Quarry Photos

I’ve been asked by a company I know whether I would take some photos of a quarry they own. As I know them I was not planning to charge, more of a favour for a friend. Question is can I do it legally as I’m not a commercial pilot. I would be using their property to take off and land and would be using a Mavic Mini. The way I saw it was that there would be no commercial gain for me and the photo is for their office. Obviously I’d do a risk assessment prior to the flight.

Depends on the financial gain they make from it.

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I’m not sure it does?

If our guy is giving them the photos free of charge, as a hobbyist, what they do with the photos thereafter is of no concern to him or the CAA? :thinking:

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No contract, no “valuable consideration”, no problem:

https://www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-industry/Aircraft/Unmanned-aircraft/Small-drones/Guidance-on-using-unmanned-aircraft-and-drones-for-commercial-work/

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Just to put a spin on this, I was asked something similar.
The guy would let me race around his works quarry in exchange for pictures and video.
I said to my mate, why doesn’t the boss just get a pro to do it. He said “cos it’s bloody expensive”.
Just saying that we’re worth something.

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@notveryprettyboy I agree with that sentiment and it’s not something I would be doing that often in terms of drone photos. I do used to a lot stills photography (portraits) and all to often I found people want to pay next to nothing as they don’t see the investment in the gear, the time spent in post and the years building up the skills and knowledge. All they see is the 30 mins or so spent actually taking the images. Problem is that everyone sees themselves as a “photographer” these days with camera phones being so cheap.

Weddings are no different, people will think nothing of dropping 5k on a dress, £500 on a cake, but want their photos taking for under £200.

Too many people willing to give shit away for free.

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@milkmanchris Agreed and it’s the main reason why I don’t do so much photography these days. I friend used to do the annual school photos but apparently he’s no longer required as a couple of the teachers do it with their own kit. Not seen any of the photos but I’d guess they are no where near the quality required for that kind of job. Doubtless the parents will make their own comments on that!

They’ll buy anything

I can go do a Sunday morning football match with the kids and easily make a few hundred quid.

Getting the photos is the straightforward bit, the art is in selling them nowadays (why I got out of it, that and the new Mrs Milk saw what it did to the previous one)

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If you have no financial gain from it then can’t see the problem. If they want to make a donation to you then to be honest who wouldn’t accept it. But I don’t see a problem.

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