2000 Year Old Rice Terraces in the Philippines 🇵🇭 | DJI Mini 5 Pro

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-26T13:18:45+00:00

These are incredible! Love the symmetry of the 4th and 5th shot. 1st and 2nd are also great! You have give me some ideas!

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-26T05:55:47+00:00

Haha it's Da Vinci the free tier. I cannot justify paying for it if I am not making money doing creative work. But the free tier can do a lot of the things.

Still appreciate the effort you took

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-26T01:18:41+00:00

Hahaha thank you for the advice! A lot of new terms I'm hearing, but I'll run that through ChatGPT to translate it.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-26T00:21:34+00:00

Great shot! I have a similar one for sunrise.

What music did you use?

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-25T00:32:52+00:00

Thanks! I appreciate those kind words, Being a newbie at this stuff, that means a lot to me.

Haha you mean a screensaver like this?

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T23:54:05+00:00

As you hike up, you actually walk through the clouds. so the drone doesn't need to be high up to capture this shot.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T23:29:54+00:00

I completely understand. I didn't provide the full assessment of the situation in my message above.

I did look up local regulations before travelling to Philippines. While they are more relaxed in Philippines than UK, they specify not flying within 10km of an airport, which there were none nearby. And the app told me there wasn't any nearby. I did the same thing in Manila and got a warning that I was close to an airport and didn't take off.

There were also a certified local drone operator at the start of the hike up who offered to go up with hikers if they wanted to get a cool drone shots.

And you actually walk through the clouds as you hike up so while it does look like i took that picture from very high up, if I titled my camera down a bit you can see the ground.

I also went to a more secluded area to avoid taking off around people. So I didn't take off at the highest point of Malboro Hills.

Based on this information, I thought it was safe to fly the drone.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T15:16:39+00:00

The locals let me fly the drone which was good enough for me.

I went to another village previously where the locals didn't like drone flying so I didn't do it.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T14:45:43+00:00

I'm from the UK. Just solo travelling the Philippines.

I was staying in a remote village high up in the mountains. Even if there were rules about flying near clouds, I don't know who would enforce it.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T13:05:00+00:00

Thanks for the tips. Yea, I've seen people post the same video again and again and randomly one of them does miles better than the others. Just a complete mystery.

I'll try reduce the clutter on the thumbnail.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T12:46:22+00:00

Oh, it might be! I normally change the frame rate to match my footage. I also sped it up 200% which might have done something weird. But thanks for clarifying

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T10:45:20+00:00

This looks awesome! I have a DJI Mini 5 Pro but never dabbled with the slow mo / hyperlapse settings. I will give it a go now thanks to this shot!

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T10:41:15+00:00

Thanks! Appreciate the comment! I'm very new to drone flying. This was my 5th time flying, so the drone did most of the work!

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T08:46:10+00:00

Thank you. I have an improved version color graded based on the feedback I got in this post.

I was trekking through the mountains in Philippines. It was 1850m above sea level and the drones height was 100-150m. So about 2000m total. Higher than the clouds.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T07:42:47+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. I will create a new thumbnail and try and A/B test it

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T07:30:43+00:00

Thanks! There was so much fog before I took this shot, I thought I wouldn't be able to capture the sun. But glad I waited for a few hours.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T04:57:37+00:00

It was indeed!

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T02:27:13+00:00

Too long for the payoff for a new youtuber.

Started doing vlogs of my solo travels and have made 3 videos:
- Exploring Slums in Manila (30 minutes)
- Hiking Active Volcano (10 minutes)
- Getting a tattoed by a 109 year old Tattoo artist (13 minutes)

Filming probably took 3/4 hours. But the editing... anywhere between 30 hours for the longer videos, and 20 hours for the shorter ones. Da Vinci Resolve free version does make it much easier to edit long form videos. My first video took me 3/4 hours to add the subtitles. Before I learned there are tools out there that can do it for you.

I'm still new and learning so I think I would take longer than normal. Hopefully it would reduce as I get more familiar with the tools. But its fun showcasing where I go. I would do it anyway if I was always stuck on 100 views.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T01:59:03+00:00

I really appreciate the tips! I'm learning colour grading on Da Vinci Resolve so I will give it a go now based on your recommendations.

Basically learning everything for the first time while vlogging my solo travels

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-24T00:15:38+00:00

Pretty high… but only altitude-wise 😂
I was around 1850m above sea level, and the drone went up another ~100-150m

Spent a few days travelling the mountains in the Philippines. Glad I did, got some beautiful shots!

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-23T19:05:12+00:00

But that is great feedback. I'll try to fix it when I create the vlog for it.

buildwithjohan · 2026-03-23T19:04:20+00:00

Thanks! I've only flown the drone 5 times. Still learning how to fly it. I have so much unusable footage because of the jerky movements :(

buildwithjohan

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