Smile, they're taking pictures from the sky today!

 Come to Daddy.

Just when we thought it just couldn't get any more exciting on Abbey Point, they kick it up another level!
Sounding like a swarm of angry bees, a quadcopter drone hovered over the quiet neighborhood today, taking pictures from high in the sky over by Deb's place, and creating a bit of a stir down below.
Carla and her Dad came out of the house to see what was up. No one said "It's a bird, it's plane. . ." but they could have.

Carla and her Dad were advised
to step inside if they didn't
want to be in the movie.

Deb is selling her house, so her realtor contracted with a drone operator to take pictures of her place to use as a sales aid. It's what they do now. Used to be you would simply buy an ad in the local paper, add a fuzzy black and white photo, and wait for the phone to ring. No more. Too boring. And NOT sexy.
Now you must haul half your stuff out of the house to a storage locker then get decorators to make your place look like somebody else lives there. Once it's all primped and teased up, you photograph the inside of the house and get videos from the sky, then build it a web site. Sort of like taking your house to the prom.

We didn't ask if he'd let us try it.

You can thank HGTV for this state of affairs.
The drone operator said he's been making movies for realtors for a couple of years now.
(With all this technology you'd think the housing slump would have been over long ago.)
His little camera drone has four propellers and he stood over by the mailboxes telling it what to do with a joy stick strapped to his belly.
"Ever crash one?" we asked, after waving him over to the house. No, he answered politely, he's never crashed. He's always careful, practices a lot, asks permission first and obeys the FFA regulations.
We don't know for sure, but the drone he held up looked a lot like one the internet called a DJI Phantom 2 Vision Quad-copter with high definition camera and a 3 Axis Gimbal. They retail around $1400, which is cheaper than an adult racing go-kart.

The unit on the right is For Sale.
You can read about it. . . or just wait for the movie.

Think of the fun you could have zipping over the neighborhood instead of around it! Be the first on the block to surprise your neighbor napping in his back yard. . . or peep into his window and catch him off guard!
Here's the ad appearing on their web site:
"This is the DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter. This ready to fly drone includes an integrated HD camera and high quality 3-axis gimbal and a 5200mAh LiPo Battery as standard equipment. The DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ was developed to provide a simple to set up and super easy to fly drone that delivers professional results. This is a true flying camera system that allows you to shoot fully stabilized video from the sky, right out of the box.
"A built-in high precision 3-axis camera stabilization system provides smooth footage, offering creative freedom in the sky with fewer limitations. The integrated GPS auto-pilot system offers position holding, altitude lock and stable hovering, giving you constant stable flight so you can worry less about flying and more about getting that epic shot!"

Father's Day is coming.

This drone doesn't have enough lift to deliver packages.