What is an aerial photograph and what are its advantages?

Posted by Ella Wilson on September 25th, 2018

Aerial photographs have become indispensable to industries like real estate, construction, insurance, and even law. Any of these professions might employ an aerial photographer in Austin to document existing homes, stages of construction, completed homes, and even property lines. Aerial photographs have a lot of advantages when it comes to the documentation of a property, it’s boundaries, and the conditions and other properties surrounding it. Employing an aerial photographer is a justifiable expense even for homeowners who are contemplating the purchase of a new home or reaffirming the property lines of their existing home for undertaking a home improvement project. Here are four advantages of aerial photography, that you might not have considered.

• Documenting before and after. Anyone who remembers when hurricane Harvey came to town, remembers the flooding that came with it. Having “before” photos of your property can make cleaning up the after much easier to document your losses, and work on restoring your property. It can also help to see ways in which floodwaters could be mitigated the next time by installing new drainage features to prevent water from pooling and rising.
  
  
• Property line disputes can be contentious. Obtaining a proper survey by a licensed surveyor is the best way to document where your current property line is, and by using aerial photography it shows where your property lines are in relation to your neighbors. Understanding where property lines run prevents trespassing or even overbuilding.
  
  
• Master planning communities. Developers and urban planners can use aerial photography to see the lay of the land. Placement of roads, schools, homes, shopping centers, can all be planned from the air. Moreover, aerial photography can document the different stages of development from raw land, to building roads, to laying out property lines for individual building lots.
  
  
• Believe it or not, for realtors aerial photography can be a real selling point. You’re not only showcasing that gorgeous home, but showing the lay of the land, and the features of the lot that the property. This is especially important when people want an idea of scale. In other words, how much room to the house and outbuildings take up, where is the driveway in relation to the house, how close are the neighbors?

If you think about it, there are probably a lot more uses for aerial photography than the four listed here. These are simply the most common uses for aerial photography.

Work with a Professional Aerial Photographer in Austin

Whether you are homeowner seeking to document the extent and condition of your property, or construction company wishing to show the stages of construction for a new planned community, working with a professional aerial photographer in Austin is the best bet to getting quality aerial photographs and video. Work with someone who has good reviews and references to offer. It’s not just enough to have a drone with a camera. Real experience in aerial photography and a professional track record should be one of the clearest requirements set forth.