Author Topic: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?  (Read 5209 times)

Syonyk

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4610
    • Syonyk's Project Blog
Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« on: June 04, 2017, 01:57:59 PM »
Has anyone been doing any work with drones/aerial camera platforms as a side gig?

Some speculative investments were good to me, so I picked up a Mavic Pro, and will be getting my Part 107 commercial operator endorsement here shortly - I'm already a current pilot (not the cheapest hobby, but well worth it IMO), so that's pretty much 2 hours of "You already know not to be a f*cking moron with this thing" review online and I'm set.

I'm looking at doing some promotional videos with my church for some of the events we're doing (I'll get the footage, someone else can edit it down), doing some work with a church camp when I'm up there later this year, and I've got some contact information for someone who has been talking about precision agriculture in the area (near-IR plus visual to identify crop health in the field, low enough that you can pretty much narrow down sick plants).

And, beyond that, I'm planning to make it known that I'm available and see what opportunities arise.

Anyone doing something like this on the side?  And, if so, do you have any useful suggestions?

SC93

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 605
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2017, 06:31:33 PM »
I'd suggest learning how to edit it yourself and do like they did it back in the old days..... instead of taking a picture, make a video of their property and then go sell it to them. I see lots of opportunity but it will take some work to educate the potential customer.

Syonyk

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4610
    • Syonyk's Project Blog
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #2 on: June 05, 2017, 10:04:30 PM »
I can do some editing myself.

"Taking videos of property without permission" is a good way to get a load of birdshot into a drone, though.  Not something I plan to play around with.

SC93

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 605
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2017, 12:48:53 PM »
People have been taking aerial photographs of other people's property since the early 1900's. I don't mean to zoom in on the hot wife skinny dipping in the pool..... but if you do, send me the pic, I'll buy it! lmao

Syonyk

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4610
    • Syonyk's Project Blog
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #4 on: June 07, 2017, 10:26:22 PM »
Again, I live in a part of the country where a turkey load and a turkey choke is not a rare setup - so I don't care to go flying over people's property without permission.

Guesl982374

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 498
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #5 on: June 09, 2017, 11:44:43 AM »
I've thought about it but have zero experience so take this with a large grain of salt: Try to set up partnerships with real estate agents, wedding photographers, etc. Anyone who is selling services that your service could help to differentiate from others so that this leads to repeat work vs. new customers all the time.

Syonyk

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4610
    • Syonyk's Project Blog
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2017, 10:48:47 PM »
I've thought about it but have zero experience so take this with a large grain of salt: Try to set up partnerships with real estate agents, wedding photographers, etc. Anyone who is selling services that your service could help to differentiate from others so that this leads to repeat work vs. new customers all the time.

I'm not really OK with "wedding drones."  Unless they've got a serious zoom, which I don't (yet) have.  They are disruptive little buggers in the sky, especially if it's gusty.

Next steps are to understand my drone deeply, and then get business cards and hand them out freely. :)

I'm a red panda

  • Walrus Stache
  • *******
  • Posts: 8186
  • Location: United States
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2017, 04:26:04 AM »
Again, I live in a part of the country where a turkey load and a turkey choke is not a rare setup - so I don't care to go flying over people's property without permission.

I think this is smart.
Aerial photography is common around here. People take a photo if your farm and try to sell it to you. But no one is going to shoot down your plane (or the hired crop duster does it as a side gig). A drone people may easily have other opinions.

I'd see if someone will let you take photos /videos for example and then use those to pitch to other people.

Syonyk

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4610
    • Syonyk's Project Blog
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2017, 09:32:58 PM »
Got my Part 107 stuff sorted out so I'm legal to make moneez!

Super easy addition if you're already a current pilot.

SC93

  • Pencil Stache
  • ****
  • Posts: 605
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #9 on: June 26, 2017, 11:54:31 PM »
I have several friends who go to work every day and dream of sleeping in like I do almost every day.... they've been doing the same thing year after year. They sometimes ask me how they can get to where they don't have to 'punch the clock'. My answer is, "I woke up 1 day and took the chance.".

The moral of this story... if you are scared of people not liking you over their property, the sound of the drone or what ever, you probably won't make it very far in the business. I've always been proud of what I was doing, not scared. Just typing this I came up with a heck of a plan to make people glad to see me. Put some thought in to it, maybe you can too.

Syonyk

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4610
    • Syonyk's Project Blog
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2017, 10:01:12 AM »
I have several friends who go to work every day and dream of sleeping in like I do almost every day.... they've been doing the same thing year after year. They sometimes ask me how they can get to where they don't have to 'punch the clock'. My answer is, "I woke up 1 day and took the chance.".

Sure - I'm totally on board with that.  Though I'm looking for more in the realm of a lot of nickel generators, and my "punch the clock" dayjob is pretty cushy anyway.  Work from home, 32h/wk, get paid very well.

Quote
The moral of this story... if you are scared of people not liking you over their property, the sound of the drone or what ever, you probably won't make it very far in the business. I've always been proud of what I was doing, not scared. Just typing this I came up with a heck of a plan to make people glad to see me. Put some thought in to it, maybe you can too.

So... I'm not sure where you live.  Or what the environment is out there.  I know where I live, and I'm pretty damned sure that drones over people's property, uninvited and without warning, will lead to some rather justified shotgun blasts aimed their way - and I trust people out here to hit.

And I'd rather not go about pissing off people locally - that's a really bad idea, especially since I'm new to the area.  I've got family connections, but I'm still new, so I'd rather not burn bridges.

gggggg

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 428
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #11 on: June 29, 2017, 01:30:03 PM »
We had a commercial drone pilot do video/photography inspections over my work's government building during a recent exterior remodel. As a former r/c pilot myself, I thought it was an interesting gig. He would come out about once a week, do his flyovers, and submit the video/photos to my boss, who would update all the govt' employees on the remodel project. So some sort of construction firm contract seems like potential way into this type side gig.

bunchbikes

  • Bristles
  • ***
  • Posts: 325
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #12 on: July 07, 2017, 09:55:53 PM »
If you're looking into doing video as a service... check out VR.

VR weddings, VR events, VR.... everything.


It's going to explode.

Syonyk

  • Magnum Stache
  • ******
  • Posts: 4610
    • Syonyk's Project Blog
Re: Is anyone doing drone photography/surveys as a side gig?
« Reply #13 on: July 07, 2017, 10:33:29 PM »
No...

You could do it with a ton of ground mounted cameras but I don't feel like investing in the server farm needed to render that. Nor do I have the gigabits of upload to process it in the cloud.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!