SOAR-ing with Drones in Canada
By: Darren Smith
Tags: Canada, Dji, Drones, Soar, Photography

How trialing low-cost drones to promote a business has paid off

Like many of us, Aaron Sweeney of JEMA Drones in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada, has found an excuse to use a drone at work. There’s also a touching story about how the name JEMA Drones came to be.

Aaron serves as a media coordinator and carpenter at LASH Builders Inc where chronicling construction projects via drone photography has become a part of everyday life. But it’s not as if his boss walked into his office one day saying “Hey Aaron, go shoot some drone shots for me”. Moreover, Aaron started slowly. He began sharing drone images via Facebook, thereby cultivating a following, and using his content and community engagement to leverage paid work with realtors, business owners in need of marketing images, and private landowners. It’s also quite interesting how the name JEMA Drones was discovered. Aaron is a happy hubby and father of two little girls. Hence the name JEMA Drones, Joanna, Emma Melanie, and Aaron. We reckon he’s the kind of dad that never forgets a birthday!

Aaron Sweeny of JEMA Drones

You might think getting into drones requires a large investment right off but that’s not the case. Aaron started out with and still uses a basic, entry-level, DJI Spark. Given the size and cost of the DJI Spark, it has served Aaron well. The small size makes capturing indoor shots of work performed by LASH Builders easier and safer as the drone is more maneuverable, and thus allowing for high angle/’taken from the corner of the ceiling images’ possible that would otherwise require a ladder. Showcasing the finished product to clients is also achieved by using DJI’s simple panoramic photo-taking widget using the DJI Go4 flight control app.

“I can shoot 10 shots of the same house and stitch them together for a client. Usually, they love it!” -Aaron Sweeney

While drones are autonomous and can help you take great photos, it still requires practice and technique to create stunning images. A high-cost drone can take higher resolution images using a high-cost sensor, but much of the beauty we see in images comes from post-processing of the images. While you might luck out and get a great shot straight from the drone, almost all photos require some level of processing to highlight certain colours, lighten shadows, and do things like changing the contrast or brightness to make them more visually appealing. While basic editing apps can adjust brightness and contrast, they lack the colour grading and other enhancements that can take basic pictures and make them brilliant.

While winters aren’t the best, Saskatchewan, Canada is a great place to get started flying as much of the countryside is rural farmland so there’s plenty of places to fly. Aaron regularly flies over farmland capturing beautiful Canadian landscapes and when it’s not too cold sneaking up on unsuspecting deer in the midst of winter!

Aaron was fortunate enough to win a free copy of Skylum Software’s Luminar 3 through a drone photo competition hosted by Soar through Ed Ricker’s YouTube channel. Aaron was one of five finalists to win a copy of Luminar for his impressive top-down drone photos. His win is impressive when you consider that Aaron was competing with drone pilots flying DJI Phantom 3 or 4’s, Mavics, or Parrot Anafi’s, all higher specification and higher cost drones. Aaron noted that he’s ‘upped his game’ with the addition of Luminar 3 to his arsenal of drone photography. You might think it’s necessary to rush out and purchase a large 10” tablet monitor for flying your drone however Aaron is quite happy and successful with his Samsung Galaxy 10 phone as a flight control monitor. Aaron also favours the compactness of the Spark drone, controller, and phone combo as it makes gearing up for an afternoon of snapping photos quick and simple.

When Aaron isn’t busy with family, he does a drone work for farmers and real estate agents. Realtors love the ‘trophy shots’ a drone can give them, showing the entire extent of a property and prospective clients love to show off how large their land is.

Droning can be expensive with many newbies wanting to gear up with the latest and most expensive. Aaron recommends building a firm understanding of the type of products you hope to deliver and what the capabilities of each drone are. For now, shooting real estate shots with a DJI Spark suits Aaron fine. To get a whole house in a shot but still at a low enough altitude to get the details is not terribly high, an altitude where the Spark is clearly visible. Aaron anticipates that if he’s going for higher altitude shots, he’ll opt for a DJI Phantom 4 or DJI Mavic 2 or Mavic 2 Zoom but the jury is still out on that one.



What’s the next step for JEMA Drones?

Aaron puts a lot of faith behind word of mouth and social media marketing. As he lives in a relatively small town, it’s easier to get noticed and become known for the work you’re doing. The prospect of starting from nothing and building to where his is now so the only way is up. What started as a trial for LASH Builders to gain better exposure has inspired to see what more he can do with drones.

“There’s an opportunity to use drone images to chronicle construction progress for clients. We’re looking at building 3D models of our construction sites as a means to guage productivity and to help with logistics”. Aaron hopes to develop drone mapping skills to serve those needs and notes that

Soar is the perfect platform for monitoring construction progress. A simple stitched image of the whole construction site lets users make basic measurements of the building site and serves a simple catalogue of work to date”. -Aaron Sweeney, JEMA Drones

To experience more of Aaron’s images, check out his profile page on Soar. And for more of the happenings at JEMA drones, follow them on Facebook.