After 23 years of vacationing on Chappaquiddick, Carl Treyz thought he had seen all of the island there was to see. He’d hiked and biked all the trails, driven out to the most remote beaches, and fished every shore. Then last year Treyz bought a quadcopter — a remote-control aerial mount — for his GoPro camera. He began to see the island from a whole new perspective: from above. In an email to The Times, Treyz answered a few questions about his videography, and how it can be applied to conservation efforts.
Do you have any background in photo/video?
I first got into photography and videography when I bought my GoPro three years ago. I bought it for a college study-abroad trip to the Turks and Caicos Islands. I ended up making a series of films (like blog entries) of my time there so that my friends and family could get a glimpse of what I was doing. Since then I have been making short films and doing photography on the side. I have filmed everything from sharks to woodpeckers.
When did you get into doing aerial photography?
Just over a year ago I ordered the quadcopter specifically for my GoPro. It opened up a whole new world. Now I take it with me whenever I travel. When I traveled to the Bahamas I was able to get some great footage, and aid researchers by giving them an aerial perspective. I was working at the Cape Eleuthera Institute for the Shark Research and Conservation Program from August to December of 2013.
How do you keep track of the quadcopter when it’s in the air?
The quadcopter is controlled by a single controller with a range of up to about 2,000 meters, depending on trees, hills, and weather. I do “line of sight flying,” and always have eyes on the quadcopter to keep it to a safe distance. Fortunately, the quadcopter has a setting which allows the controller to be the center point, so no matter which way it is facing, if you pull back on the controller it will head back toward it. It is also equipped with GPS, and will hover at a set altitude without any input from the controller. When all else fails, it comes with a safety feature, so if the batteries in the controller die or the controller gets dropped in the water, the quad will automatically sense that it has lost connection and fly back and land itself where it was first turned on.
How do you get to the spots you film?
I usually just drive up to these places, like The Trustees of Reservations and Land Bank trails. After all the time I’ve spent on Chappy, I thought I had hiked and explored every part of it, but since using the quadcopter I’ve found spots I never knew existed.
Such as?
One of the new spots I found was across from the Gut on North Neck Road. I had been to the Gut many times before, but had never been on the other side on Cape Pogue Bay. After flying over the Gut, I saw another pull-off by The Trustees of Reservations, which I then decided to stop at and have a look around. I ended up getting the intro shot to my video from that location through the winding pines and out over the steady drop to the bay. Unfortunately, I was not able to fly at my favorite stop, the rock pile, along East Beach due to wind conditions, but it was great to see the Cape Pogue Lighthouse looking back, from the ocean’s point, of view.
How long did it take to film this and edit/produce it?
The whole process took me about two weeks to complete. All of the filming for this video was done over a few days when the winds were just right, and the rest of two weeks was spent editing. I took over an hour of footage, which got condensed down to almost three minutes. I can get around 15 minutes of film from one flight, so there is a lot of footage to go through.
What do you think of the fisheye distortion effect you get with aerial photos? Do you like it, or does it pose a problem when editing video, etc.?
I think the fisheye is a defining characteristic of the GoPro cameras. I have learned to embrace it over the years, and feel that it gives a much broader perspective and feeling of landscape. It is actually fairly easy to get rid of the fisheye effect of the GoPro. There are settings where it can shoot in a narrower field of view, negating the fisheye lens. GoPro also has free software that can take the fisheye effect out of the video and pictures.
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Any other Vineyard projects? What’s next?
I have flown briefly over Oaks Bluff and Gay Head, but am planning on making a similar video containing all of the lighthouses on the Island. I am also producing films and working on more projects for the EnTidaled Project.
Tell us more about EnTidaled.
I co-founded the EnTidaled Project with several friends I have met over the years through my time in the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. In a nutshell, we’re striving to connect people to conservation and sustainability efforts around the world, using engaging photos, stories, and short films. We hope to help bridge the gap between science and the public, because there is a lot of amazing, important work being done that people just don’t know about. In a time when everyone is connected to the Internet, fewer and fewer people are connected to the outdoors and things happening in their own backyard. Most people would rather watch a short, two- or three-minute entertaining video than read a scientific paper. We just started, but are getting ready to launch our community page, which will be featuring several well-respected organizations and individuals who want to work with the EnTidaled Project to increase visibility for their efforts and hope to reach new audiences.
What else do you do?
I am currently living in Westchester, New York. Right now I am working as a dental assistant for a private dentist as well as at a local dental clinic. I recently applied to dental school, and hope to start next fall. Outside of dentistry and videography, I am an avid fisherman, PADI divemaster, and just love spending time outdoors.
For more info on EnTidaled: enTidaledproject.org.