I am the Marketing Director for a virtual tour company in St. Augustine, Florida. Recently I have had several clients ask me about elevated photography. I started researching this field and found that there are a lot of different techniques used to accomplish this. There seems to be a lot of demand for this special photography and not that many providers. I tried to find a system that would fit into my budget and be mobile enough to be practical. That turned out to be a difficult task. Elevation poles are either too expensive or cumbersome to be practical. RC helicopters really caught my attention, but there were a lot of obstacles to this technique. First of all, the helicopters are several thousand dollars and then you have to learn how to fly the thing. After a couple of weeks of researching the helicopters I reluctantly gave up. The cost involved was too much and then there were the insurance and liability issues. It was fun being a kid for the two weeks. I was discussing my dilemma with a friend who owns and operates Capo Welding here in St. Augustine. He happens to be a photographer too. I showed him some pictures of a pole that I was considering and he told me that it didn't look sturdy enough to place a nice camera on. He was right. It looked like a telescopic pole used to clean a pool. We looked at a franchise opportunity and it was extremely expensive to buy in to. I thought to myself that maybe this isn't something that I want to pursue. Did I mention that my friend owns a welding company? J He told me that he would look into it and see if there was something that he could design for me. A couple of months passed and he invited me to come by the shop to take a look at a prototype that he had made. I was pleased with the design and functionality of this prototype. He said that he had some fine tuning to do and that he had to come up with a way to raise and lower the pole. If he was going to use a motor to extend and retract the pole, we would have to carry a battery around with us to operate the pole and that would cost us some mobility. There was also the base of the pole to consider and how he needed to make it sturdy and secure. I left his shop that day excited about the progress and started sharing the information with some of my clients. They were excited and ready to utilize this unique marketing strategy. A couple of weeks passed and my friend called me again. He told me that he wanted me to come by the shop and help sand down the legs of the elevation pole. (Nothing is free! J) When I got there I was surprised to see that he had everything measured, cut and even painted. It took me about an hour to perform the 15 minute task (my shop teacher would be very disappointed) and we were ready to assemble the pole. As we started putting it together, I was amazed at the detail and thought process that he had put into it. I told him about a conversation that I had with a virtual tour provider in another state. She said that she thought other virtual tour providers in the RTV network would be interested in hearing about our technology. So, I thought that I would take this opportunity to introduce my friend's latest invention to everyone. The pole extends to 27 feet and the camera is currently linked to the laptop via USB cords. This enables us to use the remote capture function and immediately see the shot that we have taken without retracting the pole to look at the camera. I am sure that we will eventually go to a wireless version. But for now, I have clients waiting and ready to schedule their aerial photography session. The pole weighs about 50 pounds and has a tripod base that is extremely secure. It features a hand crank that smoothly extends and retracts the pole. It has a pan and tilt head on the top, where the camera mounts to the pole. The elevation pole even has a name..."The Capole." I should be utilizing this new tool as early as next week. I will post our progress and pitfalls on our virtual tour blog in the coming weeks. If this is an area that you have been considering, I encourage you to contact either Byron or myself. Best of luck to everyone this year.
Dave Hall
Marketing Director
Listing Solutions, Inc.
St. Augustine Virtual Tour Provider
http://www.listingsolutions.net/
Order a Virtual Tour 904-540-9962
Info@listingsolutions.net
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