Aerial Photography Maps

It was over fifty years since that the author had his starting Monday with aerial picture taking. The occasion was next afterwards the severe inundations in 1955 in northwestern Connecticut. Since that time it has stayed a sure generator of income. So the work’s not difficult and it raises a sure source of income.

The author first started into this occupation over fifty years. It looked that the given path of making patronage then, was to take the photographs first, and then seek to trade them. It didn’t take too long for the author to understand that this was a quick path of getting flat broke. Later after the starting year the author changed his tactics and started actively searching for customers.

It’s simply amazing how good this went to manage to have a list of customers that takes like the Fortune 500. It appeared that the bigger the party, the more willing they were to throw money on aerial photographs of their holding. This involved the top 10 parties on the Fortune 500 list, as well as hundreds of smaller customers. The small customers really paid for most of the process that went finished by the author.

Most of the appointments that the author produced were made by phone. This involved any amount of true interesting customers. One of the customers that developed called on the telephone cold early on 8 March daybreak. The author answered the telephone and the voice on the other end asked if he was at home. Apparently he was, or he would not of answered the telephone. Once the person on the other end turned conscious that he wastalking to the author, he presented himself through the telephone with this, “Hello, my name is Stephen Spielberg.”

Author’s reply to that was, “Well, ok I’m the King of England.”

He assured the author that he is really Steven Spielberg, and he wanted some aerial photos for a picture the. This was a film about a load of slaves that took over a slave ship named the Amistad. As worrying as these appointments were, this was the sort of appointments the author had. Over fifty years after, he’s still having appointments called, although he is no longer actively soliciting assignments.

One of the matters that most individuals never consider even when they see, it is how many money there really is in the aerial picture taking. Nowadays we don’t make something special in making these pictures. We use a single lens reflex 35mm camera. It is really an Olympus IS-3. All of the photos we take are obliques. We initially send to the client 4 x 6 inch proofs. These are big enough for the clients to see what he is taking an order whatsoever extra prints he needs. Very seldom, do any of these prints go past 11 x 14 inches in size. If the customer doesn’t require bigger prints may have to explain me at the very starting, therefore I can take the photos with a camera that takes bigger negatives. This camera is a Linhof Aerotechnika that makes a 6 x 7 mm negative. With a negative of this dimension you are capable to expand the photo to a much bigger size. The biggest photographs we have ever taken are 4 x 5 feet.

To make these pictures we use planes and choppers. The perfect plane is a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. The front place window handily opens up, and swings up below the wing providing you a clear shot of the place. The alternative when we are using a chopper we take the passenger door off and simply shoot out the open door.

With an plane you are a limited to how near you are able to fly into the earth below reagular circumstances the minimal altitude is ome thousand feet, or through open countryside five hundreds feet. In practice however, we avoid using a plane below one thousand feet. Any photos that we get to take at smaller heights are taken using a chopper.

With a chopper you are lawfully capable to get in at a lower heights. This has many rewards when you are shooting small places, but under most circumstances you are capable to work with an plane for a little over $100 an hour versus using a chopper for about four times more.

In order to make this pay I tested a lot of appointments together, so that I am making more than one appointment per flight. I’d rather having it leased for assignments or as many as 8 per flight.

Aerial photography is a really fascinating occupation, and you meet some of the most interesting individuals while making business. One of the matters that I don’t recommend making though is trying to be both lensman and the pilot of the plane. You can’t make both jobs at once, and you should get a pilot to fly the aircraft or chopper while you’re taking the photos. This is from my own awful experience many years ago, where I did try it, and nearly killed me.