Cost Of Doing Business - How to suceed financially long term as a creative....

[Gary Mortimer]

I'm going to chip in here, I can manage the flying but cannot frame a decent picture for toffee. So the expense for the equipment is one thing that you can factor in, being pants at photography is what you might learn in the end.

I would expect training in the USA to cost not less than 5k once rules are promulgated and equipment costs to at least triple. There are standards being written that will make peoples eyes water around here.

 

[ChrisViperM]

http://www.aerialmob.com/about.phph...about.phphttp://www.aerialmob.com/about.phpHi Gary

Great to see a South African fellow on our forum.....


All what has been written in this thread is great food for thoughts.....especially the contribution from jes1111 concerning the need to be really fit not only in the technical field, but also in all the other disciplines requiered to be successful.
The question is: How to tackle all that ? Becoming a good photographer needs talent, passion, great skills and many years of practise.....being able to fly all sorts of RC stuff needs a lot of practise....choosing the right equipment, building and maintaining the copters on a high level needs a lot of technical understanding....and the whole business side of it is another story altogether.
My lesson in life was, that - regardless in which business - I will never be able to know every aspect to the necessary level. I started a few successful businesses in very different fields, but I always tried to team up with people who were experts in their own field, but for whatever reason woudn't start their own business......my role was always to have a vision of how I wanted the business to be and to take the pressure of running the business away from them. The biggest challange is always to find the right people to form a team and not to loose focus on where you want to go.
Coming back to running a successful Aerial business, trying to run it all on your own won't let you get far....if you are great with the technical side, why not team up with a good photographer/filmmaker ???
Our great member “kloner“ and his friends from AerialMob are just doing that, and it looks like that they are pretty successful:
http://www.aerialmob.com/about.php

Thats just my personal experience and only a small piece of the puzzle, but it worked great for me...

Chris

 

[sixshooterstang]

For me, the way I have seen to keep any kind of photography or cinema business of any kind afloat is to have more than just random one or two time clients. The best way to make money is to lock in regular clients like a TV show or a real estate company, a client who has a constant, reoccurring need for your services. This way you can cut them a break but also keep things running in a predictable and profitable way.
And it is profitable to do business that way as your costs are low if you take care of your equipment, do constant preflight checks, and replace wear items before they fail

 

[Mr. T]

Thanks everyone. This is a great forum.

 

[Mr. T]

A lot of food for thought. Seems like every time someone chimes in, a vale is pulled away and another facet of the business is revealed that I have not considered. BTW how long has everyone (Jes, Chris, Gary, et al) been in the business of aerial photogaphy/video. And what is your specialty.

 

[jes1111]

A lot of food for thought. Seems like every time someone chimes in, a vale is pulled away and another facet of the business is revealed that I have not considered. BTW how long has everyone (Jes, Chris, Gary, et al) been in the business of aerial photogaphy/video. And what is your specialty.

I have yet to charge my first client for aerial photography - maybe next year. I've been an architecture/interiors photographer for twelve years - mostly high-end real estate and hotels. Being a "professional" anything is no walk in the park - producing the goods whatever the weather, your mood, your client's mood, your equipment's mood, etc. - no excuses, no re-shoots. In fact, a big part of it is just understanding what will please the client before even starting the shoot - IME they usually can't actually convey that to you in meaningful terms. Search for words of business wisdom from @SMP - everything he writes is spot on.

 

[Gary Mortimer]

I have been playing with AP since 2005 and the greatest number of images have been making 3D models and GIS mapping. As I said I can't take a framed image of a thing like a house for toffee.

 

[Mr. T]

I have been playing with AP since 2005 and the greatest number of images have been making 3D models and GIS mapping. As I said I can't take a framed image of a thing like a house for toffee.

you say "3D" but in what way? What is GIS mapping? Something to do with geological surveying?

 

[Gary Mortimer]

Making point clouds of things using structure from motion, things like photosynth and the like and then creating maps from that dataset. In the past I have flown over nests to look for eggs of endangered birds and making maps of where they are exactly. It saves a lot of trudging through wet stuff for researchers if there are eggs that we detect and disturbs the birds less. At the minute though I am flying radio repeaters from fixed wing platforms for a collar tracking project. Much easier than taking pics ;-)

 

[Mr. T]

Making point clouds of things using structure from motion, things like photosynth and the like and then creating maps from that dataset. In the past I have flown over nests to look for eggs of endangered birds and making maps of where they are exactly. It saves a lot of trudging through wet stuff for researchers if there are eggs that we detect and disturbs the birds less. At the minute though I am flying radio repeaters from fixed wing platforms for a collar tracking project. Much easier than taking pics ;-)

Your flying over my head with the jargon (pun intended) so I went me, a googlin. I kind of understand. Very facinating.

found this as a web image. I produce these kind of images with my CT scanner. But with my equipment I scan a .5mm scan thickness through the structure of interest and recon an image like this. Then through sliders on a the software, the various layers of tissue will melt away as I push the slider(s) until I get to the structure I want, lets say the circle of willis for example. At that point I can program the structure to rotate on its axis so that the radiologist can see every section/angle of the structure of intrest. I would love to see what you do. It sounds very satisfying. My daughter, (who is studing natural resources and fisheries) would find your work interesting I think. I will show her your post. Feel free to email me. Thanks again Gary!

-Terry

 

[kloner]

thanks for the nod Chris

We do pointclouds with lidar on uav's that looks like this