Now that spring has officially sprung and the weather is getting nicer, the crew here at Take One has been looking for opportunities to get the drone out again. This got us thinking about some of our previous projects... On the hottest day on record (38.7C in Cambridge, in case you were wondering) back in 2019 Elvan and Steve had the opportunity to go to Whiteleaf Golf Club to film a drone video. 

Elvan takes a look back on the day... 

I work with clients and potential clients quite a bit and have done for the best part of 20 years. Working for Take One TV in a marketing capacity is always interesting because, rather than focusing on solely the company I’m within; I now work with customers to help integrate video into their marketing strategy.  So far, it’s been brilliant having video exposure ‘on the other side of the fence’ so to speak.

Most of my experience filming with clients has been at our studio but for this, I was able to spend my first job filming on a client's site which was a great opportunity; even more so because I was joining Steve, our qualified Drone Pilot. Our drone show-reel is also available to watch on our YouTube channel 

Steve and I had the pleasure of working with Whiteleaf Golf Club in Princes Risborough.  Thankfully it was an early morning shoot before the sun got too high intensifying the heat.  The golf course is in a beautiful setting, high up in the Chilterns overlooking the Aylesbury Vale and on a cloudless and slightly breezy morning like it was, it was a beautiful day for flying a drone.

My main responsibility was to ‘spot’, looking out for anything in the air while Steve concentrated on flying the drone and watching the footage on his drone remote screen.  Being in a field amongst trees at this time of year, my main slight concern was birds, protecting their young which had not yet fledged.  Once or twice a red kite did have a little fly around to see what the noise was but soon went back to their nest.  If you haven’t heard a drone in flight, it sounds like a huge swarm of bees, which I guess to a bird, can be a bit unsettling.

Working with Nigel, the Club Director and Justin, Head Greenkeeper was a real joy.  Both of them were very impressed with our drone and asked us all sorts of technical questions to do with its capabilities – boys and their toys! But joking aside, it was wonderful to have Justin help Steve navigate around the course hole by hole, for optimum footage and I got to have an informal chat, getting to know our client a bit better. 

Due to the fairly hilly course, there were no golf buggies at Whiteleaf for us to take advantage of.  Instead, the greenkeeper taxied Steve (and the drone of course) around in an all-terrain pick up vehicle while Nigel and I walked up and down the mounds – great early morning exercise!

What did surprise me was the lifespan of the drone’s battery pack, each of which has about 25 minutes of flight time. But Steve was well prepared with the essential spare batteries and always ensures to plan accordingly in order to get the most out of each flight video recording.

Overall it was a pleasure to be a part of this project and getting to b involved from start to finish was very rewarding. 

You can watch some of the Drone footage that we took that day here.

If you have an attractive setting that you’d like to show off from the air, do give us a call for a free discovery session and competitive quote. Or take a look here if you’d like to learn more about using Drones for business.