September 4th, 2017
Recently I ran across the pair of photos to the right shot by Marc Lacoste of Nantes, France. Marc was showing me the difference it could make if you just held your camera on a tripod over your head to get a little extra elevation (3.6 meters). This graphically illustrates how easy it is to get […]
May 19th, 2017
Jack in Florida recently asked: Is there an alternative to using a drone for real estate photography? In my local area there hasn’t been a huge demand for drone images/video. I have used an extended pole to capture some elevated images but it is very awkward. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
March 28th, 2016
Wanda in Virginia recently asked: I have a question and was wondering how other photographers handle this. It just seems that the best position for photographing most exteriors is higher than my tripod will reach but not high enough for a drone. How do other photographers handle this. I have thought about bringing a different […]
February 10th, 2016
Matt asks: I’m about to buy the equipment for PAP (Pole Aerial Photography), curious how most folks do it- keep a second camera, lens, battery, etc in the car every day for when the need for PAP arises? Since we don’t want to put our 5DMk2 up in the air, was planning on using a […]
January 3rd, 2016
David in Washington asks: Is it possible to put the DJI OSMO on a 20 ft pole to get a more aerial view of a house and not use a drone? Has anyone tried it and have some video results? I know you can buy 3 ft extension but I want to get higher. I […]
July 29th, 2015
Cal Mitchener, a successful real estate shooter in Charlotte, NC that we’ve featured several times here on the PFRE blog, has been providing elevated real estate shots for many years. Cal started with a WonderPole, then in 2011 he moved up to a Gitzo giant tripod. Last week he described his planned move up to […]
November 6th, 2014
From a post at Planet5D.com: With moves afoot in some countries to ban the use of Go Pro-toting drones after some spectacular accidents in public places, what better time than now to introduce a safe and affordable alternative? Michael Georgens of Aachen, Germany, has done exactly that with his RodCam, recently demoed at IBC 2014. […]
October 7th, 2014
I got an unexpected question from Brian in NZ. Brian is relatively new to real estate photography and Pole Aerial Photography (PAP). He wondered why PAP is important, and how do you sell it to your clients. Brian was stunned by James Governali’s shot that won last year’s October still contest with a 58′ pneumatic pole. […]
August 20th, 2014
I’ve had several readers point out this video on large construction tripods for use in photography and videography. Giant tripods are very popular with real estate photographers but you have to lay out around $2K USD for a Gitzo carbon tripod with the extendable center section that will raise a heavy DSLR and lens to […]
July 28th, 2014
Rich Baum just pointed out the post he just did explaining what he uses to shoot elevated real estate shots and I think it has a lot of good information. He says: So you might think this shot is a nice exterior but what you may not know, this was shot from 18? up on […]
March 19th, 2014
Sergei Lupashin, a Swiss fellow with a Phd from ETH Zurich has founded a company called Fotokite to develop a simplified RCMA that is a cross between a RCMA and a kite. This YouTube video shows Sergei demonstrating his Fotokite invention at the Drones and Aerial Robotics conference last October in NYC. This is so […]
March 17th, 2014
There’s been a lot of talk recently about using RCMA (Remote Control Model Aircraft) for real estate but the total costs of equipment and insurance and time practicing etc. all add up. It’s not for everyone. It’s mostly a upper-end real estate photography tool. There are many of the old standby approaches that will take […]
December 11th, 2013
Just when you thought the CamRanger couldn’t get any better than it is, Melissa and David at CamRanger have taken it to the next level! They’ve added the ability to wirelessly control at motorized tripod mount from the CamRanger App. Very cool! This is exactly what anyone using a giant tripod needs! Here’s what it […]
November 4th, 2013
The post last week on Jeffery Hogue’s bucket truck stirred up a lot of discussion about elevated shots. Clearly a large part of what Jeffery gets out of his bucket truck is advertising and visibility. Iran Watson does a good job in the comments explaining why a truck like this doesn’t make sense for everyone. However, I […]
September 25th, 2013
You may have noticed the in the announcement that Sony made early September of the QX10 and QX100. They are basically lenses with sensors in them that talk to SmartPhones over WiFi. These things were released about 3 weeks ago, but they are still sold out everywhere. I believe this kind of design where the lens and sensor […]
