DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I have had tremendous pressure from some of my clients to provide the dreaded drone images. This is complicated where I live because most of the city lays within a 5 mile radius of an airport – not to mention the fact that one has to be properly licensed to make commercial images from a drone. This has lead me to pole shooting. I went to B&H when I was in NY and found a 24' tripod – about $1,600. I could not afford that so I decided to use a painter's pole with an adapter to mount a camera. When you shoot by yourself this method is an overwhelming task and a task I could not manipulate. Yesterday, on a model shoot, I found another solution. One of the photographers had a Manfroto 1004BCA light stand that could extend to 13 feet with a soft box. After the shoot, I went to Precision Camera and I bought the 1004BCA, an adapter to attach a small ball head, and a small ball head. I mounted my A7r with a 16-35 on to the 1004BCA and prayed for some stability as I raised it to 13 plus feet. It works great and I can already see that with some serious practice that this will a handy tool. I have a solid cover (high quality) on my truck bed and I can stand on the bed and get another 3-4 feet.

waegwan Loc: Mae Won Li

Sounds like quite an apparatus. Have you thought about balloons? Just a thought :thumbup:

mallen1330 Loc: Chicago western suburbs

Here's an alternative to drones that require registration and can cause problems: http://fotokite.com

bobburk3 Loc: Maryland

Do you have some pictures of your contraption?