Drone Photography and Surveys for Construction Sites
Aerial drone services for commercial and residential construction, heritage projects, and civil engineering developments
A team of CAA-approved pilots, experienced property surveyors, drone cinematographers, and creative marketers has made Solent Sky Services the go-to company for millimetre-accurate aerial construction site photography in the UK.
From mapping and surveying land at the planning application phase and documenting progress and safety during the build, to capturing aerial visuals for stakeholders and press — we capture every angle at every stage of development.
Qualified FPV Pilots
You’ll be working with legally-approved professional pilots. We hold operational authorisation, granted to us by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). We’re also a member of Drone Safe Register.
National Drone Coverage
Our pilots and ground team work all over the UK, on corporate and residential construction sites, both in the city and further out of town.
Serious About Safety
From pre-flight precautions (risk assessments, flight plans) to specialist PPE, we work tirelessly to ensure every shoot is safe.
Aerial Land Surveys
Utilising our RTK equipped drones and base stations, we map and survey land, providing visuals and data that will inform planning applications and the construction process.
Ground Build
Photography
Our ground crew will go where our drones can’t, capturing the full picture for surveying or marketing purposes, with photos, videos, and 360º visuals.
Time-Lapse for
Construction
Construction projects can take months or years. We’re equipped with time-lapse cameras that can record your builds from beginning to end, which we’ll regularly check and maintain.
Subcontractors & Stakeholders
We can use drones to conduct safety assessments and check on work being carried out by subcontractors, and can deliver our findings in reports to stakeholders.
Architectural CAD
Integration
Our aerial 2D mapping and 3D scanning systems can be directly integrated into CAD workflows, complementing traditional tools with millimetre-precise photography and data.
Social Media & Press
Shout about your projects via social media or in the press with stunning aerial photos, fully-edited and -branded videos, and immersive 360º visuals.
Marketing Materials
Our in-house team of talented copywriters, designers, social media managers, and web developers provide integrated marketing solutions, putting your new aerial visuals to use.
Multi-Date & Multi-Site Deals
We offer multi-day and multi-site packages for longer-term projects, or builds spread across various locations. Need the whole story captured? Book ahead in bulk with us!
Team Training
However we work together, we’re ready to train your team to use aerial imagery as part of their design, surveying, and marketing workflows, on-site or remotely.
Case Study: AVS Fencing at BBC Countryfile Live
AVS Fencing Supplies couldn’t have approached us about increasing their organic social media engagement at a better time. They were all set to deliver materials for the Famous Five Garden at Blenheim Palace at BBC Countryfile Live 2018 when we first met. Before long, we were planning and storyboarding a series of videos to document the project for AVS’ social media feeds and email newsletters!
Video #1: The Adventure Begins
We split the over-arcing narrative of the videos into two halves and four quarters: the 'journey' and the 'build' were the two halves, and the two videos within each half were the quarters. The first video was filmed at Stonescapes in Cranleigh, where the materials were delivered and where preparation work began. The video includes a JCB drone fly-through and a suave wipe transition tracked to the opening of a van door! We created an adventurous narrative throughout the series to reflect the exciting nature of the Famous Five books that inspired the garden build.
Video #2: Day One of Construction
Our second video documented the first day of the build, and featured the construction crew from BNE Landscapes. A spot of slow-mo sawing, low-angled focus shifts, rotary time-lapses, and (of course) ducks waddling through the frame made for a strong social-facing video. AVS requested text overlays to highlight each step of the construction process.
Video #3: Journey to Blenheim
This — the second ‘journey’ video — is our personal favourite from the series. When the drone shot of Blenheim Palace kicks in backed by an orchestral swell, it’s a powerful moment. ‘Journey to Blenheim’ captures the delivery of AVS’ materials from Stonescapes to BBC Countryfile Live. Scene-setting shots like the aerial view of Blenheim Palace and the close-up of our event wristbands were key, and the piece of wood saying ‘AVS was ‘ere’ was a fun touch!
Video #4: The Whole Project
We closed out the quartet of videos with a beginning-to-end story featuring footage from Stonescapes and both days of the Famous Five Garden build. There are interviews with Louise, the transport manager from AVS Fencing Supplies, and Adrian, the company’s marketing manager, and Ed from BNE Landscapes walks the viewer through how AVS’ materials were put to use. There’s a time-lapse from atop a mastpole, which we swiftly sourced after being unable to gain proper flight permissions from event organisers. Quickly finding solutions when flights are a no-go is the Solent Sky Services way!
Showcase: Drone Photos and Videos for Construction Projects
Reds Builders: drone heritage photography at Southsea Castle’s water fountain
Portsmouth City Council commissioned Portsmouth construction firm Reds Builders to recreate the water fountain outside Southsea Castle. Their work ultimately scored a ‘Best Landscape Project’ recommendation, and was hailed a huge improvement by the local community.
An iconic site in Southsea, Reds felt documenting the historic transformation was an honourable thing to do. They booked Solent Sky Services for five flights spread out over two months. While flying, we also shot the beginnings of Reds’ work on the nearby D-Day Story museum, adding multi-site value to our heritage package.
Reds went on to use the aerial media as figureheading visuals in their marketing materials, and Portsmouth City Council distributed our photos to the regional press.
Arundel Court Primary Academy: 12-month construction time-lapse
Arundel Court Primary Academy, a school located in Portsmouth, approached us to document the 12-month construction of new facilities on the school premises after hearing of our specialities in the fields of drone property surveys and aerial construction time-lapses.
For any educational establishment, aerial imagery can prove invaluable for keeping pupils, parents, staff, school board members, and any other stakeholders informed in a strikingly detailed and visual way. 360º visuals doubly so — see our 360º photography showcase for more info on that — with the ability to zoom right in (for close inspection) and right out (for context on location and access points).
We’re looking forward to assembling the time-lapse when the project is finished. Year-long drone time-lapses are still fairly unprecedented!
Under NDA! Orthomosaic mapping over active construction sites
We can’t speak about what we shot during this project, but we can explain how we approached the shoots, with promotional and practical applications in mind.
For the first half of this job, we captured photos and videos to be used as marketing assets by the client: a civil engineering firm. One unique challenge involved switching from a coastline location to an inner-city site with a congested area in between, all while recording the arrival, transportation, and delivery of a key piece of the build! Collaborative pre-planning, cooperation with marine and aviation authorities, and swift (but safe) landings and lift-offs ensured expectation-exceeding results.
We shifted our focus to orthomosaic mapping for the second half of the job, programming our drones to autonomously zig-zag over a specified plot of land while snapping top-down photos. After stitching these hundreds of photos together, we were able to provide the client with an incredibly high-resolution photographic map of their construction site. Staff at every stage of operations could integrate the map into their workflows and cross-reference our aerial imagery with their blueprints.
These mapping flights were planned around worker schedules. Whenever one part of the build site was vacant, that’s where we would fly. In turn, we kept a safe distance from the development, taking off and landing from a raised strip of land outside the construction perimeter which afforded a constant eyeline between us and our drones.
RGB Group: topping out celebration at Stanhope House, Portsmouth
RGB Group celebrated the ‘topping out’ — a builder’s rite that’s marked by the final beam being placed atop a structure, completing its construction — of their 19-storey Stanhope House tower in May 2019.
At the time of writing, it’s their tallest building yet, with a concrete core and steel frame. We were hired to to photograph the topping out ceremony, from a ground perspective and a bird’s-eye view.
Our drone shots showcased the building itself, with a 360º panorama providing big-picture context and presenting Stanhope House as one of many new buildings reshaping the central Portsmouth skyline.
The ground-level photography (is it ground-level if we were 19 storeys up?) shared the human side of the story, freezing a celebratory moment in time which the RGB Group crew will cherish forever.
Sited in the city centre, the area around Stanhope House is most definitely classed as a congested area under the drone code. RGB Group hired us for our expertise in planning safe and legal flights.
Portico Shipping: lifting 95-tonne cargo for maritime build
In September 2019, we captured the move of some new 95-tonne fender spacer units from ML Ltd. through aerial photography and drone videos, with our friends and regular collaborators at Portico Shipping.
We used our DJI Inspire 2 with wide lenses and zoom lenses to shoot both a broader picture and a close-up perspective. We also filmed from the ground, and affixed GoPros to cranes to shoot intriguing POV shots.
Our aerial construction photography portfolio spans beyond commercial and residential properties. We cover civil engineering projects, naval and maritime builds, and nature conservation, at all stages of development, from breaking ground to topping out.
Our drone imagery and aerial 360º visuals have been a core part of Portico’s efforts to become a trusted supplier of cargo services.
John Reilly Civil Engineering: the build and the built
The finished architectural masterpieces deserve some aerial photography love too! We offer cost-effective end-to-end packages, giving construction firms and residential/commercial developers absolute flexibility in selecting which stages of their projects they want captured. John Reilly Civil Engineering called upon our drone filming expertise to shoot header videos for their website, exhibiting the groundwork and sewerage infrastructure they’d engineered for a vast plot of 250 houses.
Around the same time, another John Reilly project made for an ideal showcase of the land clearance stages of their work. We negotiated a multi-day, multi-site deal and headed to the second worksite to document this key part of the civil engineering firm’s service offering. Our ground and drone footage outlined the team’s approach to removing, transporting, and repurposing trees and foliage.
Video: DHL Global Forwarding loads 30 Machines in a first of it’s kind operation and ships from UK to Australia
DHL Industrial Projects supported Terex Corporation, a global manufacturer of materials processing machinery and aerial work platforms, with transportation of heavy machines from Southampton, UK, to Brisbane, Australia.
We were commissioned to produce photo and video content to showcase the project.
Video: Stanhope Topping Out
This new development is one of the tallest buildings in the city, at the time of writing. Located on the corner of Commercial Road just opposite Portsmouth and Southsea station it’s only a short walk away from the main campus of Portsmouth University. Watch the video and read more on our blog →
Video: Portico Shipping Cargo
The units we filmed arriving at Portico ensured Portsmouth was ready to receive HMS Prince of Wales, which boasts a flight deck that’s 70 metres wide and 280 metres long — enough space for three football pitches! She also holds an impressive 45 days’ worth of food. Watch the video and read more on our blog →
The Cannons, West Sussex - A visually stunning FPV Property Tour
As preferred partners of Surreys award winning WS Planning & Architecture we were first on the list to be called in for drone expertise. They had seen our First Person View property tours and had a gorgeous property for us to showcase. Check out the video on the left.
Video: John Reilly’s Bellway Homes Wessex project in Southampton
The development where John Reilly Civil Engineering provided roads and sewers, domestic groundworks, and substructure to 250 houses.
Video: John Reilly’s Barratt David Wilson Southern Counties project in Basingstoke
Another development, where John Reilly Civil Engineering undertook the construction of highway improvements, roads, sewers, domestic groundworks, and substructure to 522 units.
Beautiful B-roll for Ozweld International
We captured steel fabricator Ozweld International’s production timeline from beginning to end, with beautiful B-roll footage and stylish, organic, in-camera transitions showcasing every step of the process from the first phone call to the finishing touches. Fully manual FPV drone flying included.
£1 Million House in Old Portsmouth: an FPV Drone Tour
Estate agency Bushnell Porter requested we shoot footage that showcased both the striking interior of their Old Portsmouth property and its impressive harbour surroundings.