I was wanting to get a Aerial map of my pond. I want a big one to put on the wall. Does anyone know where I should look to find something like that?

Google Earth PRO can generate an image of 4800x3175, from which a decently large poster can be produced by a print-shop. The currently displayed satellite images for Georgia were made in either '08 or '09. Shoot me the coordinates of your pond if you're interested in checking it out.

Kelly heres the coordinates.

Latitude: N 33.53178
N 33° 31' 54.4"
Longitude: W 82.39171
W 82° 23' 30.2"

Found it. Give me a couple of minutes.

Had to guess where the shoreline ran due to the tree-canopy, but measures around 8.6 acres. Correct? Image was taken on 6/24/09.
Unfortunately, Google's satellite images over rural areas are typically low-resolution. In some of their hi-res images, you can actually see the shadows of people (walking on sidewalks).
Here's a downsized image (640x512). I also have it in 3500x2800 format - but it's resolution isn't the greatest. I'll send it to you via email.

Check into the local airport and ask around. There might be someone that flies out of there that takes aerial photo's if the Google one isn't clear enough or recent enough for you.

jsand13, I had aerial photos taken this summer of my land and am having another set taken on 5 Feb to see the difference between summer and winter foliage. I paid around $80 plus $10 for the high-res pics on a disc. He is charging me the same price for February photos. Usually he charges more but because I don't really need them asap, he just passes over my place on his way to other jobs. Appling is about 80 miles as the crow flies from my place and he covers Augusta area as well. If you want, I can pm you with his details and email a couple pics to get a good idea of what you'd be getting. He posts them to his FTP site and provides you a password/user name.

For resolution, you really can't beat google earth. But my area hasn't been updated since early 2007 and I have made a few changes like building a house, timbering about 100 acres of pines, and adding some pasture land. I like seeing the progress and the aerial photos are great for that. If you coordinate well enough, you can even be outside with the family when he passes over for a neat family picture. You'll look like ants but still... Chad

Thanks Kelly. Is there a way to zoom it in a little more. That upper pond doesnt belong to me. So you got 8.6 acres on both ponds or just the bigger one?

Edinbowen I have a freinf that flies small planes at the local airport but I didnt even think about that. I wonder with would give you a better quality pic. My area was updated last year so everything is pretty accurate on google earth.

The lower pond is just shy of 5-acres; but it was hard to determine the south shoreline's edge.
You'd likely get a better picture from the pilot if he can take the shot from a northern perspective, and especially if he has a passenger taking the picture instead of himself.

The mapquest version is a bit clearer, albeit darker.
mapquest aerial

Too bad Bing Maps doesn't have bird's eye angled view for yours. That looks to be the most up to date for mine, well half since they only updated half of mine. I can count branches on trees and see brush piles underwater.

The mapquest map isnt the updated one.

Kelly that pic you have up there would work ok. So how do I go about getting a bigger print of it made?

I was on some website a while back that had the birds eye view of my place but I cant remember which on it was.

You could bring it to someone with a color plotter to get a wall size. They could crisp it up a bit with filters and such, but it will still be the same resolution or so as the original.

Microsoft, which is now Bing, updated our satellite photos around March of last year. Pretty crummy, as it turns out. Only trees I can see are pines, the rest (oak) only throw shadows.

Damn near looks like a wasteland!

I'll email the larger file-version (3500x2800) to you. It is cropped for an 8x10 orientation. I can submit the digital image to almost any on-line photo-developer and tell them the print-size (or poster-size) you want and they'll mail it back to you (upon payment, of course).

Thanks Kelly

Jes you can size anything you want at this site ( good for yoru landscape business as well). Easy to use.
http://www.acme.com/planimeter/

I also asked Steve with the Mapping Network to chime in if he has a moment. We can have them map and print yoru pond for you. They pay for higher resolution imagery. You start blowing up the normal google image and it gets very grainy.

Ed, can you post here or email the aerial imagery guy contact info. We get request for that all the time. It is nto Lane Wimberly is it? Thanks

Thanks Greg. All I want is just a nice clear poster size pic of my pond. I dont want to spend a bunch of money having a fancy map made with depths and everything on it since its winter and buisiness is slow. Does Steve do somple aerial photos too or just those nice lake maps that are in your electrofishing report?

Greg, I use Michael Mullins at Vertical Development. pics@mullinsphoto.net, (478) 973-5769

Chad

Thanks Greg and Jes. There are a lot of good sources of imagery out there. Some are free and some you can subscribe too. I know for sure we have 2010 1 meter resolution and older 1 foot resolution. We will email a proof.

If you can find someone to fly/photo for an inexpensive price we can print that for you too. We have a high quality photo printer and do this for landowners on a daily basis.

We also have a r/c helicopter we use to fly properties for real estate that works well for high quality aerial images.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQuN4Kwmrco

Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks. Steve

Thanks Steve! I got the proof.

Thanks Ed- Mullins sent email. Thanks Steve for posting info.

I just had steve print off some big aerial maps for a property we are renovating and they were amazing quality. Less than $100 and you can have a very detailed high quality large wall map of your place shipped to you.

We were using the maps for planning purposes and the owner liked em so much he wanted 2 extra to hang on the wall!