I have always loved the Sierra Nevada. I've only been there three times, but ultimately, my friend Gibson inspired me with his film The Brown Plains and The Gray Mountains.
At the CCAG, we have decided to make a film that encompasses the beauty of the Sierra Nevada and the plants that live here. It's a fragile space that is becoming threatened as more and more ski lifts and Tahoe houses are being built. Sierra Bobcats and bears that have moved out of their former forests discover that there are little woods left for them to live in. Without the Sierra Nevada, we wouldn't have these beautiful animals that keep our ecosystems healthy.
While in Lake Tahoe, we will be taking a few pinecones from the most abundant pine in Lake Tahoe: the Jeffery pine. You can't go to Lake Tahoe without seeing it! This California native species is adapted to living at high elevations up to 14,000'! Thats 15 times the hight of MT. Davidson! Jeffery pines provide shade for animals, like all other trees do. But their seeds are a great meal for squirrels and rodents–and their sap was used as candy for humans once too!
A drone called the Happy Craft will be taken to Lake Tahoe from December 17 to December 21. There, the drone will fly up to 100 feet above the snow to take videos of the snow and the trees. The Drone will not fly more than 50 feet near water, but will take the risk to land in snow. The CCAG's owner Ryth has already started practicing flying the drone. We need to make sure that the drone is not broken, and if it is, what the problem is. We also need to figure out how it will not crash and get stuck into the trees. That's why we've devoted 3 weeks to practicing.
The drone requires a lot of attention and coordination to fly. Sometimes, the drone won't fly in the direction you want it to. That requires recalibration with the remote, but in the mean time, a subtle movement on the controller will make the drone go farther than you want to. It's my first time figuring out the drone's camera and adjusting that, but otherwise, it looks like we're going to have some great footage of the lake in two weeks!
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