May 2025
May has been hectic in the best possible way.
With the perfect flying weather at the start of the month I made the most of low winds and good light to conduct few property shoots and also have a lot of fun with the Mavic. Tweaking the manual settings and sharpening my skill with camera angles and conducting waypoint missions. Time management is crucial as is the flexibility to be able conduct flight operations when the weather dictates. I’m learning that fast. The down days can be frustrating and as the seasons progress this will become more evident as the opportunity to fly will reduce. There’s still so much to be busy with when the weather prevents flying. I love the creative aspect of editing footage and enhancing photos and whilst my editing times are reducing and processes becoming more slick and refined it still takes time producing the media output at the quality I aim for to provide to my clients.
Here’s the month in numbers….
- 3 projects completed
- multiple web based seminars attended
- 10 leads contacted through Bark.com
- 4 responses
- 1 new laptop purchased
- 2 courses booked for August (photogrammetry,Lidar)
- 1 set branded clothing purchased
- 1 website built and launched
- approx 20 hrs of flight time logged – professional and recreational
- 2 zillion hours of Youtube learning
- countless hours of market research
Last flight of the month (today) 31st May
Tricky onshore gusts along the Pembrokeshire coast but managed to conduct a few flights at Amroth along the cliff line while we are attending a VW festival.
(some event photos to follow)
June 25
Wow what a month !
With a really mixed bag of weather and lots of other challenges, finding the right time to fly was tricky this month but we managed to cram in a lot of work and got to see some stunning locations along the way. Networking with new clients and producing quality media for them has been a major portion of my workload this month. I’ve also covered a lot of miles seeking out new locations to fly both recreationally and professionally.
An MoD operation at Sennybridge in South Wales involving radio jamming covering a vast area across the South West forced me to seek safe flying conditions a little further afield which turned out to be a great day shooting property in beautiful Somerset. 5 miles from Glastonbury in glorious countryside I was fortunate to shoot some images of a holding currently on the property market. Both the client and myself were really happy with the media we achieved and hopefully the listing with added aerial photography will attract more house hunters to view the property. I took Cody with me for the day and enjoyed an afternoon in Glastonbury after the shoot was complete.
Another highlight of the month was a property shoot in rural Ceredigion. What a beautiful part of the country! The greenest rolling hills and quaint villages filled my eyes on a sweltering summers evening. The drive to location alone was worth the services we provided to a private client looking for aerial photography of his property and the surrounding area.
Further property shoots which I am currently still working on filled the second week of the month along with some awesome recreational flying locally in Porthcawl and in Pembrokeshire. With limited flying this week I’ve been catching up with editing photos and creating videos for both clients and for personal use.
Further bookings are in for the next few weeks and start of July including a shoot in Brecon of a woodland on an estate and a holiday home near Rhossili which I’m really looking forward to.
Onwards and upwards…..
July/August
Just an incredible few months with such a variety of flights and projects. We’ve operated in some really spectacular locations recently including an open cast mine and along the stunning Gower coastline. Construction progress shoots, property photography and epic cinematic landscape filming have filled our days and memory cards. I enlisted the help of my nephew recently for some larger scale work where having a spotter was extremely helpful. His ex-military background was invaluable from terrain reading to rigorous checklist adherence . Thanks Kieran.
