When I shoot my custom low cost, high definition, aerial photography assignments, I always have a professional, Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) with me, at the controls.  My CFI knows his/her helicopter or fixed wing aircraft and what will be possible. 

My helicopter companies are all "135 certified" meaning that they can land and take off from any permitted airport.  It also means that we can stop to pick you up from an assigned location other than our home airport.   

My professional CFI pilots will be in charge of their helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.  I will let them know what I would like to do, for my clients, to get their aerial photography jobs done.  I will ask my pilots to carefully perform certain, specific, aerial maneuvers that will allow me to get my shots.  If I need to have the helicopter inch its way backward, to rotate very slowly one way or another or, to come up about 10 feet, to perfectly line up a shot, that is what I will ask my CFI pilots to do. 

Some aerial photography sites will have Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR's) imposed on them by the FAA.  That means that I won't be able to enter into these areas at all or below a specific elevation.   

Every area of the country has certain TFR's and I will need to know about them before the aerial photography flight can be booked.    

I will not use any of the little, lower cost, lower quality, 35mm cameras on your low cost, High Definition aerial photography assignment.

I will not shoot your low cost, High Definition aerial photography assignment as little, tiny, highly compressed, poor quality, 35mm JPEG photo files.

Instead, I will ONLY use the legendary, medium format, Hasselblad H1 cameras, and the incredible 22, 39 or 60 million pixel, Phase One digital recorders.

You will be able to enlarge your low cost, High Definition aerial photos into huge prints for display, trade shows and court room exhibits.

www.hasselbladusa.com

www.phaseone.com

Hourly Rates

(plus all pre-approved expenses and any materials used)

You will pay for the helicopter or fixed wing aircraft directly to the service provider.

You will not pay me for the helicopter or fixed wing aircraft flight times.

I will book the flight for you.

Pre-Approved Expenses

There is no extra Daily Rental Charge for my 22 million pixel Phase One, P25 Digital recorder.

However, due to the extreme cost of these High Definition digital recorders, I need to charge an extra Daily Rental Charge on my $40,000.00 P45 and P65 Digital recorders.

Custom Aerial Photography

Post-production Costs

I charge $100/hour, plus expenses, for all of my low cost, high resolution, custom aerial photography and post production services.

This includes any Phase One, Capture One Pro, RAW file conversions, digital data transfers to disc or drive and for any Photoshop work done after your original RAW photos have been converted to JPEG and TIFF files.

You can have me do as much or as little as you wish.   

• Your original low cost, High Definition aerial photography RAW files will take a certain amount of billable time to be transferred into my computer external hard drives.  If you want your RAW files, they can be burned to discs or transferred directly to your provided USB2 External Hard Drive.   

• All of your huge, original High Definition RAW aerial photo files will need to be converted into either TIFF or JPEG files.  Nothing can be physically done with any RAW file until it has been converted into a TIFF or a JPEG file.   

• You can do your own High Definition RAW file conversions, if you wish.  I will caution you, however.  These are very sophisticated Phase One RAW files.  They are much more complex than the typical 35mm RAW files.  I would only attempt this process if you are using Phase One, Capture One Pro.  You can use some other RAW file conversion program but I don't know how well it will work.

• However, if you want me to do your RAW file conversions for you, it will take a certain amount of billable, post-production time.  The amount of time billed will depend on the number of pictures taken during the mission.  The more shots taken, the longer it will take to complete your RAW file conversions.

• I will only use Phase One, Capture One Pro (C1 Pro) to convert your original High Definition RAW files into sRGB High Definition JPEG and TIFF files.

• Then, every single High Definition TIFF file will need to be Photoshopped to perfection.  That can be a simple 2-minute process or it can take an hour each, depending on what needs to be done. 

• If your material is going to be printed 4-color, your printer or graphic designer will need to convert your sRGB High Definition TIFF files into CMYK files.

• All of your Photoshopped photo files will need to be copied and burned to multiple DVD's and multiple external hard drives.  Some of that extra time will be billable.

• You may provide your own USB2 External hard Drive.  I would be pleased to transfer anything and everything to your drive.

• Your finished Sony -R CD's or Fuji +R DVD's will be put into thin, hard "CD Shells" and labeled on the shell.  Nothing will be written on your discs.

• Your final digital disc materials will need to be delivered or shipped to you.  You can select the means most appropriate for your timeline and budget.

• I will keep multiple disc and hard drive copies of your low cost, High Definition aerial photography digital files here, for secure backup.

Professional Lab Services

• You will own all of the Copyrights to the low cost, High Definition aerial photography images I create for you. 

• I will give you any file size, resolution or file type you wish.  You can do anything you wish with those low cost, High Definition aerial photography images.

• You may do your own lab work and print preparation or I can do that for you.

• I use a local, professional, photo lab, called AV Partners ( 1520 Edinger Avenue, Suite A, Santa Ana, CA  92705   949.955.3699).  They do a wonderful job with all of my work.  You, too, can use AV Partners or any Pro lab you wish.

• My finished digital files will be sharpened and color optimized to work best with AV Partners.   Other labs and printing equipment will be similar but they won't be the same.  

• I never use or recommend using any discount "Department Store" type of photographic print producer. 

Professional Lab Prints

(Fuji, Crystal Archive, Luster-surfaced, 300dpi, sRGB, TIFF prints)

These are the prices that will be charged if I produce the prints for you.  Your "wholesale" per-print prices will be lower if you do your own prints.  Please contact the lab directly to determine their current costs.  I am not related to or associated with the lab, in any way.  They do not pay me for my referrals.  I am happy to refer AV Partners because they do such a wonderful job for me.

My prices include the costs for doing some amount of Photoshop work on each and every 300dpi TIFF file before it gets printed.  This is where I turn a great picture into an amazing print.

I will not print anything from a low resolution, highly compressed JPEG file.

Extreme amounts of Photoshop will take more time than usual and will need to be billed accordingly.

Metallic Papers: Add 75%

Aircraft Expenses

You can fly with me or I can shoot your assignment without you.  If you fly with me, we will need to book a larger aircraft.

• Currently, in Southern California, 2-seater Robinson R22 helicopter charters cost about $350.00 per hour.  The 4-seater Robinson R44 helicopter charters will cost about $650.00 per hour.  5-seater Jet Rangers will cost about $1,000.00 per hour.  4-seater Cessna fixed wing aircraft run about $200.00 per hour. 

• Nothing will be left to chance.  We will need to discuss your required deadlines and the range of services that you will need.  We will cover the weather options, time-of-day or time-of-year variables, possible shooting schedules for in-progress construction projects and, of course, your budget.  There is no charge for this initial planning meeting. 

• I will need 10-15 billable minutes to pre-flight my gear and my pilot. 

• That will save you money.  At $350.00/hr for the helicopter and $100.00/hr for my time, it will cost you about $8.00 for each minute of actual small helicopter flight time.   At $1,000.00 per hour, it will cost about $20.00 per minute of flight time.  I don't want to waste a minute of your time.

• I will need any possible GPS coordinates, physical building address and major cross street or Freeway details and any physical or structural, details, such as building signage, colors, compass directions, visible landmark details, etc. 

• I need to be able to pick your site or building out of the forest of other buildings and trees, site unseen, from the air.  I can't call you from the helicopter so I need to have as much detailed information as possible before I leave the ground. 

• Sometimes, the property will need to be seen from the ground before it can be shot from the air.  If we fly it and shoot the wrong building or property, due to a lack of information,  it will still cost you for the assignment.

• The costs related to doing a ground check of the property will be extra and will be billable.

• Some aerial photography assignments will need to be shot at specific times of the day or during specific seasons of the year, for the best possible images.  If you want to see snow in the background, that can only be done in the winter.

• The cleanest air is right after a cold winter rain or wind storm.

• I will need to pay attention to exactly how the angle of the sun light will affect your images.  Because your exposures will be based on the sun-lit areas in the picture, any shadow in the shot, will be exposed as a very dark, almost black, area.  If you want your image taken without dark shadows, we will need to coordinate exactly when to shoot the pictures.

• Some legal photo missions will need to be shot at specific times of the day or year to illustrate line-of-sight obstructions, foliage coverage, traffic patterns and sunlight/shadow concerns that may have existed at the  time of the incident. 

• I may need some billable time to check Google Earth and Zillow, to pull maps,  contact any Air Traffic Control authorities and to obtain any Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR's) over or on the way to your shooting location.

• Once we are airborne, we should not be re-thinking or planning how to get someplace.  That could become a very expensive process.

• All helicopter and fixed wing aircraft require about 10-15 billable minutes, on the ground, for any final pre-flight prep and to warm up the engines before we can take off.

• All aircraft need to be cleared for departure by Air Traffic Control (ATC), which can also take several billable minutes.

• All aircraft must receive permission to enter into and to travel through certain controlled "airspaces".  Sometimes, that can take several minutes before we get the proper ATC permissions.  Some airspace will be "off limits".

• We can land and take off from your property, in some cases.  We can also land at remote sites as needed.  Some remote aircraft operators also carry their own fuel supply trucks.  This all needs to be certified by the FAA.

• Depending on the low cost, High Definition aerial photography assignment, we may need to land at another distant airport to refuel at some point during the aerial photo flight.  The added time and fuel costs will be part of the hourly charter rates.  Most helicopters need to refuel after 1.5 to 2 hours of flight time.

• Depending on flight, pilot and location circumstances, we may be altitude limited by the ATC in charge.  We may not be able to penetrate a restricted ceiling or airspace.

• All aircraft require a certain amount of billable engine cool-down run time, at the end of the flight, before the engine can be turned off.  This helps to dissipate the heat away from the engine components, reducing engine wear and tear.  The aircraft instruments will tell us when we can shut down.

• All aircraft use a very precise "HOBBS Meter" to measure every minute that the engine has been turned on and used.  That Hobbs Meter is used to schedule all FAA required engine maintenance activities.  The Hobbs Meter will be used to measure every billable minute that the aircraft will be working for you. 

• All helicopter and fixed wing aircraft bill per "tenth-of-the-hour" increments, or per every 6 minutes of use.  Your Hobbs Meter billing will state something like: 2.7 hours.  That will mean 2 and seven tenths of an hour... or 162 minutes engine-on to engine-off time were used to complete your project.

• Once I get an idea of what you would like to shoot, where the location will be and how your images will need to be shot, I will be very pleased to give you an exact estimate, itemized for everything possible.

• I can work with "Not-To-Exceed" budget flights as well as "get the shots at any cost" assignments.

What is my own experience level?

In addition to providing low cost, High Definition aerial photography services, I offer;

 I can shoot your event, property of location from the ground, using the same High Definition cameras and digital recorders, at the same cost.

• I have been shooting aerial photos from various helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft since 1973.   I have more than 8,000 hours worth of aerial photo time, in both helicopters and fixed wing aircraft.

• I have flown to 12,000feet agl (above ground level).  I have also flown at about 20 feet above the ocean. 

• I have provided my low cost, High Definition aerial photography services all across the Nation. 

• I can shoot my low cost, High Definition aerial photography assignments over land or water.  

I have shot low cost, high definition, aerial photos of golf courses, sporting events, construction sites,  ships at sea, high rise buildings, murder scenes, traffic accident evidence, earthquake damaged structures, legal issues, real estate properties, marketing, special events, air-to-air and IRS surveillance from aircraft.

Your payment for all of my low cost, High Definition aerial photography services will need to be COD unless you are a repeat client with an established 30-day account. 

I accept Cash, Check or Charge Card (Visa, Master Card and Discover Card) payments.

You will be asked to pay for the helicopter and fixed wing aircraft services at the time that they are provided.  Your payment will be directly with the provider.

Unless an open account has been approved, nothing can be shipped or delivered to you until it has been paid for, in advance.

All complex, long-term, periodic low cost, high resolution, aerial photography assignments will require partial payments, as the work has been completed.  Large, complex or long-term low cost, High Definition aerial photography contracts will be structured with a series of partial  payment dates and various production deadline dates.

I work from accepted and signed contracts so that there are never any questions about costs, responsibilities, deadlines, goals or objectives.

Custom Aerial Photography Shooting Costs:

I charge a flat rate of $35.00 per hour to cover my travel costs getting to and from some required airports, pick up or landing sites.  I don't charge travel time to get to Long Beach Airport or Orange County Airport.

Depending on the local airport location, relative to your shooting location, it may cost less, overall, for me to drive to a distant airport to begin your low cost, High Definition aerial photography flight than it would if I were to depart from a local airport and, then, have to fly to and from your distant shooting location.  This rate will cover the fuel and mileage costs required to complete your job. 

This rate will also apply to my basic travel expenses if I need to fly to a distant State to complete your low cost, High Definition aerial photography assignment.

All of this will be discussed and approved before the low cost, High Definition aerial photography assignment is accepted and worked.