Cows, Farms, and Drones

This weekend I traveled through farms in central California gathering 360º footage for my virtual reality class. The story we’re making is about subsidence, which is the sinking of California due to use of groundwater for farming.

On the way, we stopped by Joe Pinheiro & Sons Dairy. There were hundreds of cows at this dairy farm. This particular cow had its head stuck in the fence that they use to feed on hay.

It seemed like there were a lot of cows in the pens for their size. It was a very different sight compared to other farms on the road with cows who had miles of green grass to roam and feed on.

For our story, we flew a 360º drone over farm fields. In this one we flew it over a field that was being used and one that was fallow. Here my teacher, Robert Hernandez, sets up the Kodak PixPro, which is currently the only consumer 360º drone on the market. In this particular location, the ground has sunk around 40 feet over the past century due to use of groundwater.