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Drones elevate the use of technology to new levels

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News

Published: July 7, 2015

If a picture is worth a thousand words, Michael Cairns jokingly says a drone photo is worth 10 pictures.

“In all seriousness though, shooting from a drone allows us to provide context of the exterior of an entire property in as little as one photo while still keeping the beauty traditionally associated with ground photography,” said Cairns, the owner of Infinite Impact, a Columbus-based drone photography and multimedia production company.

With drone technology continuing to blossom, Cairns recalled taking notice of the unmanned aerial vehicles about two years ago.

“I saw a video that blew me away. It was created by Corridor Digital and utilized drones to give a viewpoint I had never before seen that was absolutely mesmerizing as it seemed to defy physics and really hooked me as a viewer,” he said.

“I immediately wanted to do that, too.”

At the time, Cairns had already founded Infinite Impact’s parent company, Impact Brothers LLC, a video production, visual effects and web design operation.

As one of a handful of central Ohio businesses offering drone photography, Cairns said his services are often used for real estate listings.

“Sometimes people think ‘Well, I can just use Google Earth,’ but there’s absolutely no comparison in terms of quality,” he said, adding that he gets requests for sprawling estates and homes in densely-packed neighborhoods. “I really think any property can benefit from the better context provided via drones.”

In the past couple of months, Infinite Impact has merged with another local venture, Aerial Image Solutions, owned by Victor Brewer.

As a combined team, they offer drone and ground-based photography, videography, 3D drone scanning and interactive aerial 360 panoramas.

While both he, Brewer and their clients are thrilled about the new wave of aerial photography, Cairns doesn’t anticipate traditional photography falling off the map.

“Ground photography will and should never go out of style, so drone photography is more of a really-nice-to-have. That said, we can give context in one aerial drone shot that it may take 10 ground photos to convey,” he said.

Given that not everyone is well versed in how drones work and proposed legislation has been flying around the Ohio General Assembly to regulate drone usage, Cairns said he frequently has to dispel myths and quell conspiracy theories about privacy.

“We’ve had discussions like this often as it’s actually a pretty confusing legal landscape if you’re not following it all the time,” he said.

“Currently, there are not actually any laws preventing commercial usage of drones, though there are plenty of narratives out there telling a different story. We do look forward to the proposed regulations being finalized so it will be easier to ensure everyone is on the same page.”

As far as privacy concerns, Cairns said that used to be the big thing everyone would joke about immediately.

“‘You’re not going to spy on me are you?’ they would say in jest, but once we show them what we actually see in the monitor, the fears subside right away,” he said.

“I understand the concern, and I respect it, but when you have people running a business, the last thing they are going to want to do is cause people to have to look over their shoulders. We do our best to alleviate those kinds of concerns as quickly as possible.”

Aside from aerial photography, Cairns said overall drone technology is “incredibly exciting.”

“That’s a massive understatement. As battery technology and fuel cell technology advances, we will see applications for drones blossom in ways we can’t even foresee today,” he said.

“They have already broken the barrier as tools to help market for business into tools that help people have better lives, from search and rescue, to life guarding to disaster scouting.”

For his own work, Cairns believes the use of drone photography for marketing purposes will continue to grow.

“No question. In two years time, this will be the defacto,” he said. “If you aren’t using drones to market your properties, I think there will come a time that people will wonder why.”

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