Summertime and the living is easy... (or so the song goes)

The summer, so far, has been wetter and much warmer than normal. The heat helps generate thunderstorms across the plains. Storms can bring scary evenings or if they abate soon enough, beautiful sunsets and sunrises.. Such was the case on Thursday, July 18th 2019.  I put Chuck the Camera-Drone up in the air a couple of times between cells of rain moving through. Some of the resulting photos show some really stunning colors and contrasts.  If you zoom in, you can maybe see some lightning in the clouds and features of the now soaked ground below. Almost all of these photos were taken at just under 400' altitude, in and around our summer home in Kenyon MN.
I am posting in the order the photos were taken - so as you progress through the photos, the evening in moving in.. I have to tell you that in all, I took 60 photos of these cells with Chuck and it was very difficult to select photos to post here,


Looking east at the passing cell over Kenyon.


Looking back over Kenyon, we take a 180 Panorama. That puffy grey cloud is actually only a couple hundred feet higher than Chuck and about 500-1000 feet away.


I had Chuck way too close to this cell. There were sparks of lightning visible which I could not really catch without time-lapse and the winds were too variable to do that.






I took a few more shots at this little Thunderstorm Wannabe before I retreated Chuck to a safer distance to the west.


Looking back to the west while another quick moving cell boils up alongside a competing sunset.


Looking west, we take a 180 degree Panorama. Clearing towards the north (right) and very unsettled to the south.





This cell is approaching quickly and I can see in my viewfinder that Chuck is starting to see rain - so we will retreat back to the hanger (house) until this cell passes and hope for a rainbow at Sunset.


Chuck - warming up in the driveway with a fresh battery so we can go up and take a look around...


Oh boy!  Our first glimpse of the coming sunset!


Looking back over our shoulder we check out the cell that is just leaving us. The sky seems to be on fire in places as the thunderstorm continues to rumble and show it's power to the land below.  Kenyon is a small town and just a bit more quiet right now..






Our sunset is developing quite nicely. Note the scud clouds at the very top of this photo. These clouds are in the trail of the previous thunder cell and are still precipitating lightly.









Wow - How about that!  At this point, we've been in the air a bot over 20 minutes and are about 1/2 mile away. Chuck tells me his battery has 25% life left in him and that we need to head back east for home...  So we turn around and see this below!






We're only about 100' up and directly over the drive... Err... Runway we took off from.  Chuck is starting to whine, but I tell him - just a couple more buddy and I'll give you a long rest on the dining room table!







Chuck tells me he is landing whether I like it or not.  He has less than 5% left and he is spent...
I spin him around for one final shot at the sunset below and he landed directly in front of me a few moments later.  I swear I heard him curse me as his motors spun down to silent...


More coming soon here or on Facebook!

Making new friends in Arizona!

Last night we were invited by friends Craig and Shirley to meet Shirley's sister and brother in law (Mike & Sue) at their beautiful ranch here in Gold Canyon.  Chuck the Camera-Drone was brought along to help document the occasion and to do a bit of aerial photography of some of the grounds around the ranch.  Beautiful and majestic cactus dot the land while Horses in the stable complete the picture of a real western ranch.  Mike is a pilot and has his own plane hangered at the ranch and a short dirt runway just "out back"..  Truly neat people to meet and spend time with and we hope to see them again when we return in the fall...


Superstition Mountains to the north of the ranch make a beautiful backdrop!

















































x






That's the Runway behind the hanger...



















A Red-Tail Hawk perched on top of an Old Man Saguaro - Watching our drone Chuck carefully...  We were more than 100' away and would not fly any closer as we don't want to upset the inhabitants of the desert.














Old man Saguaro watching as the sun sets on the horizon....


Finally - a 180 degree panorama....

We hope you liked this update!

Skywatching with Randy & Chuck March 10-20, 2019

If you're seeing this post on Facebook, please click on the text box or first photo to see the rest on our blog.

As you may know - Chuck the Camera-Drone and I "fly the sunset" just about every night that we're able.  Not all nights is this possible due to weather. Chuck isn't waterproof so flying in the rain or fog is not a good idea (even if some people are posting videos that do just that).

Below are some of the hundreds of photos we've taken recently..  I'll post the date below each picture.  All pictures were taken in Gold Canyon Arizona in our "back yard" of the Arizonian RV Resort.

When the colors show up in various frames, but individually are just not representative of the sky, I will do a stitched panorama. Sometimes 180 degrees or 360 degrees.  Blogger just shows these photos as a very condensed and W-I-D-E photo. Facebook will allow you to use your mouse or tilt/move your tablet to change your point of view.

Pictures were taken with a DJI Mavic 2 Zoom drone "Chuck". Post processing via Microsoft Photos to adjust exposure, contrast & sharpness.  In other words, I don't add color that was not already there or "Photoshop" results. What you see is what I took a photograph of although it may be cropped or adjusted as already mentioned..


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
3/10/2019 - Clear day with light breezes - the last day without rain in the forecast for the next 3-4 days.  We flew the sunset and caught a few sights worthy of photographing..


3/10/2019 - The Arizonian RV Resort - just about at full capacity! That squiggle at the bottom of your screen is the RC Car Racetrack.


3/10/2019 - Wispy clouds lighting up are quite pretty. So peaceful up here at 400'


3/10/2019 - Back down close to the ground, the Cholla are so bright from the recent rains. Quite beautiful!


3/10/2019 - Superstition mountain. This mountain is north of the park, so you are viewing the southern face.


3/10/2019 - Jake's Cactus reaching for the moon!


3/10/2019 - Jake's Cactus (Saguaro) during the afternoon.


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
3/12/2019 - Rainy day and windy - Not a great day for much of anything, but we had a gap in the rain and I thought I could get Chuck out there to take some pictures of the clouds..  I flew him toward the Superstition mountain and suddenly, my screen started to not look very good.  RAIN! Chuck is not waterproof, so I high-tailed it back to my launch point and landed. Chuck spent the rest of the night recuperating on a towel.  He checked out fine the next day.


3/12/2019


3/12/2019 360 panorama


3/12/2019


3/12/2019


3/12/2019

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
3/14/2019 - Clear day and windy - Not a great day for sunsets, but having just been through a good rain, the air is clean and the haze on the mountains is light.


3/14/2019 - Superstition Mountain


3/14/2019 - Jake's Saguaro Cactus


3/14/2019 - Jake's Saguaro Cactus


3/14/2019 - Jake's Saguaro and a host of Prickly Pear, Cholla, Hedge-Hog and Stag-Horn cactus


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
3/19/2019 - Clear day and windy - Not much up there for clouds or haze at sunset, but dusk brought on some nice light and color.


3/19/2019 - pretty much the only clouds in this sunset


3/19/2019 - as night creeps in from the east.


3/19/2019


3/19/2019 - Old Friends. The ancient Palo Verde tree stands guard over the stump of his once majestic Saguaro neighbor. Our time here is almost done.


3/19/2019 - 180 Panorama at dusk

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
3/20/2019 - Overcast day and windy - Interesting cloud formations with striations of light and color.


3/20/2019


3/20/2019






3/20/2019 - 180 Panorama


3/20/2019 - 360 Panorama