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A Birmingham and Black Country thread for all things Brummie and Yam-Yam

I used to get the 50 in from King's Heath, used to like that route, esp at a quiet time, Sunday morning or whenever. Shame it's gone so bad, hopefully the new traffic scheme will improve things. Where I live now we get one bus every hour, sometimes every two hours, and they stop at 7.30 in the evening :D The train station is an hour's walk away.
 
The irony is since lockdown lifted the buses have never been so bad. The 50 and 35 are completely unreliable now.

It’s shocking isn’t it? I guessed that the reduced service they operated during lockdown would have implications and it has. Travelling during lockdown was bliss as the roads and the bus were quiet, paying for it now though :(
 
It’s shocking isn’t it? I guessed that the reduced service they operated during lockdown would have implications and it has. Travelling during lockdown was bliss as the roads and the bus were quiet, paying for it now though :(

It’s odd though because when the first lockdown lifted it went back to normal almost completely. It’s only since the most recent lifting of restrictions that it seems to have got so much worse. Hasn’t helped the council have carved up most of the city centre too I suppose. Took me nearly an hour to get into town on Saturday, should only take 15 minutes! 🤦🏻‍♀️
 
It’s odd though because when the first lockdown lifted it went back to normal almost completely. It’s only since the most recent lifting of restrictions that it seems to have got so much worse. Hasn’t helped the council have carved up most of the city centre too I suppose. Took me nearly an hour to get into town on Saturday, should only take 15 minutes! 🤦🏻‍♀️

50 minute journeys from Kings Heath are pretty standard at the minute ime. I cycle in most days, but when the weather is shit I use the bus and it always takes longer than the bike! Agree on the council, at present their plans to promote public transport use are achieving the opposite….
 
Some more Brumset and City lights drone shots from this evening. Sadly was a little flustered and rushing due to yoofs and druggies in my take off and land location once it got dark and kept the settings on auto which has resulted in some rather noisy pictures.

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Some great shots there. Do you sell prints/canvas by any chance ?
 
It’s odd though because when the first lockdown lifted it went back to normal almost completely. It’s only since the most recent lifting of restrictions that it seems to have got so much worse. Hasn’t helped the council have carved up most of the city centre too I suppose. Took me nearly an hour to get into town on Saturday, should only take 15 minutes! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Bus companies are struggling to find enough drivers, the drivers are all pissing off to drive HGV's
 
Cracking shots cybershot are you wholly welcomed flying that close to a built up area?

Not sure welcomed is the right word, but if you reword the question as can I legally fly that close in a built up area, the answer is yes, as long as the area isn't considered a crowd and people can easily get out of the way should it drop from the sky. Unlikely unless I don't get it home before the battery dies, but it will do that automatically when it think it needs to come back.

As long as I've registered the drone, got a flyer & operator ID and either the drone weighs less than 250g (in this case it did as was using a DJI Mini 2) or for anything heavier the pilot has a A2ofC qualification.

You also need to stay within visual line of sight so you can be aware of any aerial obstructions (in this case more likely seagulls, but they had gone to bed by dark) which was aided by adding additional strobe lights to the legs. I took off from a multi storey so had excellent visuals of it at all times, although theoretically I didn't have land owners permission to take off and land as I wasn't on public land (would have pleaded ignorance and apologised had car park security arrived)

The whole you can't fly over my property is a whole other debate, but in short. I can fly over whatever I want within the rules of the CAA and the drone code, no one owns the airspace except the CAA and I'm obeying their rules. I don't need landowners permission to fly over someones land, I only need land owners permission to take off and land. E.g. If I wanted to photo a National Trust site, I'd have to take off from outside their land as they have a byelaw saying I can't take off from their land, but as long as I take off somewhere off their land, thats public, and can keep visual line of sight, them I'm good to take aerial pictures. For peace of mind I have public liability and accidental damage insurance.

Sorry, essay, but when people ask, I always feel it's good to try and educate, as now the low weight ones are affordable, there's only going to end up being more of them flying around, and people will obviously be concenred about privacy and what not. As you can see from these pictures, you're not going to be identifed from 200-400ft in the air, but for some reason people think drones are a bigger invasion of their privacy than a camera phone!! go figure.

The biggest problem within the drone community is people just picking them up from Argos etc who will just willy nilly sell them (much like electric scooters) without informing people they need to register them and obey this/that and the other rules & laws, and think they can happily fly them hovering around people's gardens and houses.

Full info is here: The Drone and Model Aircraft Code | UK Civil Aviation Authority
 
The insurance I have doesn't cover me using my photos and footage for commercial purposes. If you want to do a print yourself from any of those pics, then go fill ya boots! :)

That's really nice of you cybershot , I like the rotunda ones. When I do a print I'll let you know and drop some dollars into the server fund on your behalf.
 
That's really nice of you cybershot , I like the rotunda ones. When I do a print I'll let you know and drop some dollars into the server fund on your behalf.

No worries, I still have the RAW DNG files if you'd prefer those, (about 50MB in size each) you may be able to do some improvements to the colour grading. I can zip them up and you can download them from my OneDrive? I may have another go once the clocks change and it gets darker earlier. The ISO was a bit too high on these and the sky portion is a bit too noisy imo.
 
All a bit tech for me lol. I got a mate who's info photography (baggieoldboy), I send them him and he does the rest. Thank you anyway.
 
Planning on visiting Coventry in December, anyone got any tips on things to do/see (already planning on visiting the cathedral)?
 
Planning on visiting Coventry in December, anyone got any tips on things to do/see (already planning on visiting the cathedral)?
No. I've only been once, for a covid test at the Ricoh in early lockdown and someone drove into the back of the car at the traffic lights just afterwards. So don't go to the Ricoh is my advice.
 
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