Living near airports and being a Part 107 FAA Drone Certified pilot I need to be aware of is the altitude that I am flying at. For the safety of everyone there is restrictions in place for areas close to airports.
Many times I am asked, "What can we see from 100 feet or 200 feet?" Here I put together this blog post to help answer these questions.
One of my favorite altitudes to fly at is about 20 feet. At this elevation not much distortion happens. This is very true with homes that are built on a hill. With a camera on the ground the only way to photograph the home is at the base of the hill looking up. The distortion of the homes edges angling in instead of being straight look rather odd and not as desirable. This is when a drone photograph of the exterior is very helpful!
Higher elevations are great to showcase neighborhoods or features in the area like lakes.
With this particular home the front yard is very narrow and the tree cover is close to the home so it was not possible to get a good view of the front of the home with a drone.
All the images taken in the series were taken from the backyard of this property.
The maximum elevation a drone can be flown is below 400 feet in most areas. Before any project is accepted I need to reference local maps, take into consideration the weather. Sometimes I have to apply for authorizations and I need to double check notifications in the area to confirm that it is OK to fly. All of this work needs to be done before every flight. Not to mention maintenance to the drone has a check list to follow for every flight. The batteries need to be charged, checks need to be made to make sure the software is up to date, calibration of IMU and the compass to make sure all are working properly. A lot goes into being able to fly a drone commercially but the end result is in my mind worth it. Being certified by the FAA I need to go through bi annual tests to stay compliant.
I hope this helps explain what is possible to photograph with a drone and will help you make choices when thinking about hiring a drone pilot.
