Price is the first thing anybody asks us and I understand why, but a number without an address attached to it is a guess. Twelve photos of a single-family home in Plantation and twelve photos of a beachfront tower in Hollywood are the same deliverable on paper. One of them is a morning's work. The other one starts with a federal authorization filed several days ahead of time and might not happen at all on the date you wanted.
So instead of printing a number that would be wrong for most of the people reading it, here are the six things that actually move the quote. Answer these before you call and we can usually price the job on the first conversation.
1. Whether the address sits under controlled airspace
In South Florida this matters more than everything else on the list put together, and it is the item most people have never heard of. Large parts of this coast sit under the shelves of towered airports. Miami International is Class B. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Palm Beach International are Class C. Executive, North Perry, Pompano Beach Airpark, Boca Raton and Opa-locka all throw controlled airspace over populated ground.
Flying there is legal and it is routine, but it takes an authorization on file before the flight. That does not usually add much to a price. What it adds is lead time, because approval can take several days. The most common reason a shoot does not happen is somebody calling on Friday about a Saturday shoot at a Class C address.
2. How many finished images you actually need
Most listing sets land somewhere between eight and twenty edited stills. The flight time barely moves between those two numbers. The editing does, and editing is where the hours go on a stills job.
Ask for a deliverable count rather than an hourly rate. An hourly rate tells you how long somebody stood in the street. It tells you nothing about what shows up in the gallery afterwards.
3. Whether video is in scope
Video is not a photo shoot with the record button held down. It needs planned moves, repeated takes, usually a second battery cycle, and an edit with music and pacing decisions in it. Putting video on a stills booking roughly doubles the time on the ground and adds more than that in post.
- Stills only: shortest shoot, fastest turnaround
- Stills plus a short social cut: one extra battery, one extra edit pass
- Stills plus a full listing or brand film: a different job, quoted separately
4. Turnaround
We deliver edited stills within 24 hours of the shoot through an online gallery. That covers almost every listing deadline anybody has ever brought us, which is why rush fees hardly ever come up in our quotes. Where they do come up is same-day. An agent whose photos have to be live before an evening open house is asking for the edit to jump ahead of everybody else's, and that has a real cost attached.
5. What the site does to the flight
A vacant lot in Davie and an occupied condo tower on the Broadwalk carry different risk and different amounts of work. Crowds, boat traffic, active construction, power lines, heavy tree cover and tight setbacks all mean more planning and slower flying, and occasionally a second person on site as a visual observer. None of that is exotic. It is time, and time is what you are paying for.
6. Travel
We work out of West Broward Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. Most of Broward is a short drive, and both Miami-Dade and Palm Beach are an easy morning. Travel only starts showing up on a quote once a job sits well outside the tri-county area, and when it does it is a line item you will see before you agree to anything.
What a comparable quote looks like
If you are collecting quotes, the useful ones tell you what you receive. How many edited stills. Whether video is included and how long it runs. How it is delivered and how fast. Who holds the license and who carries the insurance.
A quote that is only a dollar figure and an hour count is not a cheaper quote. It is a vaguer one, and the gap between the two usually turns up after the shoot when you are counting the photos.
Common questions
Is drone photography more expensive in Miami than in Broward?
Not because of the drive. It costs more when the address sits under Miami International's Class B airspace and needs an authorization and a more careful flight plan. That is complexity rather than geography.
Do you charge more for a rush job?
Our standard turnaround is edited stills within 24 hours of the shoot, which covers almost every deadline. Same-day delivery means the edit jumps the queue, and we quote that when you book.
Can you give a price over the phone?
Usually yes, once we have the address and know whether video is in scope. The address tells us the airspace situation, and that is the variable with the most effect on both price and schedule.
This piece supports two pages worth reading next:
Frantz founded Papa's Aerial Services and flies as pilot in command on commercial jobs across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach. He holds an FAA Part 107 remote pilot certificate and the company is licensed, insured and authorized for night operations.
