the NW (mountains, large lakes, heavy forest, gorges, etc.).

I'm finding that it's difficult to get unique/beautiful footage in such a flat and unexciting area of the country. Any tips, thoughts or suggestions from those who live in the Midwest? As much as I enjoy flying, I'm more in to the footage/cinematography side of flying my Phantom 3.
 
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As I know a photographer can make make any scenery interesting by his skills and you too can do it. Mountains, rivers, lakes are no doubt pleasing to eyes but nature has beauty everywhere. A photographer has to catch and present to the world.


Sent from my iPhone using PhantomPilots
 
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I agree with you, alokbhargva. However, having a place to live like San Francisco provides much (much) more opportunity to do so. I've been to San Fran dozens of times. There are literally hundreds of locations to film breathtaking scenery there. It's not so easy living here in STL.
 
I can fully understand your frustration, so here are my thoughts.

Although I didn't know this at the time of ordering my P4 from DJI, I have since found that there is a lot about this hobby to enjoy other than just flying it around taking pictures and videos. Recently, I put a few 4-5 minute videos on YouTube, and I got to thinking. Between pre-planning my flights using Litchi the night before, flying a test mission, and then another, tweaking the route in the field based on some issues that I saw real-time, re-flying the tweaked route, and then flying the final mission, that was like four hours of my time. Then came the video editing. This took like two hours, partly because my computer is dated, and partly because it requires a lot of thought and attention to little details. So, a simple five minute video took me around six hours to create...

Anyway, I guess what I'm saying - and I have read other posts here by folks who were bored as well - is that simply flying the drone around can become quite boring after awhile. Let's just call it what it is. It is the other stuff that can be associated with this hobby - in my mind - that keeps it interesting. I had no interest in photography or video editing prior to buying my P4, and now I do. It's kind of fun, and since I know how much time it takes to make a very short and somewhat watchable clip, I am now trying to get more and more creative and selective about what and where I film - if the intention is a published video.

Granted, you have less interesting surroundings to work with where you are versus the very interesting and unique Pacific Northwest, but there is beauty in the Midwest if you get creative. As temperatures begin to drop with winter coming - and generally speaking, the coldest time of the day is thirty minutes after sunrise - you need to be out there, looking for that really nice field, or that large and deep lake or reservoir, both of which may develop that low layer of rising fog across them (what I normally call 'Sea Smoke' here in the Northeast), and you need to get some very cool footage of this, descending toward it, flying above it, making it blow around with your prop wash. There is beauty and opportunity everywhere, and once you start looking for it, you realize this to be true.
 
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