That sunrise air would have been smooth flying Nick, those gentle undulations tell the story. That's pollution though, not just a low layer moving through?
JWilsonphoto wrote:
I flew with a new pilot this afternoon, generally not something I'm fond of, but this young guy was extremely good. I walked in and he asked if we could sit down and do a pre-flight brief, I liked that, especially because a bunch of these parcels were smallish and peppered all around downtown Dallas, right in Love's departure lanes. We compared notes on our iPad Mini4's (the one I bought to dedicate to my Phantom 4 Pro) and our "pins" coordinated perfectly. There's few things I dislike more than circling and circling, looking for a site because something didn't match up. Every 60 seconds you spend doing that costs about 10 bucks in an R44, $30.00 in a Bell JetRanger, and $70.00 in a 429. I do my homework before the flight and these sites were so tricky I scouted each one on the ground and "pinned" them on my iPad, which was worth it's weight in gold on a mission like this one. I've found that ATC is normally very happy to work your flight if they feel that you have your act together, conversely, they will deny you access in a blink if you appear to be behind the power curve in any way. We even got access to a couple of sites in DFW's airspace that we didn't have prior approval for, very unusual. My pilot hailed from the U.K. which made him alright in my book from the get go and he just continued to prove my instincts correct.
Great mission, successfully executed, albeit with a touch of nausea toward the close. Circling that many sites on a 97 degree day with winds 11G18 will work on all but the most astronautish of middle ears, and I do not have one of those
A well written primer on success: entirely master the individual elements that make up the whole and never stop looking for the 'one more thing to check."
I've got a year on you so Amen to that 25 year old!
JWilsonphoto wrote:
That sunrise air would have been smooth flying Nick, those gentle undulations tell the story. That's pollution though, not just a low layer moving through?
The pollution mainly gives the yellow / orange colour. Your right about the air though - almost no wind at all. Actually, that's why the Lizzie came into Portsmouth for the first time this morning. It was originally intended to come in on Friday - but the forecast is poor. She is way bigger than anything else that's ever come into Portsmouth and they've done a huge amount of dredging and dock rebuilding. Even so, they need a very high tide and light winds - it's a tight fit!
I've been sending "teaser" images to my clients as I work my way through yesterday's imagery and they love the stuff. In fact, they love it so much that instead of shooting all of those sites quarterly, they want me to do it monthly, the planning paid off!
There are a zillion people out there shooting aerials, some rent a plane, some own a plane, some shoot from helicopters, but there is a common thread throughout their work, they are focused on speed. Understandably they want to cram as many sites into the time they are up as they possibly can, but there is the rub. You cannot do that and achieve a quality level that sets you above the competition. Like the drone people, these arial shooters find themselves in an ever tightening spiral of reduced pricing because nothing sets them apart form their competition. Honestly, my aerials are the most expensive in the marketplace, and my clients wouldn't consider jumping ship because they've had the product the rapid fire inexpensive guys put out. My philosophy has always been, shoot it with the best gear, shoot it in the best light, give them triple the imagery the shotgun NSEW photographers provide them, and think marketing the whole time I'm up, what else can I get for them that will help tell their story better? There are still people who go for the 80 bucks a site guys, but once you turn them, you have them for life.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
I've been sending "teaser" images to my clients as I work my way through yesterday's imagery and they love the stuff. In fact, they love it so much that instead of shooting all of those sites quarterly, they want me to do it monthly, the planning paid off!
There are a zillion people out there shooting aerials, some rent a plane, some own a plane, some shoot from helicopters, but there is a common thread throughout their work, they are focused on speed. Understandably they want to cram as many sites into the time they are up as they possibly can, but there is the rub. You cannot do that and achieve a quality level that sets you above the competition. Like the drone people, these arial shooters find themselves in an ever tightening spiral of reduced pricing because nothing sets them apart form their competition. Honestly, my aerials are the most expensive in the marketplace, and my clients wouldn't consider jumping ship because they've had the product the rapid fire inexpensive guys put out. My philosophy has always been, shoot it with the best gear, shoot it in the best light, give them triple the imagery the shotgun NSEW photographers provide them, and think marketing the whole time I'm up, what else can I get for them that will help tell their story better? There are still people who go for the 80 bucks a site guys, but once you turn them, you have them for life....Show more →
Ah, the complete opposite of the race to the bottom that seams to be apparent just about everywhere one looks ?
nickjohnson wrote:
Ah, the complete opposite of the race to the bottom that seams to be apparent just about everywhere one looks ?
I'm on a couple of DJI Drone forums, mostly just to monitor firmware updates because some are good and some are laden with problems. The other day I followed a post that had a headline like "$10 for a realtor shoot....!" The thread went on forever with comments from all of the drone people who thought they were going to make a killing with their new quadcopter. A hundred comments condensed down.........real estate is not a market that pays, and like everything else, about 5% of the drone owners in the world are going to make any kind of reasonable income from their drones. First problem is, that real estate, except in some rare cases on very expensive properties, has never paid a decent rate, the second has been that the drone people have shot themselves in both feet and are now aiming for their forehead as they attempt to under bid the other 20 people on their block with a drone. I know a couple of guys that went to Octo drones and hung Reds on them just to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Gutsy move considering the investment and the risk of loss, but one of them is doing very well with his rig and his rate is generally 10K a day +. It's risky, but if you focus on quality and shoot for a quality level that separates you from the competition, then go headlong after the market that cares about that level of product, you have a better chance of making it. Understandably that approach scares a lot of people, still wakes me up a times.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
I'm on a couple of DJI Drone forums, mostly just to monitor firmware updates because some are good and some are laden with problems. The other day I followed a post that had a headline like "$10 for a realtor shoot....!" The thread went on forever with comments from all of the drone people who thought they were going to make a killing with their new quadcopter. A hundred comments condensed down.........real estate is not a market that pays, and like everything else, about 5% of the drone owners in the world are going to make any kind of reasonable income from their drones. First problem is, that real estate, except in some rare cases on very expensive properties, has never paid a decent rate, the second has been that the drone people have shot themselves in both feet and are now aiming for their forehead as they attempt to under bid the other 20 people on their block with a drone. I know a couple of guys that went to Octo drones and hung Reds on them just to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Gutsy move considering the investment and the risk of loss, but one of them is doing very well with his rig and his rate is generally 10K a day +. It's risky, but if you focus on quality and shoot for a quality level that separates you from the competition, then go headlong after the market that cares about that level of product, you have a better chance of making it. Understandably that approach scares a lot of people, still wakes me up a times.
The part that still blows my mind is that they actually have to tell people that "you can't fly that here" in some places...Our CF-18 pilot noticed one during one of his passes at the show by me a couple weeks ago, and led me to wonder
1. What kind of shots it was that this person thought they were going to get
2. What posessed them to think they could fly their drone at an airport in the first place let alone at an airshow.
I get the fascination with drones, and I've often thought about buying myself one, but I think more common sense is required. Maybe some simple questions on a pre-purchase checklist to see if the person has the common sense required to own and operate a drone?
On the race to the bottom front, I've hardly shot motocross this year...I can't be bothered since one of the rebel moms started buying herself some decent camera gear and continued to give her shots away for free. I spent the last few years building myself up a loyal following, but I can't compete with free (nor would I try), and my sales decreased fairly significantly this year.
I hear you on that. That RE agent that reached out to me, never even gave the courtesy of replying back to me. Thankfully I wasn't worried about getting the gig, either.
JWilsonphoto wrote:
I'm on a couple of DJI Drone forums, mostly just to monitor firmware updates because some are good and some are laden with problems. The other day I followed a post that had a headline like "$10 for a realtor shoot....!" The thread went on forever with comments from all of the drone people who thought they were going to make a killing with their new quadcopter. A hundred comments condensed down.........real estate is not a market that pays, and like everything else, about 5% of the drone owners in the world are going to make any kind of reasonable income from their drones. First problem is, that real estate, except in some rare cases on very expensive properties, has never paid a decent rate, the second has been that the drone people have shot themselves in both feet and are now aiming for their forehead as they attempt to under bid the other 20 people on their block with a drone. I know a couple of guys that went to Octo drones and hung Reds on them just to differentiate themselves from the crowd. Gutsy move considering the investment and the risk of loss, but one of them is doing very well with his rig and his rate is generally 10K a day +. It's risky, but if you focus on quality and shoot for a quality level that separates you from the competition, then go headlong after the market that cares about that level of product, you have a better chance of making it. Understandably that approach scares a lot of people, still wakes me up a times.
nickjohnson wrote:
Access to the Forts is limited. Fort Nelson is an Artillery Museum - Massimo heaven! The one in the picture is Fort Brockhurst - one of my locals.
Fort Brockhurst looks cool!
I've been in Dorset a couple of times to visit the Tank Museum in Bovington. I considered visiting Portsmouth and the D-Day Museum over there but never did. Now you gave me another reason to go there. Thanks!
While I was in St. Petersburg, Florida photographing the two Falcon 50 jets, this Lockheed P-3 Orion from the US Navy made a few passes into the airport. The US Coast Guard has a base there, and they were running some Hercules aircraft through there, but I never had the opportunity to snag one, while I was outside.
Off to photograph a Challenger 601 this afternoon at Dallas Love Field.
