Flying High
I had a lovely job last week - an old railway building which was once an engine repair building adjacent to the long-retired railway platform in Whittingham, Northumberland. There are two main buildings that have been converted here, with a few small terraced cottages alongside - presumably used for railway workers in days gone by. Northumberland has a good stock of houses which were part of the rail network prior to the Beeching cuts, and I’ve shot a few of them over the years.
This one was a three bedroomed conversion with all the ensuite bedrooms on a mezzanine level, and the main living space being situated on the ground floor with a spacious, open-plan design. The main lounge, hallway and cosy snooker room were all fitted neatly into one side of the house. Large windows and patio doors were located at either end, with the original walls only having two small openings - with it being an industrial building originally. The garage housed a small granny flat for those times when friends and relatives visited.
I was sent at the same time as the agent’s 360 degree camera operator, so there was no point trying to both work at the same time. I had to retreat to a bedroom while the virtual tour and floorplan was sorted.
Once I got going, it was a simple enough job - I was shooting stills, aerial, and social media video for this listing. Simple until I got a message from the agent that is.
They wanted an interior drone video - flying from one end of the open plan area to the other and then back again. I’ve seen these things done on US real estate photography Youtube vids and the like, but doing it in real life is a different matter. The space had various obstacles at various heights, and when operating a drone you’re looking at the screen and not the aircraft itself. There are things called FPV (First person vision) drones which are used with special goggles to enable the operator to avoid obstacles as you’re seeing exactly what the drone sees. I didn’t want to risk breaking anything or crashing my expensive gear so had to find an alternative solution.
Introducing - camera on a stick! My DJI Osmo Pocket-3 is a neat bit of equipment that I employ for all my basic social media videos. It can shoot video in vertical format at 120fps, which lets me slow it down for smooth-looking movement through rooms. Putting it on one of my 8ft light stands allowed me to lift it into the air and give the impression of a flying camera. It took a few tries as I kept bumping into sofas, but I got there in the end. If I invest in a long selfie stick it might improve my technique, as the 3-legged light stand is a cumbersome bit of gear to hold straight and upright for periods of time. I’ve seen 3m carbon fibre ones for about twenty quid which is worth a punt.
The result can be seen on my Instagram site here.
