MAST PHOTOGRAPHY/GROUND BASED AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

There was a little bit on this a while back, just wondered if anyone has given it a go recently? Would love to see what kit you use, how it performs and what experiences you have had etc..

..for me here in the UK, I have a 16m Clark Mast and a Land Rover Discovery which carries it. The camera is a G10 and I have special software to link to my laptop. I have the Hague Pan and Tilt Head, which is ok but I want a better more reliable one.. I haven't seen many on the market, I did contact a company who make a lot of stuff for the Military and they have a real state of the art, heavy duty 'ruggedised' one. Trouble is, the price was also heavy duty as well at around £1800.00! ...Slightly beyond my means..

I currently drive trucks for a living but hope to do this part-time then maybe full-time for a living. Just now, I am still setting it all up, trying to improve on the system and make it more user friendly. My budget for doing this is about zero as well at the moment! My simple website that I have built myself is about 90% finished.

I will post some pictures up soon!

Steve.

A mate of mine had a mast a few years ago and we looked at building a business plan but struggled to find the customers who valued the photos.

It looks like you have the same set up that we did.

It is a specialist area though - good luck.

This is my primary focus, though I have a handheld portable rig that only reaches 20'. Still gives an impressive view though.

Finding the customers who value the shot is key. My rig is always a crowd pleaser, but results in very few print sales. (I've shot ALOT of car shows.) However, I also haven't really marketed myself well enough to honestly expect high sales in that market. And I'd much rather be working for development firms and selling digital files, not prints to car owners.

There are many options out there for your mount. DIY is of course the cheapest, but this entails, well, doing it yourself. Which means lots of time, to learn what you need, how to do it, and then gather the parts. Ready to rock out of the box mounts aren't going to be cheap.

www.PhotoshipOne.com has mast gimbals for around $500. 'Tis on my wish list(as is a G10), but don't know if I can swing it. DIY or finding another DIY'r to build it for me will likely be my route. But I won't have quite the sophisticated rig that you already have. I'll be expanding to a 40' push up mast with a vehicle mount, and a tripod base if I must get somewhere that the car can't reach (that will be unlikely, but I want the option available). But I also hope to be using my handheld rig for most jobs.

Check out www.APLanding.com... a primary RC aerial photog forum, but has some mast toting members (myself included), as well as the flickr group "Pole Aerial Photography"... a much slower paced forum, but lots of info there and terrific photo examples as well.

I am in the USA, but would love to toss business ideas back and forth. Feel free to send me a PM.

Here's to cameras on a stick!

Thanks for the replies and info so far guys, I shall certainly take a look at the sites mentioned above, they sound interesting..

Meantime, I got the website finished, it's nothing very fancy as I just wanted a nice clean looking easy to use site

Can't remember if we are allowed to plug our own websites on here but here goes:

www.fotomast.com

I can delete this post if there is any problem.

An easy way to enjoy aerial photography by mounting your KAP-rig on a pole of 4,5m high.http://b-kites.blogspot.be …e-aerial-photography.html

Folks might enjoy this link. Smaller scale and appropriate for DIY or those less inclined to fabricate their own.

http://polepixie.com/h​ome.cfm

Has anyone attempted to stitch photos from a pole? I'm wondering about the pole swaying with the wind. High shutter speed takes care of single shots, but what about stitching? Any issues?

I went the 9m pole route complete with Hague tilt/pan unit with additional custom made gear to provide zoom function on the lens. This rig took ages to setup including guy ropes. I decided to build a quick n easy rig. I use a 5m B & Q painters pole with manfrotto tilt head and quick release plate which I mount my 600D or 5D2 on. I use an Aputure Gigtube wireless video remote shutter device to see what the camera sees in Liveview and operate the shutter. The screen is mounted on the pole at head height via a 7" friction arm and clamp. I mount a loupe on the screen so I can use the rig in bright conditions! It works well and only takes a few minutes to set up. Check out my temporary website www.db-elevated-images.co.uk I also dabble in Kite Aerial Photography as well. It's all great fun and if I can earn a little bit of money from my hobby I will be chuffed!!

Michel Dusariezis making 360 degrees pictures from a kite, I will ask him to post some on his website. (so it is possible to stitch pictures from a pole or kite).
Thanks Dean, I like your setup very much. I am using also a downlinktocontrol the exact position of the rig
Thanks for the info about the wonderpole.

Bert
I've thought about dangling my kite rig from a Carp pole or something similar but not sure if a pole over 5m would be too much of a handful!!
My kite rig uses similar parts to yours. I use a Panasonic LX3. The video out is transmitted to the ground via a really small 2.4ghz unit from an FPV (first person view) r/c plane setup. I use a really cheap 4 channel 35mhz radio set for the tilt/pan/shutter release. I'm toying with the idea of putting my 5D2 on it. Need some decent wind to lift it though!!

To Dean,
My pole is 4,50m that's a nice height for shooting people within a range of max. 10 meters. You can still handle that pole easily (while fixing it to your body). Once you want to go higher, I think you need a tripod.
The weight of my RIG is 1,2kg and I can easily lift it with my kite starting from a windspeed of 10km/h

Hi Bert
How do you fix the pole to your body? I've threaded some large cable ties through the base of the pole to stand on to stop the base kicking out.
What kites do you use Bert. I have a Rokkaku and a Sutton Flowform 16. Not used the Rok for lifting my rig yet , but the flowform is great!
Dean

Dean,

PLease check the following picture:
http://b-kites.blogspot.be …e-aerial-photography.html
My Rig /Camera is hanging with two cable ties on a 6mm concrete reinforcement iron in a U shape+.

The U shape+ slides into the carbon fiber pole. A small grove of 8mm in the top of the pole is preventing that the RIG is starting to rotate with every move of the pole.

Can that help.

KItes:
For light wind: The Fled
For standard conditions: The Holy man
For HIgh wind: Above 30 upto 60km/h: The nighthawk

Yesterday we had a memorial ceremony in our street. That's a perfect moment to get out a pole out and make some pictures from a higher angle of the parade.
I am using a canon G12 - RAW - speed set at 1/800 - downlink
http://www.b-kites.blogspot.be/2012​/09/bevrijdingsfeest.h​tml

Nice shots Bert.

To the question of stitching... I've stitched a few panos from my handheld 20' rig. Photoshop does a great job. I've not done any full 360 panos, though. If I know I'm going to want a pano of a certain area, I just make sure I take more photos, with plenty of over lap and going well past what I want on the edges.