Jamestown, North Dakota.

The James River winds its way through the town of Jamestown just south of a dam and reservoir. The small dam widens the river and the view to the west above is just upstream of the dam. For those who wonder why this isn’t a feature called “Drone Sunday”, we are much too high in altitude to have been captured with a drone. FAA regulations limit drones to a maximum altitude of 400 feet above ground (or above the nearest tall structure).

A CAP colleague was doing a cross-country proficiency flight and asked me to come along. The first leg of our trip was from Fargo to Jamestown. True to Cellpic Sunday, this image was captured with a mobile device, an iPad Mini. I recently purchased the 5th generation iPad Mini in part to support the drone I’ve been learning to fly but mostly to have a more portable iPad for use as an “Electronic Flight Bag” while I am flying. The tools for flight planning and tracking are plentiful these days and instead of the books and paper charts, everything is now electronic and can be called up in a moment on a tablet display. The drone purchase gave me the incentive to justify a more capable iPad to include in my aviation kit as well.

About the photo: This photograph of the James River Reservoir was captured just after we departed from a landing at the Jamestown Airport. I processed the photo via Lightroom and Luminar Flex. The photo, captured from the iPad Mini is certainly not as detailed as what I get from my Samsung S7, a much older technology. Clearly, the Samsung has a better rear camera. A quick glance at specs tells the story. the iPad Mini Gen 5 features an 8 MP camera while the S7 houses a 12 MP dual-pixel design. Given the difference in performance, I’ll probably only use the iPad Mini’s camera when my Samsung isn’t immediately available (as when it’s shut off for flight.) I didn’t get the iPad Mini for its camera prowess and it works well for the purpose I acquired it. I was just surprised that the very latest model would have such a minimal camera compared to what is available these days. The rule for Cellpic Sunday is simple. The image must be captured on a mobile device.