We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Aerial Arts. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Aerial below.
Aerial , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?
In our particular business as drone pilots /aerial photographers, our work is a vacation. We have to be on location to shoot. We aren’t stuck behind a desk in an office somewhere. It’s always a new place, new people, new creative opportunities. We love what we do and that makes it a whole lot less like “work”. Don’t misunderstand, there are still deadlines, expectations, and goals to meet that still come with a certain level of stress. When the responsibility of keeping your business up and running becomes too much, and it will, take a step back. As an artist and musician, when I run into a block I find it beneficial to take a step back. Take a weekend off. When I come back to it I find that the progress is often more forthcoming than if I try to muscle my way through.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
We are as Pacific Northwest duo providing aerial video and photography. We provide on-location aerial media for a variety of production needs. Need high quality pics of the house you are selling? We can do that. Do you want a cool video of your brand new dune buggy out on the beach? We can do that too. An aerial camera platform provides many more unique vantage points than a traditional point-and-shoot camera. That is where we stand out. Our raison d’être is writing, recording and performing music. As such we offer custom soundtracks to the style of your liking, making your video that much more personal.
Aerial Arts was conceived from our love of the outdoors. We originally talked about taking ultra-light aircraft into the wilderness to get unique nature photos and / or video. However, those aircraft tend to be very expensive, so we began exploring other options. The first was mounting traditional cameras to RC aircraft and trying to MacGyver our way into that. As we did our homework however, we discovered that drones were already being manufactured in the appropriate configuration for what we wanted. As a result of our homework and dedication, we acquired our FAA part 107 certification and began our journey as aerial media artists.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The Portland Rose Festival is a week long annual event that opens on a Friday night at sunset. We made plans to film the firework show from one of Portland’s more pretty bridges. The plans went off without a hitch. We got great footage. As it was also Memorial Day weekend, the Oregon Convention Center’s glass towers were all lit up in patriotic lights. We thought it would be a great idea to include the lights in our project. While setting up a shot, both of us committed the ultimate drone piloting sin: we took our eyes off the drone. The drone side slipped right into one of the towers. The image on the display spun, tumbled and went black. $1200 gone, just like that. Even thought it was a holiday weekend, we were able to recover the broken drone, and more importantly, the entire night’s worth of images still on board the vehicle. We briefly thought about not replacing the drone due to the expense. We were aware that this could happen again and we would be in the hole event further. However, the feedback we received after getting that video completed and posted made replacing the equipment worth it.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
As many people do today, we spend a lot of time viewing online media. We see a lot of cool things and think, “I can do that, and maybe do it better.” So, when we are successful and make something people like, it’s rewarding to sit back and say “I made that!” The reward is the stroke to the ego and getting paid is the bonus.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://aerialartsproduction.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aerialartsproduction/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aerialarts2022/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AerialArtsProduction
Image Credits
All photos by Aerial Arts, LLC