Architectural Drone Photography in Pittsburgh

I’m just wrapping up a five-day drone gig for Hanlon Electric.  They wanted me to photograph and do short videos representing of ten of their installations.  The assignment was to shoot images that either captured their actual work or if that wasn’t possible, to photograph buildings that helped them “name drop” a list of their clients.  I ended up using my drone for nine of the locations and my regular DSLRs for the tenth.

The client’s primary need was for their website.  The sill photos I shot are going to be used to let the viewer of the website visually see a particular service/product category.   The montage of the drone videos I shot will be used on the “splash page”.  Both stills and videos will also be used in various social media posts.

I’m finding that I’ve stumbled into a needed niche.  Clients are figuring out that they often need both stills and b-roll videos of the same subject matter, and a drone adds another dimension and quite a bit of value to their clients.  Clients are also realizing the value of building a library of assets they can draw for social media use.  So, if you’re going to hire a still photographer to shoot some images, why not send someone who can shoot a little video and create some aerial drone photography and video, while they’re there?

Another reason for my upsurge in the drone business is that, as a commercial photographer, clients realize that my “artistic eye” is a valuable asset that translates to both video and aerial still photography.  There are some very good drone pilots out there who have no idea what good composition is.  A drone is nothing more than a camera in the sky.  The same skills of recognizing good lighting and creating great composition, still apply.  Not all people possess that skill.