I am a FAA Certified and Licensed Commercial Drone Pilot. My certificate number is 1554688.
This license is required by the FAA to do any commercial drone work. By law, photography by drone for or by any individual for any commercial project requires this license.
This means that even if you are photographing your own commercial project (i.e. a listing) for sale, this license is required. Also, be sure any drone operator you hire is licensed. In case of an unfortunate event, you don't want to be expaining to your Client why you used a drone pilot that was not commercially licensed and, therefore, not authorized for the assignment.
Services Offered
Aerial Video of both 4K and and HD 1080p Quality, with gimbal stablized (shake-free) camera, of Subject with a 94° field of view
Aerial Still Photographs 12 Megapixels of Subject
Post Production Services of both video and still photography
Site visit for aerial photography is $50 trip charge (within 15 minutes of Roswell) plus $100 per hour spent on site.
1080p used to be the gold standard and is still acceptable but technology moves on and we are forced to keep up. The chances of your Client having higher quality viewing devices is pretty good and you don't want to disappoint. Soon 4K will push 1080p to the rear. The bottom line is that 4K will make your video look better - EVEN if you downscale it to 1080p. Also 4K video has the ability to reduce shake in post production without losing detail.
12 megapixels for still photos is pretty decent although pro photographers now use digital cameras with much higher megapixels - 24 or 30 for example. If your end result is for the web only, 12 mp will be more than good enough. I will frequently grab a frame from the video that has just the right angle, etc. that would be hard to get in a still photo. However, this does involve downloading the video shoot into a video editor to grab that frame.
Shooting the video is the easy and quickest part. First, the drone battery only lasts about 15 minutes and much of that is consumed in pre-flight and positioning the craft for your video. Of course, enough battery power has to remain to "get home" and land with plenty of reserve. I carry two batteries to make sure I get as much as video possible but it's hard to use up a whole hour on site.
The real time is spent taking that 15 minute video and editing it down to the desired length - usually 2-5 minutes at the most. Add to that will be a proper introduction of the subject, music and credits. It's pretty easy to wind up with 2-3 hours in the final video.
Still photography is easier, I just download into my professional level image processor to make sure the best photograph is produced.
- Fee Schedule -
Post-Production - i.e. processing of still photos or video production is $100 per hour. Typically a photo only assignment will be about $250 and a video assignment will be about $400 with some photo work included.
If you provide me with a high-speed 32 gig micro-SD card to record on, I can hand you the raw photos and videos at the completion of the flight and you can process yourself. Order SanDisk Extreme 64 gig MicroSD Card - Amazon Link (about $30)
However, you will have to have some type of photo editing software to take the original photo and distill it down to a managable size tor your purpose. The raw photo can easily be 10-12 megabytes and you don't want any more than 300-500 kilobytes for the web.
You will definitely need video editing software for any video file since 75% of the video will need to be edited out. I use Final Cut Pro. If you don't have a Mac, you will have to get a Windows based video editor. By the way, iMovie will work and it comes free with any new Mac.
Aerial video and photos of anything where the drone is no more than 400 feet off the ground and where I can maintain visual sight of the drone from my location (FAA Rules.) FAA also prohibits drone flight operations directly over people. I can inspect towers that are higher than 400 feet, up to their height as long as I am within 100 feet of the tower. There are certain restrictions of airspace generally around airports that are either prohibited or take some time to get permission to shoot. Significant trees obstructing the subject may not give you a desired result or may prevent the flight all together.
Luxury Homes
Condo Buildings
Businesses
Farms and Agriculture
Raw Land
Construction Sites
Mining Operations
Locations Hard to Access by Ground
Landfill and Waste Management Sites
Short runs of electrical and gas lines
"Drive-Arounds" of large luxury estates
Aerial Views For Landscaping Design
Ownership - $100 extra and the photos and/or video is yours to post on your YouTube Channel and you get the copyright. Otherwise, video will be posted on my UnBranded YouTube channel.
Flights requiring a FAA required visual assistant and flights over water or other hazards have extra charges
Search and Rescue - I am CERT (Civilian Emergency Response Team - Roswell Fire Department) member