Why Aerials?

Imagine to yourself that you're scoping out a place you want to visit for a vacation. You're doing all the research, finding the key sites to visit, and selecting places to sleep, dine, and tour. Or, imagine that you've just gotten a new job and you've been informed that the company is moving you to a new city. In either case, you will probably type something into Google, such as "hotels in Rome," "best restaurants in New York City," or "where is Idaho?". 

Google is a decidedly visual search engine, but don't take my work for it. Look up something, maybe "restaurants near me." What do you get?

Pictures. 

Lots of pictures.

Seriously, choose any sort of business or location. You may have to click on its name, but pictures will appear. That right there is your customer's first impression of your business, your property, or the location you manage. I won't name drop here, but in my small town of Rexburg, there are some businesses that could have chosen better images. Clearly, their first images are amateur cell phone images taken during the early (muddy, leafless,) weeks of springtime. 

This will affect your business, or your venue, or your event, or even your public facilities. Whatever you do, you need better pictures available on Google, on your website, and on your social media.

But why aerials?

I'm sure your nephew has a perfectly good camera and some rudimentary photoshop skills to take a half decent exterior photo for your business page. My iPhone's camera is now better than some consumer DSLRs, so there's also that. 

But photography is all about perspective, and no number of attempts will allow a ground-based human photographer to achieve the perspective of a drone.

Now, go online and look for businesses that have good pictures on either their Google listing or their website. Pay attention to how aerial images differ from even the best ground-level images. In case you're stuck, here are a few ways I've noticed in which they are better:

1: Context

Aerial images place your location into a larger context. An aerial view of your restaurant may reveal that it is situated in a well-lit, walkable downtown area, or that there is ample parking, or that it has patio dining. It can do all of this in one go by capturing a comprehensive image of your entire property. If you're into real estate, you can show off the front yard, home, and backyard all in one go. Aerial images place your location into the context of the community around it. 

2: Perspective

A new perspective is eye-catching in and of itself. You are more likely to notice a high-quality aerial image because it stands out against the backdrop of ground-level images. It's like placing a painting by Monet into a modern art gallery of paint splatters.

3: It's specialized

Once again, your imaginary nephew has offered to take some pictures using his brand-new drone from Christmas to help increase the visibility and appeal of your property. Unfortunately, this could get him in trouble with the FAA. To use aerial images for commercial purposes, a pilot must have a special license from the FAA called the Part 107 license, which requires extensive knowledge of drones, drone piloting, and the laws surrounding drone operations in federal airspace (which is pretty much all airspace). By hiring a licensed aerial photographer, you're hiring someone with the knowledge and experience to avoid crashing, damaging property, or breaking the law.

It really boils down to this: what do you want people to see when they're trying to find their next favorite restaurant, their new home, the nearest grocery store, or the cleanest park? It's not a random iPhone picture, and it's not a limited ground-level image. It is, in fact, an aerial image that incorporates the context of your property, a unique perspective, and the specialized skills of an aerial photographer.

Don't believe me? Head to my Contact page, give me a call or a message, and I would be delighted to show you what kind of images we can get of your property, and you'll get to experience the bigger picture in person, free of charge.