Grants:Project/Rapid/UG NWR-Hist/Aerial photography equipment/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2021-22 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/UG NWR-Hist/Aerial photography equipment.
You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
You are welcome to Email rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

Goals were met but our work isn't even close to its finish yet. We've nearly doubled the number of media made by drone, but due to situation in Russia in September 2022 drone was brought to Almaty, Kazakhstan - in agreement with User Group members - to avoid its confiscation and usage in war-related activities. Since then I've already made near a hundred of aerial pictures of Kazakstan and Kyrgyzstan and planning to go on.

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets. Please be sure to review and provide metrics required for Rapid Grants.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
Number of photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons: 750	1237 and it's still growing	Category for files made by drone
Quality of photos used on Wikimedia projects as a consequence of the previous point	472 files are used in 430 articles within 828 total entries
Minimum number of participants in drone photographs learning program: 4	6+	Drbug, Frhdkazan, ElenaLitera, Екатерина Борисова, Bok, Vaija and more, but some of them wanted to remain anonymous

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

What worked well?
General activities of taking pictures by myself was going good. I've experimented with different types of media such as spherical panoramas, close-up panoramas, videos etc. I've started to photograph architectural details of tall buildings using drone that allows you to capture them with no keystone distortion. I've started to make top-down pictures of buildings and urban squares.
What did not work so well?
Learning sessions aroused the interest to drone phohotgraphing of only one of User Group members. Others were not so enthusiastic. Their main reason to decline offers to use drone was fear to lose this expensive equipment because of their lack of skills or due to activity of police and other government structures.
What would you do differently next time?
I see no other ways to do drone photographing. When the situation in Russia changes for the better, I will bring drone back to Saint Petersburg and resume photographing.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

Grant funds were spent as received but while we were waiting for a wire transfer, Mavic 3 came out that is a new model of drone that we originally wanted to get. It has much better camera that's very important. So we've decided to add our personal funds to cover its cost that was near 210.000 ₽ (around 2.888 $). We've also bought some additional equipment such as 2 spare battery packs and a case later, using remaining funds from another rapid grant.

Items	Quantity	Amount (In Russian Roubles)	in USD	Total	Note
Drone	1	118,990 ₽	1,636.58 $	118,990 ₽
Exchange rate fluctuations and bank fees	3%	3,569.7 ₽	49.1 $	3,569.7 ₽
Income tax	13%	18,313.52 ₽	251.88 $	18,313.52 ₽	Counts of Grand total
Grand total			1,937.56 $	140,873.22 ₽

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

No

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

119 photographs taken by drone were in long list of Wiki Loves Monuments 2022 in Russia, 34 of them made it to the short list and one winned the contest and was sent to international round.