A-Line Construction - Keeping an eye on progress
TL;DR
A-Line Construction is another of our long standing regular clients with our first project starting in mid 2018. Since then, and at time of writing this article, we’ve completed 14 shoots with Sophie and the team at A-Line who use our services to capture regular progress photos for their major sites. Aiming to take nearly exactly the same photos each time can bring a few challenges but with some clever planning we’ve been able to deliver each time.
See a collection of the drone progress photos within the full story below. If you’re looking to capture regular photos to show progress to stakeholders, initiate invoicing or just for your records, then contact Chris on +64 224 261 187 or via the contact form.
The Client
A-Line Construction describe themselves as “a total-project construction company that partners with you to create a unified and collaborative team to complete your project.” They offer modular buildings and self storage buildings, and deliver projects within the Commercial, Education and Healthcare sectors. Check them out here at www.alineconstruction.co.nz.
The Story
Sophie Abercrombie, Accounts Manager at A-Line Construction, initially got in contact for a quote for taking drone progress photos of a construction site they had been working on. The site was an extensive redevelopment of Red Hill School in Papakura, South Auckland. Sophie was able to supply the plans, their timings and a previous example showing what they were looking for, which greatly assisted with the quoting process.
Initially, their team chose to go with another vendor for cost reasons. It was unfortunate to miss out on a recurring project such as this, but less than 3 months later Sophie was back in touch after being disappointed by the output of their original vendor. 2 days later I was out onsite, had completed the first shoot and edited and supplied the images. Needless to say I had a very happy client.
Of course it’s not quite a simple as I make it sound. Our first step for any job is to carry out ‘Planning & Permissions’. This involves getting as much information about the site as possible, understanding what the client is looking for and how and where the images will be used once captured.
We’ll also review any airspace restrictions in the area and source the required flight permissions to carry out the job within the rules of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in New Zealand. These are vital steps to reduce the amount of time onsite, which is particularly important as battery life for the drone is limited so every minute counts.
Once I’ve arrived onsite I’ll sign in, alert any workers onsite of what’s going to happen and generally request that they don’t attempt to shoot the down with their nail guns. You’d be surprised!
When it is safe to take off I’ll get the drone into position and use the drone’s monitor to check the composition of the photo. Does it include all the necessary features, is there anything I need to crop out etc. At that point I’ll capture the shot and record the time it was captured and the altitude it was captured at. These may seem like unnecessary details to record but trust me, they save plenty of time when organising the photos after the shoot and in preparation for all subsequent visits.
Typically, the first time we visit a site for progress photos we’ll over-shoot, or capture far more images than the client is initially looking for. This allows us to have the client choose their favourites based on the work they will be carrying out over the subsequent weeks and months. Once agreed, we’ll then carry out each shoot as per this plan aiming to replicate the initial shots as best as possible.
It’s worth mentioning that, whilst we make every effort to get each progress photo as similar as the last, it’s not always possible to get an exact match. There are a few tricks of the trade that we employ but even still there can be some minor variation. We’ve never had a client unhappy with our progress photos so we must be doing something right!
Having carried out 6 progress photo shoots and one internal completed build photo shoot at Red Hill Primary, we’ve also carried out progress photo shoots at 2 other sites for A-Line Construction since then. We’re really happy with how the relationship is going and look forward to continuing to work with Sophie and her team in the future. Here’s what Sophie had to say about working with us recently:
“We first came to use Construction Photography NZ after another cheaper photographer failed to meet our requirements. Chris listened to us and came back quickly with a superior group of photos, that were exactly what we were after.
We now have an ongoing relationship with CPNZ and find them to be professional and efficient. Highly recommended.”
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