Greetings from the Åland islands, Finland!

[Flygfoto]

Perhaps you can start a club. Contact your local Parks Department and maybe they will sponsor it where the public can be invited. Or you can keep it small, contact a few of the folks you know and have them spread the word. We call that a "Grass Roots" effort and it might turn into a "Ground Swell" and lots of flyers will turn up and then the Parks Department will create a function around it.

But, on the bright side, you have the commercial business all to yourself. Real estate photos, tourist photos, commercial construction projects, fishing boat videos, and so many more options in your section of the world.

Good Luck!

Hi! Thanks for your input! I actually think that there is some sort of club for hobby flyers here, where they fly around in a field somewhere. But I find that a bit boring, since I am an explorer in my heart and soul. So I go by myself all around the island an try to find stuff and places I haven't seen before

Yup, I have done lots of videos since I first started, you can find them if you search for @flygfotoaland on youtube (it seems it is forbidden to post a direct link here, since it was removed when I did it in my presentation).

 

[msinger]

Welcome to the forum!

 

[LoudThunder]

(it seems it is forbidden to post a direct link here, since it was removed when I did it in my presentation).

I am sorry, but I do not understand with your posting that your link was removed. Please go back to my initial posting. Under the reference to the Member's Map, I remarked what a wonderful web site you have and I even complimented you on the 360 degree Photospheres. Your Link was active then and it remains active now.

I have included a screen shot of your initial presentation and I've highlighted your link and below that screen shot is your web page that I just linked to from your posting.



I cannot explain how the style of the link will be presented when inserted. Some links only appear as a single line entry as your does. And you might notice that the web page even linked your reference to your home land, the Åland islands. ( I did not create this link to your home land, the web page firmware did…)

Some links appear with graphics as the links I included to the Member's Map…

So, please do not feel slighted that MavicPilot deleted your link, they did not…

Now, here a little secret, in the top of the posting window is a button to insert a link with a meaningful title, rather than just the raw http link address.

Here is your web page inserted with a meaningful title…

RUNDTUR ÖVER ÅLAND Web Page

 

[Flygfoto]

I am sorry, but I do not understand with your posting that your link was removed. Please go back to my initial posting. Under the reference to the Member's Map, I remarked what a wonderful web site you have and I even complimented you on the 360 degree Photospheres. Your Link was active then and it remains active now.

I have included a screen shot of your initial presentation and I've highlighted your link and below that screen shot is your web page that I just linked to from your posting.

View attachment 157781

I cannot explain how the style of the link will be presented when inserted. Some links only appear as a single line entry as your does. And you might notice that the web page even linked your reference to your home land, the Åland islands. ( I did not create this link to your home land, the web page firmware did…)

Some links appear with graphics as the links I included to the Member's Map…

So, please do not feel slighted that MavicPilot deleted your link, they did not…

Now, here a little secret, in the top of the posting window is a button to insert a link with a meaningful title, rather than just the raw http link address.

Here is your web page inserted with a meaningful title…

RUNDTUR ÖVER ÅLAND Web Page

Hi!

Sorry for a very late reply, but I have been ill with both a cold and stomache flu and have mainly been sleeping a few days

But to get back to your reply, in my original post, there was a link both to the website of the real estate agent that I work for, and to the main page of my own website www.flygfoto.ax. And those were somehow removed. It could have been a mistake from my side too, but if I remember correctly, I saw those links in the final post too.

Either way, it really doesn't matter, I just tought that it was a little bit strange why someone removed the links without even telling me about it, or asking me to remove them if there was someting that wasn't allowed here

Thank you for the advice of how to make the links look better too!

 

[MA2 317]

to the main page of my own website www.flygfoto.ax.

Link worked for me so far.

.

 

[RkyMtnHigh]

Hi Guys!
My name is Peter Sjöberg, and I live in a small archipelago in the Baltic sea, between Sweden and Finland, called the Åland islands. Our native language is swedish, but we belong to Finland, even though we are self governed. Our culture is a mix between swedish and finnish culture, but I would say it is closer to swedish culture mostly due to the language (music, news, magazines etc.)

If you are interested, you can take a look at an aerial virtual tour that i have made of the islands here:

www.flygfoto.ax/aland360/

I have flown drones since 2014 when I bought my first one, and before that I hadn't almost even driven an RC car

The same year, I also registered my company, and started shooting photos for a local real estate agent, as a side hustle. After one year, they bought their own drone, but I continued to evolve and started making marketing videos for small companies here (which there are lots of, even in this small archipelago).

The models I have owned previously were:
1. DJI Phantom 2 Vision (one axis gimbal)
2. DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ (three axis gimbal)
3. DJI Phantom 3 Pro
4. DJI Phantom 4 Pro
5. DJI Mavic 2 Pro (still have it)
6. DJI Air 2S (still have it)
7. DJI Avata (still have it)
8. Skydio 2 (still have it)
9. FiFish V6S (ROV with gripper claw) (still have it)
10. DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced. (still have it)


The latter one, I actually got as a gift (brand new) from the richest guy on my island, mainly to help search for lost persons or animals. It is the most generous gift I have ever gotten, so I am now enlisted as a voluntary search and rescue resource in the local team

Right now, (funny enough) I work full-time as a photographer for the same real estate company that hired me when I first started my drone business. I shoot regular and aerial photos, virtual tours (360), and make videos for most of the enlisted houses/apartments on their webpage.

I still run my own company just for the fun of it, and to make some extra money. If you have any questions, just ask

Welcome to the forum from the beautiful Colorado Rockies! Happy and safe flying!

 

[AMann]

Hello Peter! Welcome from California! Hey, if you wouldn’t mind, can you share some more about your VR tours and techniques? They are really well done! Thank you and have a great time flying!

-Anthony

 

[Flygfoto]

Hello Peter! Welcome from California! Hey, if you wouldn’t mind, can you share some more about your VR tours and techniques? They are really well done! Thank you and have a great time flying!

-Anthony

Hi Anthony, and thank you for the welcome!
Thank you, I appreciate that! Is it aerial virtual tours your are mostly interested in, or is it virtual tours in general?


If you want to check out the virtual tours that I make for the real estate agent that I work for, you can take a look at those here: www.maklarhuset.ax/objekt-till-salu

If you scroll down a bit on that page, you can click on each picture that has the 360 symbol on it. On that page, you scroll down a bit, and you will find the tour on the right column below the photo of the real estate agent.

I don't have so much time to edit those tours, and usually they are not used for hopefully more than a few weeks at the most of the time.

When it comes to virtual tours that I have made for my own customers, there aren't too many, since most of them thinks that it is too expensive for them, or they don't really understand of how they work, and think that it is too complicated for them to handle.

But here are a few of them, and some that I have made just for the fun of it or as show cases:

www.karingsund.ax/en/virtual-tour-karingsund

Rundtur - Amalias Limonadfabrik

www.nipa.ax/sv/kalender/det-ar-aldrig-for-sent (scroll down a bit on the page)

www.nipa.ax/en/kalender/bureaucratic-colony (scroll down a bit on the page)

www.alandyachts.ax/nya-batar/alukin-c750-demo (scroll down to the middle of the page)

www.pellas.ax (scroll down to the bottom of the page)

Here is one where you can walk around in the only castle (ruins that has been turned into a museum) on the Åland islands:

www.flygfoto.ax/kastelholms-slott/

And here is one that I made as a demo for one of the local golf clubs:

Ålands Golfklubb

Is there something specific that you would like to know about the virtual tours that I make?

 

[SeaPig]

Welcome Peter from Houston, Texas. You found a very good place to be with this forum.

 

[Flygfoto]

Welcome Peter from Houston, Texas. You found a very good place to be with this forum.

Thank you!

 

[AMann]

My main question was what are you using to build your VR tours and if you wouldn’t mind explaining a little of the process of how you do it. Thank you so much for your help!

…Keep the spinning side up!

-Anthony

 

[Flygfoto]

My main question was what are you using to build your VR tours and if you wouldn’t mind explaining a little of the process of how you do it. Thank you so much for your help!

…Keep the spinning side up!

-Anthony

When it comes to aerial 360s, I basically use the panorama sphere function that most of the DJI drones have built in, but I guess that you are fully aware of how that works? I have also made sure to chose in the submenu, that it will save both raw and jpg images also, not just the stitched image. That makes it possible for me to stitch the files using PTGui (paid version, since it is totally worth it) in case DJIs software makes a bad stitching.

After the image is shot/stitched, I open it in Photoshop and use the spherical panorama function under the 3D menu, so that I can rotate the sphere panorama in any direction. Then I rotate it upwards so I can see the part where the sky is left out, and use the angle settings to adjust it so that I see the whole part where sky is missing. Then I mark the hole with the eliptical marquee tool, right click in it and choose content aware fill. There you find a few options/settings that you just have to experiment with to find what makes the "fill" look best. When you have created the fill, it is most likely a new layer on top of your 3D panorama layer. To make it merge and still keep the panorama "movable", you have to right click on the "fill" layer in the layer palette and chose "merge down".


Then you should be able to go to the 3D menu again, and chose "export panorama". Also make sure to rename the new panorama something else than the original file, since at least for me it seems like there is a bug that doesn't save the new panorama otherwise.

When shooting aerial 360s, you should thing of what the main purpouse of the image is. If you want to show a city, then you should pretty much be in the middle of the city, and go pretty high up (just make sure that you follow all regulations and hight requirements). But if you want to show a house and the property/location, you should be so low that you can see the front/back of the house, and not just the roof.

When shooting 360 photos inside of houses, make sure to get the monopod/360-camera in the center of the room if possible. Otherwise it will look a bit strange when you watch it and the camera is "off center".

When it comes to hosting and connecting the 360-photos into a full tour, I use Kuula.co, since I think are the best and largest when it comes to virtual tours. They also have great support, and always tries to come up with new functions and updates for the site. If your goal is to do this for a living and make money on tours, then I also think that they have a reasonable price. I also think that you can use it for free, but then you can only upload a limited number of images each month, and then there are also limits to other functions.

It is also very easy to export the tour as a link or iframe code etc, that you can send to your clients. Then they just insert the code into their webpage, and there it is. Once they have done that, you can easily edit the tour from your account, and make changes that your client wish, without having to do any updates on their webpages.

I would reccomend you to start doing tours of your own or friends houses, just for fun and to learn more. When you feel confident about that, contact some smaller companies, and ask if they are interested for a free tour, with the condition that you could use it to promote yourself to other clients.

 

[JPayne]

Hi Guys!
My name is Peter Sjöberg, and I live in a small archipelago in the Baltic sea, between Sweden and Finland, called the Åland islands. Our native language is swedish, but we belong to Finland, even though we are self governed. Our culture is a mix between swedish and finnish culture, but I would say it is closer to swedish culture mostly due to the language (music, news, magazines etc.)

If you are interested, you can take a look at an aerial virtual tour that i have made of the islands here:

www.flygfoto.ax/aland360/

I have flown drones since 2014 when I bought my first one, and before that I hadn't almost even driven an RC car

The same year, I also registered my company, and started shooting photos for a local real estate agent, as a side hustle. After one year, they bought their own drone, but I continued to evolve and started making marketing videos for small companies here (which there are lots of, even in this small archipelago).

The models I have owned previously were:
1. DJI Phantom 2 Vision (one axis gimbal)
2. DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ (three axis gimbal)
3. DJI Phantom 3 Pro
4. DJI Phantom 4 Pro
5. DJI Mavic 2 Pro (still have it)
6. DJI Air 2S (still have it)
7. DJI Avata (still have it)
8. Skydio 2 (still have it)
9. FiFish V6S (ROV with gripper claw) (still have it)
10. DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced. (still have it)


The latter one, I actually got as a gift (brand new) from the richest guy on my island, mainly to help search for lost persons or animals. It is the most generous gift I have ever gotten, so I am now enlisted as a voluntary search and rescue resource in the local team

Right now, (funny enough) I work full-time as a photographer for the same real estate company that hired me when I first started my drone business. I shoot regular and aerial photos, virtual tours (360), and make videos for most of the enlisted houses/apartments on their webpage.

I still run my own company just for the fun of it, and to make some extra money. If you have any questions, just ask

Welcome