Dedicated drone pilot, or the photographer who says he does aerial too?

Question

I'd rather pay for something that just works without me having to become an expert, so I've been asking around about aerial for a listing next spring. Two answers keep coming back and they contradict each other.

Option one is hiring a specialist. Someone whose whole business is drone work, holds the FAA remote pilot certificate that commercial flying requires, carries insurance, and knows before he quotes whether the property sits in airspace that needs authorization. The case for it is that the footage is better and the shoot happens when he says it will. The case against is a second invoice, a second person to schedule, and around here they quote $250 to $500 for aerial alone.

Option two is the full service photographer who adds aerial to a package. One trip, one invoice, and the aerial add-on I was quoted was $125 on top of interior photos. The case against is that the drone is his fifth priority that day, and a couple of people here have said you can tell.

There's also buying a drone and getting certified yourself, which some investors clearly do, and simply skipping aerial on properties where it adds nothing, which for a plain suburban house might be most of them.

My property is a 3 acre lot with a house, a barn and a decent view to the west. Big enough that aerial probably helps, not so big that the land is the whole story. That's exactly the middle where I can't tell which answer is right, so I'm asking rather than guessing.

brandonlee36 · Answer

Add-on, every time, at $125. Three acres with a barn and a view is a two shot job. You need one that shows the buildings sit on real land and one that shows what you look at from the west side. A specialist gives you a nicer version of those two shots and charges triple. I've paid for the nicer version and I couldn't tell you which listing it was on.

ehernandez74 · Answer

Before picking, is the property in airspace that needs authorization? Because if it is, that decides it for you. The photographer with a drone in the trunk may not be set up to request it, and you find that out on shoot day. If it's clear airspace the question really is just $125 versus $350 for the same two frames.

kevin_lombard · Answer

I voted for the specialist and I'm the least qualified person here to have an opinion, so I'll say why. Reading through this room, the pattern in the loss posts is a shoot that didn't happen or footage nobody could use, and both came from hiring the person who flies occasionally. Paying more for the person whose whole income is flying seems like paying for the shoot happening.

marcus_hale41 · Answer

@juniper there's a selection effect in that. Nobody writes a post about the $125 add-on that came out fine, so the archive over-represents disasters. @verity, the question I'd ask both quotes is what you get delivered. If the specialist's $350 includes an overhead with an approximate parcel outline drawn on it and the add-on gives you two pretty flyovers, that's a real difference for a 3 acre property, since the outline is the thing that tells a buyer the barn and the view are included. If both are just flyovers, take the $125.

Dedicated drone pilot, or the photographer who says he does aerial too?

4 replies