And that's 100 grand easily that's hanging beneath that drone. I seem to be quickly growing toward that market, all the while not really trying to. Obviously I don't have those skills, or anywhere near those skills, at this juncture, but my clients just chuckle and tell me they are sure that I'll find a way.
The drone market is very interesting. Like photography, pricing is all over the map. Truthfully, I have absolutely no idea what "drone guys" are charging for their services. I would guess a guy who shows up with a Mavic Pro might charge a couple of hundred bucks for an hour of work, a Phantom might be a little higher than that. Show up with some skills and an Inspire 2/5.2K and you could be up to 4-500 an hour. The Octocopter with a Sony or a Red hanging from it, and the appropriate skillset most likely puts you in a $10-20,000 a day category. So, the returns are there as one climbs the ladder, the question is, how high do I want to climb at this point in my career.
I'm in a unique position, I suppose, because my client list would let me easily jump to that category, in fact that are encouraging me to do just that. Truthfully, I'm not even close to relaxing with a couple of grand hovering around, so it'll take some flight time to get anywhere near comfortable with that level of gear. Fun to learn about though, who knows?
And that's 100 grand easily that's hanging beneath that drone. I seem to be quickly growing toward that market, all the while not really trying to. Obviously I don't have those skills, or anywhere near those skills, at this juncture, but my clients just chuckle and tell me they are sure that I'll find a way.
The drone market is very interesting. Like photography, pricing is all over the map. Truthfully, I have absolutely no idea what "drone guys" are charging for their services. I would guess a guy who shows up with a Mavic Pro might charge a couple of hundred bucks for an hour of work, a Phantom might be a little higher than that. Show up with some skills and an Inspire 2/5.2K and you could be up to 4-500 an hour. The Octocopter with a Sony or a Red hanging from it, and the appropriate skillset most likely puts you in a $10-20,000 a day category. So, the returns are there as one climbs the ladder, the question is, how high do I want to climb at this point in my career.
I'm in a unique position, I suppose, because my client list would let me easily jump to that category, in fact that are encouraging me to do just that. Truthfully, I'm not even close to relaxing with a couple of grand hovering around, so it'll take some flight time to get anywhere near comfortable with that level of gear. Fun to learn about though, who knows?...Show more →
Exciting times Jim! I'm seeing big numbers all over the place - but not all on the plus side. I'm wondering how long your one man data centre model is going to be viable - especially given the way that video has the apparent ability to keep adding "0"'s to the storage requirements! I dare say the insurance for drones + camera is equally all over the map?
Drat, that all sounds horribly negative - not meant that way. I think I've been reading too much about the total mess British Airways have made of their IT. You already have way more resilience than those Muppets. .
Realism is not negativity my friend. My plan is continue to watch the industry until another form of back up is viable. Until such a time, my dual disk redundancy, backed up to another dual disk redundancy array, backed up to NAS drives in padded envelopes in a third location, will have to do. I just ordered two more Drobo 5D 50 TB arrays bringing those units to 4 this month/200TB. When I light those up my capacity will be around 750TB, or 3/4 of a Petabyte.
I'm photographing more and more data centers everyday, maybe I need to talk to someone about sneaking my little block of zero's and one's onto one of their servers.
Really, as far as clients are concerned, this is a premium service I provide to them. I don't know of a single other photographer who keeps every single assignment live and backed up for their clients, especially the volume we're talking about here.
Realism is not negativity my friend. My plan is continue to watch the industry until another form of back up is viable. Until such a time, my dual disk redundancy, backed up to another dual disk redundancy array, backed up to NAS drives in padded envelopes in a third location, will have to do. I just ordered two more Drobo 5D 50 TB arrays bringing those units to 4 this month/200TB. When I light those up my capacity will be around 750TB, or 3/4 of a Petabyte.
I'm photographing more and more data centers everyday, maybe I need to talk to someone about sneaking my little block of zero's and one's onto one of their servers.
Really, as far as clients are concerned, this is a premium service I provide to them. I don't know of a single other photographer who keeps every single assignment live and backed up for their clients, especially the volume we're talking about here. ...Show more →
Sounds good Jim. You've long past the point where I exited the industry - in terms of on line storage capacity. There's all sorts of different ways to do this stuff - but is any one of them "better"? When you strip away all the smoke and mirrors, there is no one who cares as much about your data as you. So your plan is best - at least for you. FWIW, I like the idea of cutting a deal with one of your data centre customers. Could that be a way to accommodate some of your "less active" client data? I'm trying to think of ways to reduce the time you have to devote to non imaging chores. Oh, and having data centre guys finding out that your seeking to look after your data in a fashion that is above and beyond your competitors may turn out to be helpful.
That helicopter version would add a dimension of flight complexity that I have no interest in for sure. Quads and Octas are extremely stable if all the technology is behaving and communicating as designed. A helicopter is always a helicopter, a bunch of whirling parts just waiting to bolt off into the hinterlands
I think if I could have electro shock therapy and blot out my Phantom II memories, I'd have much less anxiety flying the P4Pro. The P4Pro is rock steady and does exactly what you tell it to do. I haven't mustered the courage to send it off on a programmed route yet, but I'm studying the technique and will set up a few simple trial runs. The good news now is that there are so many on line tutorials and the software gets more intuitive with every firmware upgrade.
If I haven't put it into a smoking hole in the the next 100 hours, I should be getting pretty comfortable with the whole process.
Realism is not negativity my friend. My plan is continue to watch the industry until another form of back up is viable. Until such a time, my dual disk redundancy, backed up to another dual disk redundancy array, backed up to NAS drives in padded envelopes in a third location, will have to do. I just ordered two more Drobo 5D 50 TB arrays bringing those units to 4 this month/200TB. When I light those up my capacity will be around 750TB, or 3/4 of a Petabyte.
I'm photographing more and more data centers everyday, maybe I need to talk to someone about sneaking my little block of zero's and one's onto one of their servers.
Really, as far as clients are concerned, this is a premium service I provide to them. I don't know of a single other photographer who keeps every single assignment live and backed up for their clients, especially the volume we're talking about here. ...Show more →
Jim...
One of the solutions is to have your data in the "cloud" as a disaster recovery (DR) site. Have one copy "in house" and another copy in the "cloud". Calculate if it is feasible (economical) or not.
Unfortunately it is just not economically feasible to put 200TB in the cloud, even if there was a company who offered it for guys like me. I looked into cloud based storage a couple of years ago, current rates run about $2400 a month for 80TB in the cloud, so my monthly cost would be north of five grand. I can buy a 50TB Drobo 5D once a month and have cash left over for Avgas and lunch at that rate.
You already have way more resilience than those Muppets. . 
