Maken money?

[navonifamily]

So has anyone found a good legal and clean way to make money with your Drone??

 

[SaMavic]

I personally don't use my drone(s) for profit but there's several ways someone could make money with drones. Aerial photography, mapping services and filmmaking are just a few.

 

[BrooklynFlyer]

The key is identifying the people in your area who would potentially pay you.

 

[navonifamily]

I guess I’m not sure where to start with that. I’d like to be able to make money flying it..

 

[CanadaDrone]

Real Estate Photography, but you also need to be good at regular photography and more importantly post processing since you will need to offer the whole package and not just arial photos. The display size of Real Estate photos is generally so small the sensor quality for stills is adequate on the Air.

I shoot Real Estate professionally and at least in my area, "commercial" permits/clearance change everything as far as how easy it is to use a drone (regulations, insurance, etc). It would be the same for any other types of money-making uses for drones (again, in my area).

Other uses generally require huge investments for the Inspire or Matrice series drones to carry sensors for large scale construction inspections (infra-red, etc), farming/agriculture, etc. which are the real money makers.

People paying for video or areal photographs are going to want more than the tiny little sensor on the Mavic Air can provide unless they are very naive, and you had also better be a professional video editor with appropriate editing hardware/software if you expect people to pay for anything. There is a small market for people wanting photos/videos of their expensive cars, boats, homes, etc. but again the Air is not a good platform for that.

With the low cost and incredibly easy to fly drones like the Air and the Spark, if someone wanted to inspect their roof or something, they would just as well buy their own drone rather than pay someone.

Just my $0.02 anyway. In my opinion the Air is not a platform I would be comfortable charging money for services of.

 

[BuffaloAir]

CanadaDrone, well said. I, too, do Real Estate. Your narrative was dead on, hit the nail on the head and covered the critical points. May I interject regarding "The display size of Real Estate photos is generally so small the sensor quality for stills is adequate on the Air". Video quality from the MAir, for my clients, is satisfactory. MP2 Pro looks like it could jump in there really well.

 

[CanadaDrone]

CanadaDrone, well said. I, too, do Real Estate. Your narrative was dead on, hit the nail on the head and covered the critical points. May I interject regarding "The display size of Real Estate photos is generally so small the sensor quality for stills is adequate on the Air". Video quality from the MAir, for my clients, is satisfactory. MP2 Pro looks like it could jump in there really well.

Yes certainly, as part of a "package" or something that might also include the standard gamut of interior Real Estate photos, some aerial shots or footage from the Air would be satisfactory for your average residential client to be displayed on most popular Real Estate websites or similar mediums.

If someone hired you (not you personally, I just mean in general) specifically for areal shots/footage though, if you were charging anything significant for it and if the end use was more than basic viewing/sharing online, I think moving up at least to one of the 1" sensor models would be the absolute minimum. Certainly the new Mavic 2 Pro will be putting much improved image quality into a very portable package - I look forward to getting one myself.

I think drones present the same problem as people who got a cheap DSLR for Christmas and think they can shoot Real Estate or weddings because they got a "good camera" - some people immediately assume they can jump into the professional realm with basic equipment and limited knowledge and start earning good money. I am not saying anyone here is doing that, but I think it's important to recognize something like that is a risky endeavor and you open yourself up to law suits and other legal issues when you inevitably don't deliver up to a professional standard.

 

[navonifamily]

What would one charge for estate photos? My wife has been doing weddings and graduation photography for many years so us as a team would work. Just not sure where to start price point wise. Not looking to be rich just another income. If it was going good I’d upgrade in the quick to a M2

 

[CanadaDrone]

What would one charge for estate photos? My wife has been doing weddings and graduation photography for many years so us as a team would work. Just not sure where to start price point wise. Not looking to be rich just another income. If it was going good I’d upgrade in the quick to a M2

I imagine it varies considerably area-to-area but Real Estate Photography is not lucrative, nor is it my primary source of income. The market is so flooded with people who will do it for cheap (and a crappy job), but that is often good enough for realtors looking to maximize their own profits at the expense of their clients. In my experience they will accept second rate photos just to save as little as $10-20, or do an even worse job themselves to save $150 again at the expense of their client. In my area you would be lucky to get $170 CAD for a normal sized home, and to do a good job with that plus HDR editing, distortion correction, white balance correcting, etc. it often ends up being about 1hr for the shoot and 2-4+ hours for editing, so once you do the math and pay the tax man you are barely making anything. The people making a living from Real Estate Photography generally have huge operations set up and agreements with major realty agencies, and they still don't make much money. I do it because I enjoy it, but if it was my primary source of income I would be clipping coupons for groceries instead of spending time on this forum talking about drones or any other 'toy' or 'luxury' LOL.

Just google some Real Estate photography companies in your area and get an idea for what they charge for various square footages and packages. Adjust from there based on your skill level and offerings. You will also need a portfolio (you can offer free services, shoot you own house or friends' houses to build one) since nobody is going to want to use you without seeing a variety of your work first.

 

[Mossiback]

After paying the cost of proper licensing, insurance, and marketing, be prepared to have your prices undercut by someone with just a drone and free editing software.

 

[BuffaloAir]

My experience has been, in most cases, aerial work is an ad on. I charge an hourly rate, with a minimum call out rate of 1 and1/2 hours for real estate work. I don't go to the house for less than 1 1\2 hours. A 5000 sq foot home with property usually takes significantly longer than a 2000 sq foot home and most of my shoots are larger homes. I simply say drone work is additional time at same rate. More likely than not the agent wants just aerial stills. On larger properties an overhead video of the property is requested.

 

[neggy]

What would one charge for estate photos? My wife has been doing weddings and graduation photography for many years so us as a team would work. Just not sure where to start price point wise. Not looking to be rich just another income. If it was going good I’d upgrade in the quick to a M2

You need to make enough to cover travel time, equipment depreciation, travel expenses, and editing time PLUS the cost of getting your 107 license so you can legally sell your work, and liability insurance to C.Y.A..

Most people will not pay you what your true costs are.

 

[MrRobville]

Not a professional here, but I reckon that drone footage is usually part of a photographer's expertise rather than one's main trade.
Aerial photography, how cool as it is, does not sell by itself, just like how a full frame DSLR does not automatically sell photo's. You still need to show your capabilities and experience in photography to people that make them want to buy your photo's or even hire you. So I guess the best thing is to start working on a portfolio before even attempting to earn money from it.

Being both a regular and drone photographer will probably make it easier to cover the cost, since you have a wider field to work in.

 

[Voltaic]

No but I am making money