Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Product sources Aerial Photography ?'s

TJ, how about going to the Airport, asking around, and bumming a ride for you and your camera.

Yeah, stand at the end of the runway and stick your thumb out there.

Just because this thread is running, I want to recall an old pal of mine that used to do some really nice aerial photography. His name is Bill.
Bill's dad owned a couple of smaller airports in the south Chicago suburbs. Bill was an excellent pilot and taught flight school. As a hustler, he also specialized in aerial photography. He always used the same method. He explained it to me a couple of times, and I don't recall the specific details, but the basic gist was simple. He would go up in a small aircraft, usually with Jack (another mutual pal and pilot). Jack would control the plane while Bill would open the door and step out onto the wing with his SLR and take photos of the subject. Crazy.
Bill was pretty nutty. Heck, we were drinkin' pals for many years. He would take me up for a flight now and then to goof off. He always let me play Superman. We would go up in a 6 seater Cherokee and I would lay down in the middle of the fuselage, face down, with my arms outstretched while he put the plane into a dive. I always hurt my back on the dome light on the ceiling.

Hmmm, I always had you pegged for more of a Batman type of guy.

Brettski:

Is that pilot friend of yours named Bill still around?

TJ,why dont you just bribe JHAP with some rum&coke to take you up in the Deathstar?Shesh,sometimes you guys never think of the obvious.

Tom is a welcome voice of reason...JHAP, beam me up bro!

Not a bad idea...thanks Dave!

Are you getting any rain? Are your ponds full?

Hey, what about the strip maps at your NRCS office? Have you tried contacting them? That's where I got my best aerial shots. They take the pics each year in the spring and they are usually available by the beginning of the following year. I call my NRCS office and ask them to print them off on their best color printer (they claim that they are unable to forward a digital copy) and they snayl mayl it to me.

TJ, the booming rains stopped. Actually, they weren't pond filling rains but slow ones that were immediately captured by some pretty dry ground. They were what I call farmer rains without run off.

You can get electronic versions of the NRCS maps by going to http://gis.apfo.usda.gov/naipcoverage/ and hiting the print button on the page once you have the map image you want displayed on the page. Once the print image comes up right click on it and click on save image as. The data for NE is from 07 with 09 data available in the spring of 2010. You want want to hold off and wait for the 09 data to be available. CHeck this out and see if it meets your needs.

Is there an easier way to search on that lassig. Looks like a cool resource if I can figure out how to narrow it down.

Towards the upper left of the screen there are multiple find buttons. Use this to find the place you want. AFter entering the place you want to find, right click on it and click on zoom to. This will get you to the location faster

I did that and I found the nearest town, I think, to my pond, but I can't seem to make things out to travel to what I want to find. I'll keep messing with it.

Try the find PLSS and enter your township and range that should put you right on it.

I think I'm spoiled by Google...

Unforunately Google only has the 05 map for my place, while this shows the 07 map. Once the 09 is posted I will have access to that right away also.

I found it. But it's super fuzzy. Any way to clear it up? And when were these taken, because this doesn't show that we've begun work yet?

Whoop, you posted right before I did and you answered my question.

Good news: I followed Lassig's directions and actually found my place.

Bad news: Photos look about the age of all the other satellite images available for my place...few years old. This one was at least a Summer image so everything was green and lush...

Any clues when updated info would be available?

Were your images clear? Mine were really fuzzy, but maybe I just need to zoom out a time or two.

affirmative - fuzzy

TJ, I got a call in to a guy here in Omaha that does aerial photography and free estimates. I'll see if I can get an estimate or a ballpark for you if/when he gets back to me.

I just checked the naipcoverage page for my place and the google maps view is more recent.....

Most likely will have to zoom out since the resolution of the image cannot support that level of zoom. Mine is a little fuzzy also but not bad.