When SIOR Report magazine caught up with Allan Goldstein of Aerial Images Photography
in Elk Grove Village, Ill., he was returning
from the airport after just completing a
photo shoot of a building where the roof
was being erected.
Goldstein is a pilot with his own plane
and this shoot involved flying over
the structure. However, in January,
Goldstein acquired a drone after years of
resisting such a purchase. The problem
for Goldstein, a professional photogra-
pher, was that the quality of pictures
from a drone weren’t good enough for
him. When he flies, he uses a $10,000
camera. A moderately priced drone can
be bought for just under $1,500 so the
camera quality is not going to be nearly
as good.
Still in January he made the move.
“People are in love with drones,” he
says. “You can fly them and they are not
at all that expensive. Most are just toys,
but you do have a group of them that
are platforms for the serious photogra-
phers. I jumped on this because I saw
recent improvements in photographic
quality. What is really very good are the
videos you get with a drone. I was quite
impressed by it.”
The shoot that Goldstein was returning
from cost the client around $700. Had
Goldstein been able to take a drone over
the site, the charge would have been
somewhat less, although Goldstein
emphasizes that the quality of the pho-
tography would not have been as good.
Down in Miami, Edward Redlich, SIOR,
vice president of ComReal Miami, began
using drones for aerial photography
about three years ago.
“I’m your typical industrial real estate
broker,” he says. “I sell properties or
look for warehouses to sell or rent. In
my marketing, I have always done aerial
photography and videos as it is another
tool to tell the story of the property. We
would hire a photographer who would
go up in an airplane or helicopter, which
was expensive and dangerous – the pilot had to watch out for other aircrafts
or power lines.”
Redlich tried drones instead, and over
the past two years, aerial photography
from drones has become the standard
operating procedure for his company.
“It’s not for every property and not for
every situation,” he says. “However, if
you have a significant property and you
are trying to get a scenic shot of the
property, it is definitely worth considering.”
The problem in the past for drones has
been the heavy hand of the Federal
Aviation Administration, which had
“There is a huge difference in [drone
photography] companies. This is a new
technology, a new industry, and you
really have to choose the right drone
photography business.”
