I own a company that takes photos of folks rafting on the Colorado river. The ideal shot would be from directly above a ‘hole’ that’s out in the middle of the river. The river is about a hundred yards across at that point. So, groups of rafts come down and we shoot them. We currently shoot from the shore. So, if the weather was bad, we could always fall back on that. Otherwise, I’d like this thing to fly for about 15 minutes at a time, 6-10 times a day. Every day, from March to October.
You definitely want something like the Draganflyer. It is designed to do exactly what you want, reliably. You can get multiple battery packs (usual recharge time is 1-2 hours on a pack, and they can be charged off a car battery) in order to meet your 6-10 times daily requirement.
It is easy enough to fly that you don’t need an expert. And it is very simple mechanically, so there shouldn’t be much maintenance.
You are not going to be happy with the reliability of any of the hobby-class options.
However, you realize that with any of these approaches, you run the risk of a technical failure dumping your $8,000+ UAV and camera into the river?
Could you get away with stringing a line between two trees on either side of the river and hanging a camera from it?
You’re selling pics or videos to the rafters, right?Presumably you want to get a close enough shot so people’s faces are recognizable?
That’s probably the biggest hurdle right there. Thanks for the tips guys.
Hello there kids. I do live streaming (and conventional video production) for a living and have several broadcast multi-camera mobile units for it. There is a tendency with ideas such as the one here to finding solutions in need of a problem and spending 8K on a flying platform is one of these. Now telling anyone this is like telling someone not to do heroin, you’re going to either do it or not regardless of how meaningful the advice and I fear that since (and as was mentioned to you first) you need to know how to fly and second if you want to do things for money you will need all the backup equipment since you can’t tell a client "oh sorry I need “X” to do your job. So the “entry fee” of 8K is only the beginning. I can’t really think of a location you can’t reach by car/van and what we have is a 70ft pneumatic mast from which we can mount any kind of video or still cameras and using HDR techniques or the Gigapan device we can take images that you just wouldn’t be able to compete against commercially with a flying platform! Commercially though means that you need a licence, insurance, marketing and all the sorts of the things that go along with any business so “breaking” in is certainly not a $8000,00 entry fee. Having been in the field of video and photographic communications for 35 years or so I would urge you to seek out others doing what you want to do in your area. This is called “due diligence” and you need to do this anyway. See what others charge, what gear they use and who they “sell” their services to. Then do an internship with them which means working for free but using and observing “gear” and systems in action that you don’t even know you will need to buy! Either of three things will happen. Let’s take the positive first which is that you will have found that there is a market like giving away money and you can break in for money you have. If so go for it however I’m willing to bet that most of the markets you can think of are already dominated by guys like me and you haven’t a snowballs chance (in hell) of getting into the business. There is no reason to stream video live and there is a latency issue if you wish to integrate it into a live video production. Further if you do it with people or objects involved the liability is tremendous and your call should be to your insurance company first and your lawyer second. Dropping your “flight platform” on a football player, soccer player, baseball player, skier, horse, car, model, singer, band or anything else is really not something you want to do. I always think of a famous photographer Bob Giraldi who directed Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video. He was such a big shot and never wanted to hire me… then he did this Pepsi commercial where MJ’s hair was set on fire and the guy never worked again! You do not want to be the guy/girl who drops their helicopter (or whatever) on something and kills someone! Start by doing a YouTube search for aerial camerawork and you will see just how many there are in the biz, how they do what they do and just what you’re up against… and good luck.
Make sure your insurance company is aware that you may be crashing an RC heli into your customers. They’ll probably be interested.
Another thing is that it will be hard to get that shot ‘just right’ and if it is a pretty fast moving part of the river, you’ll only get a couple shots off before the rafts are out of range. Live video streaming back to the operator to help line up the camera will get expensive (second cam, transmitter, additional battery), especially more so if the bird takes a dip.
I stumbled on the right thread. I currently have projects in mind that could conceivably involve model helicopters or the Colorado River.
chaco, (If you’re still around) are you photographing rafters in the Grand Canyon?
Why a helicopter? Why not a tethered balloon? Three tethers and you should be able to keep it reasonably in one place.
Yes, I know this is a zombie thread, but I just came across a highly relevant NYT article. It is a violation of federal law to operate drone aircraft for commercial purposes, including ones you can pick up with your hands, in the US. I had no idea. The rules are changing, though, and in a few years they may be blackening our skies. :
Also, it raises the question of whether the FCC considers a “drone” any differently than a radio-controlled aircraft. Perhaps there are related issues such as the craft remaining within sight of the operator, or some definition of how much autonomy a craft might have before it is classed as a drone. I’ve seen videos of lots of RC planes and helicopters that go outside the visual range of their operators, some of which are equipped with gps a and going to and from waypoints, and some of with the op keeps track of by an onboard video camera.
Anyway. interesting subject for discussion.
are you studying fish? Why the need to look down on the water instead of a tall pole on the shoreline covering the same area? How wide is the river?
Three posts below the one you quoted:
:smack:
I think flying a camera 6 times a day would be labor intensive and tough to do considering you need to line up a shot of moving target. Modern camera’s certainly help the process with image stabilization.
Better to move the camera closer and lower with a simple cantilevered pole. It would be easy to fix a video camera next to the still-photo camera so you can monitor the action. Keep in mind, the farther away the camera, the more difficult the shot.
How would a “clothesline” type system, with the camera hung over the choice location, work for this particular application?
I imagine boom counterweights would keep it pretty stable.
Here is is a link that could give some ideas on how to suspend it, although it is mainly balloon-suspended systems is focuses on.
It’s BLM land; no structures of any kind are allowed. I’ve figured out my own work around. Thanks for the replies.
are portable structures allowed? And on a side note, would videos serve your needs? I think you will have a better time of taking videos than still photos which would be very unforgiving.
Don’t keep us in suspense, what’d you do?
Photographers in jet packs?
People who enjoyed this thread my be interested in this Reddit post (and may have even posted there):
Friend of a friend has made this heli-rig with a camera hooked to a pair of goggles. TV networks hire him to do aerials and the police are interested in his design. (vimeo.com)
Reddit comments
Maintenance can be very high when you’re learning to fly. You’ll need insurance for any decent sized copter also. There are much less expensive, and easier to fly planes that would do the same thing for you. Also blimps.