Imagine sitting down with a potential client showing a 4K video fly-through of your most impressive project, or meeting with your foreman to see overhead shots of current progress photos from jobsites. From behind the scenes of your business to client relationships and social media marketing, drones can ultimately elevate your business far above the competition.
Lawn and landscape professionals can benefit greatly from the use of drones in their everyday business life, whether it be for photography, videography or project area scouting. Regardless of the need or company size, there are multitudes of ways to take advantage of the technological advances drones bring to the table.
How can landscapers use it?
These small, rotor-equipped robots are typically operated from the ground and fly or hover in the sky to provide aerial views to the operators. They are referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and when they are paired with a remote control and two-way communication, the whole thing is considered an unmanned aerial system (UAS). Drones are lightweight and highly maneuverable, and they can be operated either by a remote control or a smartphone. Depending on the model, they can typically fly for almost an hour on a single charge. Recently, landscape and lawn care professionals have found ways to harness the ease and handiness of drones in their everyday work. Drones can play an important role in project presentation and promotion for landscapers, as it is a tool that allows landscapers to see an entire setting in context within a continuous moving image.
Drones can also help you assess the safety of jobsites and check the effectiveness of irrigation and other practices.
Along with observing the aforementioned uses, drones can also be used by landscapers to collect unique aerial project photographs and videos. So far, the most popular uses for drones in landscaping has been for promotional purposes. They can also provide real time videos and photos of projects in process, site surveying and modeling. They help landscapers capture an entirely different vantage point and produce stunning results, which could end up helping out with your sales and marketing approach.
The next job always comes from the last job, and photos have a lot to do with that. With a drone, you can get views that aren’t possible with a regular camera. For example, you can fly a drone off the edge of a cliff and get an incredible shot of a vanishing edge pool.
Drone videos and photographs also come in handy when used as design tools.
From a design standpoint, landscape architects are used to working from a plot view. They draw it as though they're seeing it from space, but before drones they were never actually looking at the projects that way. The drone gives us a whole new perspective during the design phase and throughout its construction as well.
If you don’t have the time and/or resources to dedicate to drone photography, consider hiring a professional for the ongoing job of capturing your design/build work.