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Jenni and Nathan Mann of Aerial Vantage Photography with their remote-control helicopter to which they attached a camera
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See that helicopter outside your window? It’s closer than it looks and it’s there to help sell your house.
Five feet long from nose to tail, with camera mounted, it’s Nathan Mann’s creation. So far, it’s a hobby of his used by architects and realtors to capture a view of a home never seen before.
Mann and wife Jenni make a good team for their new Seabeck company, Aerial Vantage Photography. Nathan Mann said he’s flown model airplanes and helicopters for years. Just like the real thing, flying a helicopter requires thinking in at least four dimensions.
While he’s doing his best to keep the bird aloft, Jenni keeps an eye out for the best angles and grabs the right shot. A special up-link to the radio-controlled helicopter allows her — on the ground — to see what the mounted camera sees.
“My wife is the photographer — she controls the tilt and pan of the camera. I need her. Flying is so difficult, especially when you get it moving back towards you. You can get all turned around.”
He said controlling the helicopter means dealing with seven different variables at once.
“At top speeds of 80 miles an hour it’s very easy to lose,” Nathan Mann said. He doesn’t need those speeds around homes. “When it crashes it’s very violent and disgusting because they thrash themselves into the ground.”
One gets the feeling, helicopters mean quite a bit to Mann.
“Don’t talk to me when I‘m flying, I won’t hear you,” he said. Fueled by nitro-methane fuel and castor oil, Mann flies low. “Planes can’t (legally) go below 1,500 feet,” he said. “A lot of rendering duplications are low-level.”
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A sample of what the remote-controlled helicopter can see and photograph
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All his labor started in earnest when he thought he was going to lose his job as a Qwest network technician.
“I got notice that I’d be laid off from Qwest a couple of years ago and I’d really been working on it in the back of my mind since before that,” Mann said.
The good thing is, he was not laid off. He’s had time to try for perfection. And now that he has a working model capable of quality photos, word of mouth has complicated his schedule.
“It’s been hard to try and balance both things,” he said. “I’m always thinking, I should be out there flying.”
Dampening the vibration of the helicopter enough to take a photo was perhaps the most time-consuming aspect of his invention. He’s pursuing patents for that and the overall photography system.
Business is picking up and the construction of a second, identical “flying ship” is underway.
Mann said people don’t quite know what to make of the photography helicopter. Especially when they aren’t expecting it.
“It looks small so they think it’s far away,” Mann said. “We don’t want to worry people. People’s privacy is important…We did get a lady call the police on us. So now we call around before hand. It does look strange and it has photography equipment on it.”
As he progresses toward a company he sees full of promise, its part of a much simpler, even childlike dream.
“I’ve always wanted to see the view from up there,’ he said. “It makes me mad to see a fly buzz up there and I can’t do that.”
Aerial Vantage Photography
- Photos taken from air, low-level
- Cost: starts at $150 plus travel costs
Contact Information
(Temple A. Stark is a free-lance writer living in Kent. Reach him at writer@templestark.com)
