Solo Travel Self Portraits

1. STSP Intro: I'm a mellow, a photographer and filmmaker based in the trucks and kick us with a passion for traveling. Over the years I've been known for my solo trips. One question I get asked often is who takes my photos when I'm on vacation? Well, lets me I'm gonna show you how to take great photos when you're alone. No, Maddie, a destination. Before you know it, you'll be getting asked, Who's your photographer? Let's get started. 2. STSP Equipment: In this segment, we'll briefly go over some of the equipment you can use to capture great pictures while on your vacation. Let's get started. We're gonna go over all the equipment that you can use to take amazing solo travel self portraits while on your vacation. So the first thing that I'm going to go over is my travel bag. So I have the 32 Leto traveled by PQ design I think is fairly true leader. I traveled a bit heavier than most people who wanted to take solo travel self portraits because I'm also a blogger and a filmmaker. I traveled with all the tools that we're actually going to see today. But I traveled with this by because it makes it very easy to access my items. And that's from all of the peak design equipment. But you can lock the bag from the front and just have the bag that's closer to your back. This the zippers that's closer to you back, sorry, open up, which makes it a whole lot safer and I can fit everything in here now they also do how smaller backpacks and they do have pouches that you can carry. Now we're gonna look at the mirrorless camera or a DSLR if you have one. But the mirrorless or DSLR camera is great because it gives you a whole lot more freedom because you have a higher quality of photo that you get in from it. Now I have my 50 millimeter that's on it, which is fairly universal and relaxed and not being too wide and not being too narrow, it can shoot a very shallow depth of field. And it's also very light, which is great for traveling. Now if you don't want to be stuck with one focal length, you can do like a 242105. But for me I actually just like to shoot with my 50 because it forces me to move around a bit more, which is great for learning the culture, meeting new people, getting into spaces that I probably wouldn't on irregular. Now I always carry extra batteries because you're most likely going to be out and about for a couple hours. So you don't want to have a dead battery and miss out on great photo opportunities. I carry card case for my memory cards. Now, I tend to travel with smaller memory cards just so it forces me to take the photos off of the memory card every night. But if you're traveling with 512 gigabyte memory card, you most likely won't backup all of your photos every night, but backing up every night makes sure that I don't lose any memories if a card is destroyed. Right now I have my phone adapter. And the great thing about this phone adapter for my tripod is that it can fit any type of phone I have. So even if I say we're say to lose a phone on a trip and I've got a new one that's a lot bigger. I can just adjust it right here and it opens up and it can fit my phone right in. The great thing about this is that also has a level on it. And you can find this on Amazon for really cheap. And for someone who doesn't want to buy a drone or a mirrorless or DSLR camera. They can go and they can take amazing photos with their phone. And it has three separate attachment points for your tripod. Then it allows you to take photos in different orientations. Now, we have the travel tripod. Now the travel tripod is tends to be a bit lighter than your standard tripod. And it compacts down to a very small frame. So right now, it's not even as long as my backpack, which is a carry-on size bags, so you can carry it inside your carry on. You can also carried in a backpack and it's very light. Now this is the vanguard tripod that I got from Amazon. So I'm going to link all of this in the course. But it also has a ball head mount, which makes it easy to take portrait or landscape photos. And it's great when you're on the go. You don't have to worry about crop and your photo later you can take it as is, the tripod is a pivotal part of taking solo traveled self portraits. If you're not using a drone, It's great because it holds a camera in place and allows you the time and the freedom to move to another spot to take photos so you're not stuck, just taken selfies. Now we have the drone. The drone is great for showing different vantage points, for allowing you to go hands-free without worrying about someone grabbing it. The drone is great because it allows you the freedom of taken larger group shots without being in someone's weight. Now I have the maverick Pro, but some of you may have updated versions. And it's great for getting something really quickly. You get it up in the air and you go, you also can get stuff that may not be of yourself, but a bit further out or higher up to make you super small and show just how wide and expensive the area you are in. Finally, I have the smartphone. Now this is one of the most important parts of this course because this smartphone actually we'll go with a number of these different items. So with the drone, you use it to see exactly what your drone is seen and take photos with a mirrorless camera. You actually use it as well to see exactly what you've taken photos off. And of course, it's using the smartphone segments, so it's used throughout the entire process. But you smartphone generally something that you take with you. So these are the items that I use when I'm traveling and tried to take my solo travel self portraits. 3. STSP Safety: When traveling alone, you always have to keep your safety environment. And this segment, we will go over additional steps to keep you and your gear safe as you tried to take the best picture. Let's get started. Now, one thing that you wanted to do when you go on a vacation and you've taken solo travel self portrait is to go home with your equipment. Here are a few tips that'll keep you safe and keep your equipment safe. One, I advise that you arrived to a destination early, whatever the location may be, especially if it's a touristy one, it most likely will be empty early in the morning unless it's a sunrise to destination. I usually go to my location, act about seven AM in the morning and there's usually no one in the sun is up. And that gives me the opportunity to take photos at my own pace. I've done this with the Coliseum in Italy, as well as the Trevi Fountain. I've done this in Saint Lucia. I've also done this in Puerto Rico with the streets and old sound one. I know that it works and then makes sure that you don't have to deal with a lot of people walking by your equipment and potentially taken it. Another safety tip is to make sure that you keep your smartphone or your DSLR as close to you as possible. The wider you shoot, the closer that you can keep your camera. If you shoot on its widest setting, then you'd be able to keep your camera within probably one or two arms length of u. Now this does lead itself to a bit of distortion, but it also makes sure that if anyone tries to take your equipment, you can just reach out and grab it. Then boom, no problem. The third safety tip is for your drone. And it'll be a combination of tips actually. But one, you want to check the restrictions and the laws within every destination that you traveled to. Now with each location, it'll be different. Whereas in the States it may be you can't fly your drone within five miles of an airport in Italy. It may be you can't fly near larger crowds. It just depends, but one thing that you want to do is you want to make sure that you're flying within the laws of that country to ensure that you have no problems whatsoever. Another thing is you want to be aware of buildings, power lines, trees, and the local birds. Because especially if there are larger birds like ah, sprays eagles, pelicans, they may attack your drone and destroy your drone and also hurt the bird at sometimes like in the trucks and cake is offsprings are protected. So if you, if you hurt an offspring, you can be fined for it. So you want to keep an eye out for those? I didn't. One of the segments I actually was flying my drawing at flamingos flew by, but because I was very conscious of that possibility by drone wasn't very far away from me and I was able to keep my drone safe and the flamingo safe. Another thing is to be very aware of people and say, dogs, cats, any sort of animal, because you want to keep them safe as well. In this segment, we're going to go over things that really keep everyone safe, not just you and your drone. Because if everyone's safe, then you take your photos, you have an amazing time and you enjoy your vacation. And I can look back on the memories without any sad stories. If you can use your bag like a heavier bags I have with my backpack to help weigh down your tripod for your mirrorless camera or for your smartphone that's on a tripod, or find a way to attach a bell or some keys, anything that will make noise if someone tries to take it. The final safety tip is to always be aware of your surroundings and go with your gut feeling if you feel weird in a situation. Now, there will always be a million things going on in any new environment and we are always taking in new information, learn a new environment. But we will almost always feel stressed and feel uncomfortable in their position. But what you want to do is you want to focus in on anything that could potentially harm you or your equipment and be ready to make the move. These are just a few of the tips that you can use to keep yourself, your equipment, and everyone around you safe while they're traveling. I'm sure you're going to create new tips while you're taken solo travel, self portraits. 4. STSP Smartphone: We take our phones everywhere. So it's natural that it will be one of the easiest tools to use to take amazing photos while on vacation. In this segment, we will go over how to upgrade your photos from the usual traveled selfie. Let's dive in. Phones is something that we take with us everywhere we go. It's obvious that it will be one of our main choices for taking solo travel self portraits. Now most people have a smartphone that's capable of doing everything that we will go over today in this segment. Now to the things that we'll go over first is some of the equipment that we went over in the equipment section. You're going to need your smartphone right now I have an older iPhone. This is, I think the iPhone seven plus. We have a travel tripod. And this is great because without this attachment here, I can fit it on the side of my backpack or I can put it into a carrier on so you don't have to worry about carrying any big equipment that will make you check bag or anything if you're traveling and you actually can't get traveled tripods much smaller than this, but this is the one that I went for. That's a bit sturdier for me. We also have the tripod adapter for the phones. And this one is adjustable, two different phone sizes or any device that you can fit in here really. But I have it adjusted to fit my iPhone. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna take some pictures. And this amazing, I ensure the Turks and Caicos again, right in my backyard. Um, but I'm gonna show you a few of the ways that I take photos when I'm traveling with my phone. Now, there are a few things that's really important when taken photos on your phone. Now you want to stay away from the selfies. So you want to add some sort of layer, some dimension, some depth to your photos. So one of the main things is understanding your angles. So when we take a selfie is generally from eye level or some people go a bit higher. When someone else has taken a photo for you, they kind of stand right here and go eye level. So when you are taking photos of yourself, you want to play with the angles as much as possible. Now this tripod, I can go to about six feet dish, but I like to take photos from different angles because one, I'm sure it helps to make me seem larger and then a lot of the background seem larger. Now I'm going to show you some of that from the I'm gonna show you some of that in the video, but I'm also going to show some from a high angle since we are a beach and a lot of our background is actually below us. What I am gonna do is I'm going to screen record everything that's going on on my phone. And that'll allow you to see what I have going on here. Alright, let's do this. Right now. You'll be able to see exactly what I'm seeing. Here's my two cameras setup that I'm using. I'm gonna go ahead and put it on the tripod. Now I'm using the rear-facing camera because on most phones, the rear-facing camera, while actually be the higher megapixel cameras. So it will allow you to do a whole lot more when you want to edit your photos later and it gives you a better quality. What I'll do is I will just put that in here and adjust it. Now, I'm gonna take my photos horizontally, which unusually I do vertically and I'll show you a bit of that a bit later. But what else? The other thing that I do is I go to timer. I go to ten seconds. So turning my timer on allows me the flexibility of being able to press the shutter button and get into position. Once I press the shutter button, I had started counting down in my head. And I'll count out loud for you guys to see just how much time you actually do have. Once I press the shutter button now, I will come down in my head and hold my pose, take my photo, and then I can come back and review. Now, when taken solo travel photos on your phone, especially when you're out in cities or places that have a good enough crowd, you want to keep your phone as close to you as possible. So a lot of the newer phones will have a wide-angle feature that allow you to bring the phone a bit closer. But you also can get a lot more of the background in your photo. So moving forward from that, you also want to make sure that you don't bring the phone to close when using the wide angle because it will start to distort features from the center of the lens. It'll start stretching body parts. So if your legs are closer, if you have a closer to the ground and your legs closer, it'll stretch your legs. Now if you want long legs, that works out just fine. But it depends on what you have closest to the camera and to the edges of the lens, then it'll start to distort it. So right now, if you look, I have my frame setup already. And actually what I'll do is adjust it. So this tripod has a ball mount. So allow me to just kinda swivel around to find what I want. I want to make sure my horizon and there's my finger. I want to make sure my horizon is pretty level. I want to catch some of my sky in my photo. And now I have it composed for the rule of thirds. What I will do is press the shutter button and I'll get into place. Then this one I looked at the camera. Okay, Awesome. Now I can come back and check on my photo and see how I like that. Okay, so now looking at this photo, I realized that I'm getting a little bit more ground than I want to and a lot less headroom. What I'll do is go back and adjust my angle a little bit more. Then what you also can do on a lot of the smartphones. As you can adjust the exposure, you tap an area and then you can bring up or down the exposure. I realized I was a bit dark in that last one, even though I'm gonna take it into post and then brighten it up and work on the contrast and the saturation. I like to get as close as possible in camera. What I did was I just clicked the spot and then I dragged up and down the exposure button to help me to get to where I want. And I click my shutter button again. And I'm gonna sit for this one actually look good. And something that you can't see on your camera is that my phone is flashing and liked to tell me when it's going to take the photo. But now we'll go ahead and review and look at that. Now, I'm really liking this photo. I can see enough of the background. I have the nice clouds in the back, the island, the water board I'm also gonna do now. Show you guys how to operate it from a higher angle. I'm just going to extend my tripod. I'm actually I'll go up three. And don't be afraid to move your equipment around. Try out different angles, things that you thought would never really work. Try it out. Those generally in photography will be the things that make an amazing shot. Right now. I'm a lot higher. There goes my hand again. Right now you can see lot more of the shoreline. What I'll do now is click for my exposure. Bring it down because we don't want it that bright. Click my ten seconds. Just a bit further this time. Stan, they're great. Awesome. And so I tend to take a little bit more adventurous looking photos instead of just staring at the camera and saying, Hi mom. Now, if we look, we get a lot more of the coastline. You can see me, you can see the clouds. And there's a whole lot of depth within the photo. Let's just take one more. Get our exposure. Okay, I'm gonna go, this one's gonna be, be very careful where you are too, but this one's gonna be, uh, hi mom, one from my mother that are put into the photo album. So let's review that. And awesome. I can see myself and then I will go ahead and put these in post and get these all done up to my style. So some people use presets. I tend to go and do it all individually. And each photo is different for me, so I go through and make each one a specialist, I want it. Now that concludes this segment on solo travel photography with your smartphone. Now, I do urge you to go out and practice in your backyard, your park, if you're near a beach, mountains, where, wherever it is, go ahead and practice before you go on your trip so that you can get used to using the system. And then always keep in mind to keep your phone as safe as possible. Keep it close to you. Keep your eyes on it as much as you possibly can to make sure that you don't have any hiccups. I'll see you in the next segment. 5. STSP Mirrorless DSLR : A DSLR or mirrorless camera will generally be a weapon of choice when photographing others. But in this segment we'll explore how to use it to take photos of yourself. Let's begin. When you're traveling, chances are that you will have a mirrorless camera or a DSLR camera with you. Now, I'm sure you've taken great photos of others and your surroundings, but you want to get some better photos of yourself. So I'm gonna be showing you how to do that. A few of the things that you're gonna need, a travel tripod. And right now, my travel tripod is really small. I can fit it in my backpack, I can fit it in the carrier and I could take it around with me during the day without feeling weighted down. And I am using my Sony A7 S2, which is a mirrorless camera. But you can also do this with a DSLR camera and all of the different brands. So Canon, nikon, Panasonic, whatever you like, you can be able to accomplish what we're doing here today. And then I have my smartphone, which has the image in Edge App. Now the image and edge app is specifically for Sony cameras, but you can find the app that specific to your camera. So all of the major camera dealers actually have an app to control their systems. One of the things that you're gonna want to look for as a camera that's Wi-Fi enabled, because then it's gonna allow you to connect your phone. It has its own Wi-Fi that allow you to connect with your phone. Then from there, you'll be able to use the app and it'll send communication between the app and the smartphone. One of the safety tips that I went over in the safety segment is to go as early as possible. Usually there are a lot of tourists working through this area because of this mural right here. And they all want to come and take pictures. It's about 740 in the morning and they'll only cleaners right here right now. So that gives me the freedom to be able to take pictures without worrying about someone walking by or knocking over my camera or possibly taking my camera. So you have the freedom and relaxation, the space to do exactly what you need. So what we're gonna do is right now my phone is already connected to, my phone is already connected to my camera, and I am in the image and edge mobile app. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna get our first shot setup. I wanted to take a picture in front of this mural. What I'm gonna do is gonna extend my tripod. And that's one of the great things about the travel tripods. That they can extend quite a bit, but they are very rarely compact. Want to go about chess? As throughout this whole experience, we're gonna be playing with our angles quite a bit. It gives us some variety, like we actually have somebody shooting for us. Another great thing with the travel tripod is that it usually has a fluid head-mounted, which will allow you to shoot portrait mode very easily. So I'll go ahead and do that. Now. When I'm shooting by myself, I usually shoot in manual, so they anchored manually focus and auto-focus doesn't have to go back and forth with how it's trying to find what to focus on. Because then if I'm moving in and out of the frame, then what it's focusing on, it's gonna change. So what I'll do is I want to stand around the Providence he Alice. So I will focus there. Then. I'll come down to the ground. And I looked at the ground and I will put my focus right in front because I won't be right on the wall, I'd be right in front of it. So I put my focus, my focus point, just in front of it. Now we can go over. Now, you will be seeing what I can see through my camera on my phone. Now another thing that I would suggest you do is turn it on you folk focus peaking. And it's in your settings and your camera. But we'll focus peaking does is it allows you to see where your focused mark is. You can't see it on my phone and you can't see it on that camera. But what it does is now that I'm focused here, it will show a red line or green line, whatever color line you choose around you. So they're not actually help you to see where your focus is before you walk off. But right now I can see that I'm in focus here. What we're gonna do is we're gonna start taking a few test shots. We go here, we click. That's looking good. I'm liking my exposure. Another tip for taken photos by yourself. No, give you a little bit more time is to use the timer. So right now, I have my self timer on for two seconds. That's all I can use here right now. But two seconds is enough for me to be able to get rid of the camera. I like to get rid of the phone. Sorry. I like to get rid of the phone as much as possible. But sometimes I do take pictures as if I'm on my phone, but for the most part, shut my phone in my pocket or I put it on the ground and then Photoshop it up later. So now that we have our focus, we have our framing where you can see the Turks. You can see the island that we're on it, but right here. Let's take some shots. With the phone. The benefits of having the phone is that you can see itself. So women, you can fix your hair, you can fix your clothes fellows. You can make sure your muscles look big. You can make sure you close the fix. And especially if you've taken it with more than one person as well, you can make sure everyone's in frame and Everyone's good. Let's go ahead and take a few and then we're going to switch it up. Let's go pose like this. 321. I tend to like to look 45 degrees off of the camera because then it looks a bit more candid and someone else took the photo and that'll get you that'll get people asking you a lot. Oh, who is your photographer? Did you take with you or did you go on a vacation? Let's take a few more this way and hold it. So a lot of it is just shooting and reviewing, shooting them review. And if you don't like your framing, you could go back and adjust it and then come back. But the benefits of shooting in the morning is that you can do all of these shooting without being interrupted. So let's go again. Look at the camera this time. I won't hide my phone. I also need to stop talking in the middle of taking the photos, the head and review. Awesome, Let's do a few more. Almost missed that one. Great. Now, you have to be very conscious of the angles. So right now my cameras a bit lower than I am, which I usually tend to shoot that way considering that I'm short, so it makes me look a little bit taller. But right now because I'm just looking out straight at my normal eye level. I've seen a lot of changes. I just need to tilt down just a little bit. So it's not just mostly chain in my shots. So let's go ahead again. Great. I'm liking that a whole lot more. Awesome. So now what we're gonna do is we're going to switch up some stuff and change a fire and goes just a little bit. What do you want to do is you want to really play with all the angles that you have available. I'm gonna go really low, less time. Generally I shoot extremely wide. The wider you shoot, wider than 50 millimeters, that is, the more of the background you get in your photo. But right now, my widest lens is actually being used to. My widest lens is being used to record this. Record this class. I'm having to use my next best thing, my nifty 50, which I tend to use a lot because it's also very small and I can travel with it easily. Let me so let's go right here. Let's check the focus. And I'm gonna go stand on the edge. So right now, this makes it easier because I am focusing on the edge right here. And if you look in the phone, you can see where my focus point is changing. So now it's on the edge. So that's my shot. Now, what I like to do is I like to add some movement to my shots because it helps break it up and it makes it seem as if you aren't the one taken your photos. You want to take great photos that look awesome and doesn't look like you took it on a self timer. We're gonna do is right here without focus point. We're gonna go take pitcher. Good test shot. Now. You have to keep the timer in your heads as you click, you know, 32. Good. Usually you can hear a lot of traffic going by. Usually you can hear the camera beep and then you'll hear a click. So then you can reset. Go ahead. And a lot of the times I'll just rock into it. It's something I learned from shooting models and a couple of years back as you rock into it. And then just while you're when you're taking the photo, look like you actually walk in. So let's do a few more. Do good. One or two more. Great. Awesome. Now I'm liking those, so let's do just one more shot. And the reason why we're gonna do one more. So I can show you just how quickly. You can get a variety of photos that all very different and in a short space of time so you don't have to worry about spending your entire vacation getting photos taken of yourself. Right now. I wanted to be right between where it says kick us, bank. So again, we're gonna go and set our focus right in front of the subject. And it's always good to have a background or whatever. But if you don't have a background that you can use to set your focus and say this is the focus point and then set just slightly forward. You can find different pieces on the ground, different marks. So there's a mark here. There's a piece of debris here. You use anything that you can find to find your focus point. And then you go take a photo on your phone. And then from there you'll be able to see, okay, my focus point is off cool, Great, I can change that. Another thing that I didn't mention earlier is that on your phone even other than when you take the photo and it comes up for a split second. You can also go in and review all the photos you've taken. It allows you to see everything. And now with the image and agile mobile app, it allows me to save to my phone. If I want to post right away I can. For people who love to edit on their phones, It's easy as well. So I'm gonna come right here. Last Photos. Remember I set my focus point already. I set up my shot. I can see everything right here. I'm just going to go and smarter. Good. Check that again. Awesome. And I'll show you how I take it out sometimes. So now that my shot I said I could just put it here, click the button and guarantee. Good. And then later on what I can do is just Photoshop that out easily because this is a pattern here that replicates itself and that's easy for me to Photoshop. Going to one. And it's taken a slow time down. Let's just do a few months me sitting down to be very careful because I haven't been recorded in the back. Alright, and see now I can see that I'm blocking the S. I need to move over just a tiny bit. Okay. Great. Good. Awesome. One more. Good. After that, 45. Need to stop speaking while I'm shooting. Good. One more. Alright, awesome. Let's review those. I am loving them. Great. There you have it. Those are the tips and tricks on how to take photos on a mirrorless or DSLR camera. Now, I'd suggest traveling as light as possible because then it'll allow you to be able to move a whole lot more freely. I traveled with my 50, but you could travel with a 24 to 105, which gives you a whole lot more variety. Gettier location as early as possible, take as many photos and enjoy your vacation. I do suggest that you go out into your yard, your park, beach, wherever it's close, whatever has enough open space or is interested in enough and practice taking the photos. Once you practice this system, then you'd be able to take amazing photos once you get out on your vacation, wherever that may be, if you go to Italy or Spain and share with me all the photos that you take because I really like to see some of them happy practicing. See you later. 6. STSP Drone: Whether it's high in the sky or allowing you to go hands-free quickly. Drawing can be a great tool to capture a million photos of you and the world around you from a different vantage point. Let's get started. Right now. I am hair, our old overlooking the water in the Turks and Caicos Islands. This just happens to be in my neighborhood. I thought it would be a great place to fly. Now before we send the drone up, I actually have already scouted out the entire area. There aren't any power lines or any big trees for me to watch out for. One thing that I do need to keep an IO for our birds. Around this time of VSC eagles come around and they started to attack the drone. So it's better to keep it closer to you and just have an eye out for anything that'll happen. And one of the big things too, is to make sure that you move quickly because drone batteries tend to last only about 25 minutes. So you'd want to get your shots in before you have to make a change. And if you have to make a change and go back then so be it. So one of the big things about flying drones by yourself is especially when you're traveling, is that you may not always have the luxury of launching your drone from the air or I mean from the ground or having a launchpad to put down on the ground. So right now I have a bunch of signed right where I'm at and I don't necessarily want to put my drone into the ground to kick up the dust, the sand to then flight in the air. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna show you how I had launch it. And then when I'm bringing them back down and I'll show you how I hand catch it. So what I do is I turn on my drone, I turn on my remote control, their major own, and I make sure I get in this spot. That's really clear. Right now. There isn't anything that would stop me from launching my drone or anything that I can fly into. What I do is I usually get down into a squat. Hold my controller on my lap. Then I use my right hand to launch my drawing. I'm just holding it very carefully so that it can pick up very easily. What I do is I saw the propellers, Then I haven't takeoff. Now, make sure you can hear me. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to get the drone in place. I thought it would be great to capture all of the colors in the night sky. To just show off the beauty of the Turks and Caicos while having a photo of myself. Now, for my photos, my camera will be in some of them because I'm filming this one. Then I most likely will Photoshop for them out for the actual photos later. But in the video, you will see a bit of my camera. So what we're gonna do is get our drone into place. So now I'm gonna show you my screen on my phone that shows you what the drawing is looking at. Right now. You can see and I'm just adjusting adjusting my exposure. You can see right now about 40 feet away from me with the drone and about 40 feet up in the air. Now what you want to do is you want to make sure that you give yourself enough room when you're flying the drone, Jess, in case any windy stabilizes it, it doesn't come flying into you are flying into anyone else around. Now, another quick note is that you want to make sure you follow all the rules and guidelines of any destination that you're in. I know that Italy doesn't allow you to fly drones near crowds. So you want to make sure that there isn't a crowd around or within the states you can't fly within five miles of an airport. You want to make sure that you're doing all those things to keep you and everyone else around you save and to make sure you get the best photos. Right now, I am looking at this photo and I'm going to just step this way just a tiny bit. I'm going to go on. I insurer like this. What I like to do is I like to get the drawing in place first and then I'd work on my settings and then outside taking the purchase. So what I'll do is I'll move my drone in just a little bit more because I want me to be a bit more prominent in the shot. Now this photo is looking a bit dark, so I need to adjust my exposure. I'm going to go into the settings. And because it's a bit later in the day, I'm going to bump up my ISO, then bring now my shutter speed a bit. I'm liking that. I'm liking that framing right now. So I'm gonna go with that. Now with the drone that I have. I have an older ones. I can shoot portrait mode, but I know a lot of people have the newer drones. Which don't allow you to do that. So it's also good to sit down and factoring your post crop, especially if you want to crop for portraits that may end up on a wall or even in upon social media. Now, now that I have my drone in place and I have my settings set, what I'll do now is I'm gonna go to settings. And I'm going to click the gear wheel right there. Go to portrait capture. Now if you look, that'll give me the portrait capture that I wanted. Then I will go to the camera and I will click photo. I clicked time shot. Now what time he shot does is allow you hope there's some flamingos flying by C, Make sure you keep an eye out for any wildlife. Let's go in by. Thankfully, there are good ways off, so I don't have to bring the drone down. As I was saying, with time shot, which you want to do is choose an interval that works for you. I usually use five seconds because it gives me enough time to hide the drone and drone remote control. And then I can switch up my poses. I can move around a bit and I can get enough shots in a short amount of time. I'm gonna choose five seconds, but you can feel free to choose seven seconds, ten seconds, whatever it is you feel like I click five and then I close that out. Then what I'm gonna do is I am going to click where my focus point is. And for anybody using the drone, you just tap where it is and it'll auto focus that point. And you click the shutter button. And now it'll start. What I do is after I clicked the shutter button, I get rid of the remote control and I get back into spot. Now sometimes it's easy to hide the remote control, which it's easy now because of the I ensure, I could just hide that in that hole right there, but sometimes you can't necessarily hide it. So what I'd do is I'd keep it close to me and I would just Photoshop it out of frame a little bit later on. So now my time shot is going right now I have 321 until it shoots. So now I'm gonna get in 321. Look pose. And you could do whatever pose you feel like doing. I'm usually more of a hands in pockets kind of guy. 321 pose. I'm just going to take a few and then we'll move from there. 35432. I'm gonna get one with me looking out over the ocean. I got a few like that. And I'm gonna switch it up a bit. So you click the shutter button again and that'll stop your timed intervals. Now what I'm gonna do is I'm going to move the drone out just a little bit further and a bit higher. So I capture a bit more of the ocean and a bit more of my surroundings, some of the trees that are around me. I'll pull back and go up. And what I wanna do is I want to go back and change this to landscape. So I'm going to turn our portrait capture and come back right here. Now I'm super small and frames. So you have to remember the further you are, the small UI and frame. And the closer you are, the more prominent you are as a subject. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to walk a bit further over into the ocean. And I'm just going to stand here now with furthest shots like that. You don't have to get rid of the drawing because my back is turned. You don't have to get rid of the drone controller. Sorry. Because my back is turned to the drone. I can stand here. Yes, hold the pose. I'm going to click my time, my timed shot, and I'm gonna do my auto-focus. I'm just going to stand there and pose. Awesome. So now that I got those super moody shots with me looking out over the ocean, I'm just going to do one final shot where I have it a bit closer to me, but a bit higher up. Right here, it's going to be good. And right now I'm losing a whole lot of sunlight. It went really fast. I'm just going to adjust my exposure. Were great. Now. I'm going to press my shutter button again. Gonna hide that real close. I already got my focus point. Gonna send their impose. You want to keep the countdown going inside your head because it helps you to keep track of how many photos you take it. Now, I'll turn around. Just take a few more. Smiling and waving at the camera. Really playful with it. Hole in another pose. Great. Awesome. Now, what I'm gonna do is stop the timer. Now it's time for me to bring my drawing back down. How I land my drone. When I can't land on the ground is I bring it real close to me. For some people, they have their sensors on. I have my forward and rear facing sensors, but my sensors on the bottom still on. What I do is I bring it close to me. I just move it and slowly, very small movements. I drop it low enough that I can bring my hand under the drone. But what you need to do is you need to move quickly. Because if you don't, what happens is the drone will start to run training. But what you do is you move into this graph and you push down and it'll stop the drone. And so what it does is it shows the drone that Hey, your landing and you are the landing spot. So that's the drawing segment of this solo travel self portrait scores. You can go outside and practice at your home or apartment building in the park, anywhere. But I do suggest you go out and get some practice before you take it on a trip with you. I'll see you in the next lesson.