Flying Over June Lake

(For the Love of the Eastern Sierra) 

#FTLOTES

For the next two months or so I intend to put up a bunch of these drone flights I did every few weeks. They are simple flights I did last summer with my drone. This was the first one I did during the summer. 

I have shown June Lake before by my drone, but this is one where I covered the whole lake rather than trying to take pictures of the just the lake. This is what I saw when flying to the end of June Lake: Gull Lake! 

Then turning around I looked back on June Lake:

This is looking east to the 395. Whenever I fly my drone at June Lake I have encountered the remains of some nearby fire. There was some haze during this day in the distance in both directions. Had I been here about a week later I might have had clear conditions as you will see with some other drone flights.

Of course, I ended with this shot that I have taken a few times. 

Flying Over June Lake (Youtube Video)

Do Your Own Thing!

I have said something like this before and a version of this is in my FAQ. The point of this blog is not to copy me in areas you visit! That is not going to impress me. What is important is you go out and find your own areas.

Where do I figure out where I want to go or find some movie spot? I use books and watch movies. It is simple as that. I love reading history books and then trying to find out where some of the events took place. 

Getting ideas off of social media is NOT something I recommend for a bunch of reasons.

One thing that has happened over the years on social media is people copying each other over and over again. I get this every time I log in to one of the sites I am on. I start seeing areas, animals, or whatever I have uploaded at one time done by other people.

It is like the algorithm thinks, "Well, if you uploaded that, then you like that and want more of it!" Which I have to laugh at because I can only handle so much of my own stuff at a time. I have to take time away from my own projects I do on here and do other things otherwise I seriously burn out.

Yet, the way the modern algorithm works seems to be programmed into overkill! I get pounded every time I log into one of those sites. They work on our worst temptations and bad habits to keep us on these sites. They want to keep us on their sites as long as possible. 

The big issue is it is not art to do exact copies of others work. This is the way I feel about Ansel Adams photography. I have shown a few locations where he took photos, but I do not think it is right to copy his photo locations to take the same type of picture and then claim it as your own. 

While I would not consider it social media, I get the AAA magazine as I am a member. They usually run contests for the best pictures each year. As is typical, most of the pictures are the same each year. Oh sure, there might be some photography technique used with great outdoor conditions used, but it is the same places year after. The current magazine cover is one of an area I have been to a few times on here and seen others take similar pictures. 

Then just recently I saw a comment made on Instagram that on someone's channel dedicated to California. The comment was like, "The state of California should hire you to for tourism!" I did not say anything since it was not my channel, but I wanted to tell the lady that she has not tried looking enough around the internet. What I saw of this person's pictures (could be an A.I. grabber too which is another story) was really obvious places. 

So people trying to stay relevant on the algorithms have to keep uploading things and that encourages the copying, but other issue is I see bad behaviors being encouraged. Like, most people are giving out directions for everything: "Here are the directions to five of my secret hikes I do." It is really bad to do this. Not everyone should be encouraged to drive to areas or do hikes so easily. How many times have we heard about "experienced hikers" getting lost somewhere out there? 

It has been a few years, but I saw something that was obviously influenced by something I had done on here. It was one of those that I warned that the average person should not take this place and hike lightly. What did the person do? "I highly recommend this hike to everyone!" When I heard about this I just wanted to slam my head into the ground. 

There are other issues with social media giving out information too easily, but my main points are:  (1) find something unique to visit and share. Also, (2) be responsible with the rules, both written and unwritten, and what your audience will understand. Remember, social media caters to the lowest of intelligence and wisdom of all ages.

With that said, I intend to start sharing more of my drone flights about every other week or so for the next two or three months. It is my "Flying Over..." series, but I like to think of them as "For the Love of the Eastern Sierra" (#FTLOTES).

Adding Rumble Account

 So I am finally adding my Rumble account as an official part of this blog:

TheGreatSilence Rumble Channel

In the past I decided it is a good idea to branch out to a few other sites to give YouTube some competition and also make sure some of my older content is not deleted for whatever reason.

In this case, my Rumble channel has only my last 16+ videos that I have shot in GoPro. My other 1080p videos can be found on YouTube and Odysee. Those go back to 2009 or so. My Bitchute channel has just the past few years on it.

As I see it right now, Youtube is still clearly the best when it comes to videos. The closest competition is Rumble that allows 4K (2160p). Odysee and Bitchute are stuck in 720p and 1080p respectively. My GoPro cameras can go as high as 5k video, but no one is doing that right now. As it is with big tv's, 4K is pretty much the standard I see for now. 

Again, I think my old 1080p videos are okay to watch, but they are good at smaller screens or cell phones. When you watch on smaller screen or at smaller box on a web browser they work the best. However, my recent GoPro videos are designed for bigger screens. 

In any case, follow me on this blog, or one of the other channels. Whatever is easiest for you and fits how you like to view things. The one thing I always mention is this blog is basically my main area where I let people know what I am doing and shows links to everything else I do. It is true that I have some other sites I have done side experiments on or use to communicate with family, friends, or business partners in the real world. However, those are not part of what I do here on the blog. Please do not try to contact me on other sites not listed here if you see me on them. You would think this is common sense, but...I have had people try doing this before that could just as easily leave a comment below on my most recent blog, but for some reason want to communicate with me somewhere else. Of course, my e-mail connected to this blog is always listed.

As an aside, I purchased a 4K UHD blu-ray player for myself during Christmas. I ended up buying a bunch of 4k movies I mostly already had as dvd or blu ray. There is a whole other set of reasons I do this instead of watching streaming channels which I will not go into here, but I am at the stage in life where this will probably be the last time I purchase movies I have already purchased before. If in ten years we are at 8K or something higher we will see, but I think I am pretty much done repurchasing movies. I have hundreds of rare movies on dvd and blu-ray I have watched, but some I have watched maybe once in the last 15 years or so. That takes up space.