Aerial Photography & Quadcopters

First Light on the Catalinas. Mt. Lemmon, Arizona, 2014 (Kitt Peak in the distance)

These little aerial machines–or drones, as some call them–are becoming super-duper popular. Both my brothers have them. They are preparing, honing their pilot skills, awaiting the eventual decision by the FAA on how they might be used for commercial purposes.

They would be very useful for low altitude video “tours” of real estate properties (see our former Joder Arabian Ranch site for an example). They could be used by law enforcement in myriad situations…by rescue folks looking for the best avenue of approach…for event promoters wanting footage from unusual viewpoints and can’t afford the rent on a Huey heely-whopper…for parks and wildlife preserves wanting to show off their landscapes on their websites…and so on, and so on…

Eventually–some day–the image quality from these tiny airborne cameras will get good enough to be able to extract a single frame from the video for a large print. Imagine how that might change the kinds of images we well begin seeing at the local photography show!

At THIS LINK you’ll find a short (under four minutes) sample video by my brother, Greg. He launched his quadcopter at dawn from an unusually not windy Windy Point at about 7,000′ MSL on Mt. Lemmon, above the city of Tucson. It gives you an unusual perspective on the terrain. You’ll also see some other areas around Tucson in additional scenes. Be sure to pay attention at about the 42 second mark as you’ll spot yours truly preparing to capture what would become the image above.