I definitely failed this week. I spent 4 days during the long weekend up in Vermont in an attempt to capture the foliage, and with aluminum wire, electrical tape, and my bright LED light in my trunk, I thought I was going to get some very cool long exposures with the mountains. I had my drone all ready to get set up, with three batteries. We arrived at 10pm and got to work trying to wire the drone up with this light. We attached it to the top, to the bottom, to the side, and just about everywhere imaginable. But, no matter how far I put the light from the drone, the sensor calibration was still unable to function. I brought weather sealed padding in an attempt to space the magnet far away from the drone enough that it no longer interfered with the compass. Alas, I could not get it to fly. The drone refused to take off with the light. This week will be devoted to opening up the light and removing the magnets. If that does not work, a new light may need to be purchased.

I did spend some time getting used to the lack of light pollution in northern Vermont, where I took this photo. It was very difficult to strike a good balance between sensor sensitivity and proper exposure. This shown exposure was one single car’s headlights and the image was almost blown out. The one below shows four car’s headlights.

I noticed that the lens I was using also had some unusual lens flare that I need to look more into before I use the drone.