I’ve had my FAA commercial unmanned air vehicle license for about ten months now. I’ve not been looking to make a career out of it, but I am open to side gigs for aerial photography. Mostly, because I love flying and taking photos, and I want more drones, which are expensive. It would be a lot easier to justify the cost if they were generating some income.
Things have pretty much stalled for me on that front. Mind you, I haven’t been trying very hard, but I have put myself out there in a few places.
The first place I tried was a service called DroneBase. They’re like a broker for drone photo jobs. At first, they said my Air 2S drone was not good enough for commercial work, which is absurd. Later, I heard they were accepting it now, but I seem to be stuck in a loop on setting up an account, saying they need more information, and saying they have all they need. I’ve seen some videos of pilots who have gotten some work there, but I can’t get into the system.
I put a lot of images and videos on Adobe Stock. In the first few months, I have made about eighteen bucks. Not really setting the world on fire there. Selling 4k clips is supposedly where it’s at, but I haven’t moved any.
I’ve also tried to blanket Instagram with location specific photos to get my name out there, and I get a lot of views and likes, but no offers.
As I said, I don’t want a second job, so I’m not really marketing myself much, but I had hoped for a little more interest. I see a lot of drone work in real estate and TV shows, but the Daytona area, as usual, does not seem to be a good place to generate paying gigs for this type of work.
Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m going to keep flying for fun though, and see where the breeze takes me.