Construction Progress Photos

[2nd2non]

The above photos were resized because they were too large to post.

Ok thanks. That has been my experience, but the video editor in me wants everything to look symmetrical

 

[R.Perry]

Ok thanks. That has been my experience, but the video editor in me wants everything to look symmetrical

I know how you feel, but remember you are shooting for your client, not for yourself. My client sometimes asks for specific shots and I have no earthly idea why he may want them, but since he is paying the bill that is what he gets. One of the superintendents on my project was attempting to zoom in on pano shots and didn't like the quality. Once I explained to him my panos were shot at two hundred feet and were then stitched he understood why he couldn't read a sign that was two hundred yards away. So I started shooting slide shows for him much closer.
To me it is all about learning your client, and what he wants and delivering it. Here is an example.

 

[Z06Aggie]

So.....quick question about using a Litchi waypoint mission for still photos. Aside from putting the drone in the air and taking a few test shots prior, how do you know the distance from POI and elevation needed to get the correct shot? I just setup a waypoint mission on my PC to fly to a waypoint, stop and take a pic, and on to the next one, etc... As of now, I'm just guessing on the waypoint locations. Until I fly it and see the results, I really don't know for sure if I need to be closer or further from the POI to get the correct shot.

 

[Geo_in_KS]

I assume someone will have more technical knowledge than myself, but Ive had to use trial & error.
One building I was shooting I assumed I could get about 20-30 feet from it and get a good shot, I actually had to get back maybe 100 feet or so to get a perfect shot.

 

[Norm Kokes]

Afternoon everyone - I've been asked to do monthly progress photos of a construction site with my Mavic Pro.

My question is, is there a way to ensure that I am taking the exact same photo every month from the exact same location & angle? Other than bringing a copy of last months photo with me, and comparing it to my screen shot, of course.

I want to get as close to same each month so that the client can flip through month by month and see the progress they have made, without having to compare different angles and whatnot. I may even try to put together some sort of timelapse or slideshow at the end.

Thanks!

I currently have 2 long term projects I am filming in order to do a time lapse video. This consists of streaming video plus still shots. All I do is setup a standard litchi mission to video the project than create a copy of the mission where a snapshot is taken at each waypoint. As progress advances on the projects I run the missions one after the other so every time it's run the angles and distances are the same. The only thing that will be different is lighting so I try to run all the missions around noon when the sun is high and on sunny days if possible.

 

[BigAl07]

So.....quick question about using a Litchi waypoint mission for still photos. Aside from putting the drone in the air and taking a few test shots prior, how do you know the distance from POI and elevation needed to get the correct shot? I just setup a waypoint mission on my PC to fly to a waypoint, stop and take a pic, and on to the next one, etc... As of now, I'm just guessing on the waypoint locations. Until I fly it and see the results, I really don't know for sure if I need to be closer or further from the POI to get the correct shot.

You can only "Guess" ahead of time. Once you're on site you'll need to do a site review and allow for "obstacles" that may not be showing on the Litchi Hub map. I've yet to have a single one that was perfect from the hub. They all need "tweaking" but the more you do the better the initial ones get and need less tweaking.

 

[Z06Aggie]

You can only "Guess" ahead of time. Once you're on site you'll need to do a site review and allow for "obstacles" that may not be showing on the Litchi Hub map. I've yet to have a single one that was perfect from the hub. They all need "tweaking" but the more you do the better the initial ones get and need less tweaking.

That's kinda what I was afraid of. I did one mission last week with the DJI app. I just replayed the mission on the app, and used that info to build my Litchi waypoint mission. We'll see how close it is when I go out next time.

Thanks again for all the replies.

 

[R.Perry]

I do a total of 17 panos on the above job site each week. I have way points set for each one, I don't need to worry, it flys to the exact location and altitude each time, make my job very easy.
One problem with Litchi right now is with the Inspire 2, it will no do panos as it did previously. I now do my panos manually and found that I can do one more pano between battery changes than I did before and I come out with better panos, at least in my un-humble opinion.
What I did initially was used the waypoints to fly to the desired location of the new pano, shot the pano, and obviously saved the waypoint. That is a lot easier than recording your gps location and attempting to fly to the exact location each time.

 

[AerialCS]

I started my drone business a couple years ago and attending my first general contractor convention in the middle of August, I will be getting into construction progress photography/video in the next couple months. Can anyone help me understand the approximate rate for which you bill? Is it per project or do you go by the acre? Thanks

 

[Z06Aggie]

I, personally, just bill a flat rate per project. I'm still in my first year of this, so I'm trying to keep the billing as simple as possible. I can only assume I will need to restructure my billing as my work grows, and I add on different types and sizes of projects.

 

[AerialCS]

I, personally, just bill a flat rate per project. I'm still in my first year of this, so I'm trying to keep the billing as simple as possible. I can only assume I will need to restructure my billing as my work grows, and I add on different types and sizes of projects.

Would you mind sharing your approximate rate? I have been charging $79/hour, but Im still a small business. Thats approximately 3-4 hours per project initially.

 

[Z06Aggie]

I'm a little cheaper than you, but I'm doing whatever I can to get new work at this point.

 

[BigAl07]

Would you mind sharing your approximate rate? I have been charging $79/hour, but Im still a small business. Thats approximately 3-4 hours per project initially.

3-4 hours per project?

Are these huge projects? Are you doing lots of image processing after the fact?

Are you processing DATA (making maps etc) that is consuming a lot of time?

I won't give out my pricing scheme but I can tell you this much.... I've got one job that's about 1/3 complete (monthly) and I'm only on the job site for maybe 25min total and it pays what you would make in about 3 hours of your rate. There is NO processing for this particular job (right out of the camera except for PANO and they are done in the cloud) and the drive for me is about..... 3 min.

You and only you can price your services because only you knows how much time it will take or what the client is asking for.

 

[BigAl07]

Is it per project or do you go by the acre? Thanks

Our company quotes each project individually. We do have some "standards" we can use to toss our quick quotes if it's a simple project.

It depends on where the job is, how frequent they want data, how MUCH data they want, and what other deliverables they desire. DO they want a simple 4 picture shoot once a month or do they want 14 pictures, 3 pano, 1 map, and 8 ground photos every week? How much time after the job site visit will you be processing data for the client?

Time is money and you've got to put a high enough value on your time to make it worth while. If you don't put a high value on your time you can bet your bottom dollar that you clients won't either. They'll scavenge off our your low value and smile all the way to the bank. Also your level of skills and talent will help determine what you are WORTH.

As a word of warning... if you start off with CHEAP rate your clients will expect those rates on future jobs. It's like pulling teeth to raise your rates once you've established yourself. Once you're the "low baller" to your clients you'll always be the low baller in their eyes.

 

[Levitated Media]

Not to hijack this thread, I can start my own if needed. Any recommendation on how to sell these types of jobs to construction companies? I recently had a construction company state that "they've been doing this for 20 years, never used or needed a drone before, why now?" and he didn't seem to like what my response was?

I simply explained the benefit to seeing the process through from an overview style vantage point to where at the end of the project, he may be able to find ways to increase his productivity thus, leaving more room for profit and save on man hours.

 

[BigAl07]

Not to hijack this thread, I can start my own if needed. Any recommendation on how to sell these types of jobs to construction companies? I recently had a construction company state that "they've been doing this for 20 years, never used or needed a drone before, why now?" and he didn't seem to like what my response was?

I simply explained the benefit to seeing the process through from an overview style vantage point to where at the end of the project, he may be able to find ways to increase his productivity thus, leaving more room for profit and save on man hours.

This is one of those projects where you'll get that kind of response a lot more than "OMG yes please take our money".

The best thing I can suggest is get in good with one who does accept your proposal and in addition to creating data for them creating a stunning portfolio of the project that you can show off to future clients. Be sure to include things that will WOW the project managers and the big heads who are not onsite day in and day out. Those are the people who need this type of service. Also if they are already doing extensive progress documentation they may honestly not need Aerials at this time. It's not an easy sell and I'd say starting out you may get 1 out of 10 proposals. Cold Calling is toughing but the more you do it, if you're a salesman at heart, the easier it gets. I kinda like the rush and the challenge of it now but I've been in sales a very long time.

 

[R.Perry]

So.....quick question about using a Litchi waypoint mission for still photos. Aside from putting the drone in the air and taking a few test shots prior, how do you know the distance from POI and elevation needed to get the correct shot? I just setup a waypoint mission on my PC to fly to a waypoint, stop and take a pic, and on to the next one, etc... As of now, I'm just guessing on the waypoint locations. Until I fly it and see the results, I really don't know for sure if I need to be closer or further from the POI to get the correct shot.

What I have done on new locations was to find the location, record the GPS and of course altitude, then when setting the new waypoint it make it very easy to set a new waypoint and altitude.

 

[HawkView]

I fly a site manually the first time targeting the 8 cardinal angles, and take more photos than needed from multiple angles and altitudes.

Once I have selected the actual set of photos that I am sending to the customer, I upload those into the new Airdata photo gallery feature. That makes it easy to match the coordinates of the "production" photos and then I create a mission in Litchi to recreate those each month. Previously did the same idea, but took more work to figure out which photos in the log were the ones I wanted.

What I have done on new locations was to find the location, record the GPS and of course altitude, then when setting the new waypoint it make it very easy to set a new waypoint and altitude.

 

[BigAl07]

.... I upload those into the new Airdata photo gallery feature. That makes it easy to match the coordinates of the "production" photos and then I create a mission in Litchi to recreate those each month....

What is this new "magic" your speak of?

I'm off to play with my Airdata account and find the new features. I've got to start reading their emails to me LOL.

 

[HawkView]

What I have been doing is flying a new construction site when I find it, then sending an e-mail to people at the contractor, architect, civil engineer, owner, anyone else I can identify from a Google search based on the signs on site and online building department records. I send these separately rather than looking like a spam message.

I do both cardinal angle photos as well as an orthomosaic map. I include a few reduced size photos and screenshots from DroneDeploy in the e-mail, and a Dropbox link to the high-res versions. (All watermarked, of course.)

On some larger sites, I also make a 16x20 print of the watermarked orthomosaic export at Costco ($7) and drop it off to the superintendent at the trailer - they are always amazed, but they do not have the purchasing authority. But they usually bring it up in meetings with the project manager and that might get them to go back and look at the email, which they may have glossed over, or at least look at the business card that I tape to the print as well as leave a few at the trailer.

So far the majority of my construction jobs have been driven by the marketing people (who is sometimes also the owner) rather than the project managers. None of them in my smaller market have been interested in the integration of data into their BIM systems, because most of these smaller mid-size contractors may not even use such systems fully.

You're very lucky to have inside contacts Aggie! There is a large construction project going on ear me and there are only just doing excavation right now.

Great question - You say "large" project, so I assume there's a portable office on site? I would start there. There should be a head superintendent on site, and they are used to solicitors stopping by.