P.N. Lagunas de Ruidera: Drone Lapse

Lagunas de Ruidera is since 1979 a natural park in Central Spain in Castile-La Mancha, containing 15 small lakes and a reservoir, the Embalse de Peñarroya. The lakes are connected by falls, small rivers as well as subterranean flow. They were created by natural dams through the millennia-long action of karst water and plant parts. The park stretches for more than 36 kilometres with a difference of more than 140 metres in height between the southernmost pool, Laguna Blanca at 877 masl, and the Embalse de Peñarroya - 736 masl - at the nothern end. The park contains a variety of birds, in the waters are endemic as well as introduced species. The area near some lakes is a tourist site, giving job to the local population of the villages of Ruidera and Ossa de Montiel. (Wikipedia 2019)
The entire film, a dronelapse, was recorded using a camera drone. Find listed the mayor parts of the equipment used: Drone DJI Phantom 4, PolarPro ND filters, Samsung 64 GB Pro Plus Micro SD card, software DJI GS PRO. All footage was filmed at original location in Spain in June 2019. Drone operated by Ruben Eberhardt. The flights adhered to the rules for recreational use of drones in Spain. There is no income from the hobby for Ruben Eberhardt.
Producer: Ruben Eberhardt, Music: LAVA Studios, Writer: Deborah Carr, Narrator: Alison Paule Rippier. Copyright Ruben Eberhardt 2020.
Hydrological information in times with abundant precipitation (may vary significantly):
altitude in metres above sea level; open water surface in hectares; depth in metres
Laguna Blanca: 877 masl; 18.1 ha; maximum depth 3-4 m; (official estimate. Strictly protected status.)
Laguna Concejo: 853 masl; 30.2 ha; maximum depth 15.2 m
Laguna Tomilla: 853 masl; 9.8 ha; maximum depth 14.4 m
Laguna Tinaja: 832 masl; 8.7 ha; maximum depth 13.8 m
Laguna San Pedro: 831 masl; 28.3 ha; maximum depth 18.4 m
Laguna Redondilla: 816 masl; 3.8 ha; maximum depth 10.5 m
Laguna Lengua: 811 masl; 21.4 ha; maximum depth 17.1 m
Laguna Salvadora: 806 masl; 8.0 ha; maximum depth 15.4 m
Laguna Santos Morcillo: 802 masl; 11.7 ha; maximum depth 15.6 m
Laguna Batana: 796 masl; 5.8 ha; maximum depth 14.5 m
Laguna Colgada: 789 masl; 84.9 ha; maximum depth 18.4 m
Laguna del Rey: 788 masl; 30.8 ha; maximum depth 19.9 m
Laguna Cueva Morenilla: 761 masl; 6.9 ha; maximum depth 6.7 m
Laguna Coladilla: 759 masl; 5.4 ha; maximum depth 6.2 m
Laguna Cenagosa: 751 masl; less than 1 ha; maximal depth unknown
Embalse de Peñarroya: 727 masl; 412 ha; maximum depth 31.5 m
(OpenTopoMap and own investigations with sonar equipment)
timestamps
0:00 Intro
0:05 Laguna Blanca
0:19 Overflight
0:58 Antigua Central Hidroeléctrica de El Ossero
1:08 Overflight
1:16 Laguna Concejo
1:47 Laguna Tomilla
1:59 Overflight
2:11 Laguna Tinaja
2:21 Laguna San Pedro
2:33 Camping Los Batanes
2:37 Laguna Redondilla
2:42 Laguna Lengua
3:01 Laguna Salvadora
3:07 Laguna Santos Morcillo
3:16 Laguna Batana
3:22 Laguna Colgada
4:03 Laguna del Rey
4:19 El Hundimiento
4:22 Overflight
4:35 Laguna Cueva Morenilla
4:47 Laguna Coladilla
4:58 Laguna Cenagosa
5:09 Overflight
5:36 Embalse de Peñarroya
7:53 Castillo de Peñarroya
7:59 Credits
#LagunasdeRuidera #LagunasdeRuideradronelapse #Ruidera

[@rubengopro]

A brief history of this video
On a pleasant spring day in 2019, I had lunch in my favorite spanish lakeside restaurant when a middle-aged family man came in and asked the busy owner what to see and visit here. The answer was short and left the question open, the terrace was crowded and clients were waiting. But the incidence caught my attention.
In the back of my mind, for the past two or three years, I've had the idea of ​​taking an aerial video of the park to promote the region. Now the time had come. I imagined a short video of less than ten minutes, maybe on CZcams, that shows the landscape and what to see. A helicopter with a cameraman would have been an easy but costly option. As a hobbyist I decided to do something else: replace the helicopter with a drone I already have. That was something I had never seen before, a challenge. Just to let you know: The speed of this drone lapse over ground is around 260 km/h. That matches helicopter speed.
Only four weeks later I was on vacation by train in the region again and had my DJI Phantom 4 with accessories in my luggage. I used the mission planner "DJI Groundstation Pro" to plan a 36 Kilometres-course through the entire Natural Park from south to north at a height of 100 metres above ground. No consumer drone can travel 36 kilometres in one step without falling out of the sky. So I decided to split the course in 36 segments covering around 1 kilometre. I placed myself into every segment, running up and down to obey the spanish "visual line of sight" rule.
Anyway this method had three misadvantages:
- There were 36 launching points. And to each of the points I had to determine the exact altitude so that each segment fits in height to the next one. Although using an altimeter on my smartphone I was not always successful. This can be clearly noted in the video: You will find some steps in the height and therefore different perspectives. That said it was a challenge to stabilise the y-axis of the video. A digital height model of the region would have helped to determine the exact altitude. I found a digital height model half a year later, too late...
- The drone travelled at a speed of 1 metre per second and taking a foto every 3 seconds. So the visual outcome would be helicopter speed at 24 frames per second. That slow speed made the drone vulnerable to the sometimes strong afternoon winds. You will find sometimes the x-axis a bit jerky. Compare the jerkiness to the waves of the lakes and you understand the wind effect. And a lot of segments were starting and ending over water. Difficult to find on the planning software the perfect connection points. Sometimes I was a few metres off or the drone's angle would be a little different.
- The biggest issue is the different lighting. Due to the slow moving of the drone and having only three batteries (and limited possibilities to charge these) some flight segments were shot in the mornings, others in the evenings. It took me from the 19th to the 26th of June 2019 just to take the footage. Honestly I underestimated this problem thinking the post processing can do miracles ... It can't ... A warning ahead: The colours in this video may change drastically.
Conclusions:
The drone did 96 kilometres and about halftime over water. Took over 13.000 pictures (in jpg). The drone's camera processor is not fast enough for RAW-images (a DJI Inspire 2 can handle it). Congratulations to DJI: I never had to worry about the drone. Some legal issues with the administration of the park about flying my drone. Solved. I spent the time until today engaging cutters, professional writers, speakers and music studios. Thank you all for your talent, good work and sometimes your patience. Lastly I was learning to cut a video myself with LumaFusion to get this video out. You can find other versions in my channel. Asking myself why I put so much effort into something that started as a test of feasibility. The answer is: That much water in the lagoons after good spring rainfalls in the immersing light of june is something special, maybe a chance once in a decade. And to answer the question: Can a drone replace a helicopter filming long landscape journeys? Maybe not at this stage of technical evolution.
Next time I'll show this video to the middle-aged family man raising questions involving so much effort ...