I post some of my drone images on our town Facebook page, where they usually gain a few hundred ‘Likes’.
A couple of months back I was approached by our local council, to take some images of our castle in the town, for inclusion in a tourism brochure. I did this, and supplied the images free of charge and they were happy with them.
The phone has just rung this morning and this time Dartmoor National Park were contacting me asking about taking some images for them of various places for large prints in the foyer of the recently opened train station here, in conjunction with Network Rail. I did explain about the drone ban, but they said not to worry about that - they would grant me permission.
She asked what I’d charge, and I said they’d have to be on a voluntary basis, and just credit the images to me.
Is the only requirement to go commercial for images taken with sub-250g commercial insurance? Hoping someone can clarify.
If working commercially and this sounds like it is, even if you did not charge, do you have commercial drone insurance? What happens if something goes wrong?
Which type of car insurance so you have?
if it is domestic then you will not be insured to even drive to the location. What happens if you have an accident?
We carry insurance for a reason and this costs money - as does software and power to edit the images.
All this adds up to a reason to charge.
I would revert and say that unfortunately as you need both commercial insurance for the drone and commercial insurance on your car to carry out this job you would need to charge for your time. Point out that anyone else doing this would require the same insurances.
Interesting, thanks. But at the same time, commercial insurance for £52 a month (a quick Google’d quote) might still not be profitable for two opportunities in as many months! You’d need to be doing this full time to make it work. I can’t realistically do that in full time employment.
Really not how commercial work should be done, credits don’t pay bills. Work out what your time and effort is worth, cost of insurance, equipement etc. I’d also find out how large they want the prints to be, as your sub 250 drone may not be up to it?
You can get daily cover for those small jobs so you keep the expenses down and profit up for you. Work out half day or full day charge to include, your travelling expenses, editing if needed. And keep the copyright on your images or these kinda companies will mass reproduce your photos and you’ll get nothing in return.dont trust their word
Always good to get a contract drawn up to include this. Get them to sign one. If they share your image with other parties you still get the royalties and profits not them, its your hard work that gave them the images. Good luck
This seems to have gone full circle… “don’t work for free” which brings me back to the original topic of insurance. So all those of you out there that are making a fotune with your drone, what insurance policy(s) are you using?
Interesting. If I can do this by the day, it might be worthwhile. I’ve worked as a professional (land based!) photographer for some years in the past, so I know what’s involved.
I might look into that for future requests for images.
I am in the process of getting quotes for commercial insurance and when I was getting a quote with Coverdrone I noticed something interesting… their definition of “commercial” isn’t really about whether you get paid or not. It is more about the type of work… this is what they say about what commercial work is…
Commercial – our commercial policy allows you to use your drone and equipment for paid or unpaid work, whether that payment is direct or indirect. It is also compliant with EC785/2004 and issue Aviation Liabilities in addition to Public Liability (if this cover is selected).
Recreational – for “sport or recreational” purposes only. A recreational flight would NOT include paid or unpaid work whether that is direct or indirect (such as imagery being used on another organisations website or social media).
So, if you are doing a commercial job but not getting paid, then you would still need the “Commercial” cover with Coverdrone.
As for never do anything for free… I can see that no one would want anyone under-valuing the service as everyone then loses out but surely doing one job for free in the hope it leads to future paid work is not a bad thing?
I use Fly Covered which is an annual policy covering loss, damage and theft while on the ground or in transit and incudes 30 commercial flying days in the policy period. It covers third party liability (£1M), invasion of privacy, noise complaint and loss / damage while in flight on a commercial basis. There is no recreational cover as it’s commercial only.
Cost is circa £106 per annum. You can increase liability limit and purchase extra flying days if required. Flying days are booked on their online calendar and then deducted off your remaining days.
Edit:- Meets CAA insurance requirements EC785/2004 for commercial work.
I think a better option and one I have done is supply prints with PROOF massively printed across them, I have also shown unedited proofs on a screen, if they like the work they pay, if not find another mug.
Imagine the painter and decorator doing one room in your house for free on the off chance that he’ll get the 9 rooms in the house to do.
Defo this 
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