Solar Panel Inspection for Property Management and Insurance Adjusters - Dallas Texas Aerial Photographer

  Drones are not just for real estate photography, but a myriad of other industrial uses too. Let's take a look at a case study / practical example.

  An apartment complex with 16 buildings, all of them are 2 or 3 stories tall, with no internal access areas to the roof (stairs or built in shaft), due to the residential tenants, and liability reasons. A storm comes through with VERY high winds and/or hail. This is extremely common in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas during the spring and summer months.

The property management doesn't immediately notice any power issues, but would like to check everything out and get ahead of any problems before it cause an interruption in resident electricity service. A normal inspection would require a 2 man crew, climbing 30+ feet of portable ladders, and repeating that process for all 16 buildings. This could take 2 days, and will certainly present a safety risk to any maintenance staff or contractors with the repetitive ladder climbing. Not to mention the labor cost for 2 contractors, or just the time spent away from other maintenance duties if utilizing property staff.  For a simple inspection, this already is starting to sound like a daunting, expensive task, especially just to confirm everything is ok.

  Bring in a drone. In just a few minutes, the UAV can be airborne from a ground station, and fly each building without ladders, climbing or other unnecessary risk to employee/contractor safety. A previously full 1-2 day inspection job, can be completed in a few hours with an unmanned aerial drone, at a significant cost savings.

  High resolution photographs of each array, single panels and even overviews of the entire complex are easily and quickly obtained. These can also be used when applying for "green" tax and utility credits, to prove technology usage. Inspections can also be utilized for insurance adjusters who are overwhelmed with claims immediately after a storm hits an area, and may take months to get out to each site personally. High resolution aerial photographs of roofing shingles, solar panels, Air Conditioning units, and other building and property damage can expedite claims processing, or be used to justify emergency repairs necessary before an adjuster can even review anything.

  Have a licensed, qualified UAV pilot perform an inspection immediately, the next time there is a "surprise" from mother nature!

FAA part 107 Certified Drone Operator - Texas Aerial Photographer

I recently passed the FAA part 107 exam. Officially licensed and legal pilot for all drone / UAV work, as well as manned aircraft aerial photography. I am ready to discuss your next project!

Aerial Photography is something I have done for years from manned aircraft, so this is not a new fad I just decided to try. I have almost a decade of experience photographing commercial and residential properties from the sky, as well as construction progress and other projects. While there are still times a manned flight is the only option for a very specific project, adding Drones to my toolbox opens the door to a few new things that were not possible or cost effective with manned aircraft.

• Orthomosaics - Georeferenced mapping can be done in real time. Mapping of properties of all types, in many cases same day. This allows for weekly, bi weekly or monthly progress of job sites, construction, or land development to be documented efficiently and accurately. With precision ground control points surveyed on the initial setup, and satellite GPS tagging of images, each map is extremely accurate and can be updated in 24 hours or less. These maps can be overlayed into google earth maps for exact updates of your site in comparison to the surrounding infrastructure.
• Inspection - Quickly and accurately inspect areas that would normally require specialized climbing tools, techniques and personnel. Get a quick, real time view of tall roofs, towers, or difficult to access areas to determine if sending in maintenance/repair employees is necessary. No ladders or harness required.
• Volume measurement - In construction and Mining operations, measuring production material volume, volume of blast areas, and removed material piles in real time, gives decision makers on site, and at remote offices access to real numbers in real time. This aids in logistics planning for removal and dispersion of excavated materials, and storage capacities of delivered / consumable materials.
• Mining, Oil & Gas Production and Energy - In addition to volume measurements, Drones allow tracking of equipment positions, excavation progress, drill and rig site surveys, aggregate calculations, and monitoring of safety compliance on site.

For more info on what I can do for your business with Drone technology, call or email and I am happy to discuss your specific needs in detail.

http://www.jasonjones-photo.com/contact

FAA Drone Advisory Committee Formed

The FAA has formed a 35 member committee to establish standards for the industry. With safety as the priority, it should go without mentioning that this will benefit Drone Aerial Photographers and Videographers, by giving the FAA industry input.

While I normally frown upon more Government oversight and regulations in most endeavors, because historically it has smothered small business, I feel this is certainly a good thing, and a step in the right direction. As someone who shares airspace with drones from General Aviation and Light Sport aircraft, and vice versa, I welcome any and all safety and operating guidelines that allow for safe, and prosperous interaction of both.

Here is the AOPA article on the committee, and it is well worth the read:

https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2016/september/20/drone-advisory-committee-kicks-off?utm_source=eBrief&utm_medium=Content

Dallas Aerial Photographer

Texas Ranch and Land Photography

  I absolutely LOVE a nice ranch. It's probably the Texan in me, despite the fact I do not identify as a "cowboy", "country boy", or other typical labels that would dream of a ranch property such as this one. Just having space, wildlife, and ample land between you, neighbors, highways and the city is appealing to people from all walks of life.

  Texas offers some of the most spacious ranch acreage in the country, and I thoroughly enjoy photographing these properties for Architects, Interior Designers, Real Estate Agents, and magazines.  Each assignment is like a mini vacation, where I enjoy a day in the life of an exquisite, luxury ranch owner.

  Photography has been so great to me, and I have traveled the world, seen things most people never experience (at any income level), and never felt like I was working too hard for too little, like many 9-5 folks do... Its hard to believe that 9 years ago I hastily left an ungrateful labor type job with almost no money to my name, a camera, and a big dream that I had no idea how to make come true. 2015 was a landmark year in many ways. Thank you to the creative community for the opportunities, and helping me achieve these dreams. When God blessed Texas, he included me in there too.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Jason

Dallas Real Estate Photographer

Waco Real Estate Photography

Ft. Worth Real Estate Photographer

West Texas Ranch and Land Real Estate

East Texas Ranch and Land Real Estate Photography

UAV / RCMA / Drone Photography... Not the "evil" you might have heard.

 Almost everyone these days has heard the term "drone" or UAV as it is associated with law enforcement or military operations.  Increasingly, these vehicles have started occupying the skies, and there is a LOT of misconceptions and legislation in the works regarding their use.

    I think we can all agree that their use should be regulated to prevent invasions of privacy, like unauthorized / unconstitutional surveillance by govt. entities, paparazzi, and criminals using them for nefarious tasks (voyeurs, planning crimes, etc..). However like any tool or object, there are good uses for such devices. These uses typically are overshadowed by the very limited number of bad implementations.

    As an aerial photographer, I have clients with a property that would not allow ideal images from a traditional aircraft that cannot fly as low or as close as a UAV, such as being surrounded by much taller buildings on all sides. Another extremely common use for these in my field is indoor photography of large buildings from elevated positions, such as a massive production facility/warehouse.  Theres a high demand for the use of UAV's and drones in agriculture too. Instead of spending the fuel and airtime for a small manned craft to survey 1000 acres of crops, you can do it cheaper in relatively the same time with a UAV.

    Realtors are probably the one industry that would benefit the most from positive legislation regarding the use of UAV's / Drones for Aerial photography. Being able to inexpensively take some elevated point of view images of larger homes or homes on land without some of the added cost and time consumption a traditional flight requires, makes their marketing more effective, and unique.

    When you hear of knee jerk or feel good legislation regarding unmanned aerial photography or UAV's / Drones in the news, voice your opinion to your representatives, but keep in mind there is a huge industry of honest, well intentioned photographers, cinematographers and surveyors counting on citizens to see the good in this technology.