San Mateo County Coast
SAN MATEO coast north of SANTA CRUZ
I have probably taken more aerial photos of this area than any where else. Part of the reason is that we use to be based in Half Moon Bay and flying out or in I could always find an interesting target.
We moved our operation 2 years ago to Rio Vista but my mechanic and some of my favorite restaurants are still there.
Flying into Half Moon Bay from the north I pick up the VFR air route near Sausalito, then pass to the West of the Golden Gate Bridge, along Sunset, past Lake Merced and the Olympic Golf Course. Then you have to watch for hang gliders going off the cliffs near Mussel Rock Park or Thornton Beach State Park. I then pass Sharp Park, Pacifica, Linda Mar, Montara and Moss Beach.
I like to overfly the airport and enter at midfield overhead and make the downwind turn just to the east of Highway 1.
The Devils Slide and Point Pedro offer good aerial photo opportunities.
Fort Bragg and the North Coast
I had a nice real estate photo mission to do in Fort Bragg. Returning to the Bay Area I chose to fly down the coast and photograph some targets of opportunity. The coast is spectacular to say the least. Steep cliffs, lighthouses, fishing boats and hillside meadows are just a few of the picturesque subjects.
Heading south I flew over Mendocino, Cape Horn, Stonetta, Point Arena, Gallaway, Bodega Bay and Point Reyes. I then made a turn east and flew over Novato, Vallejo, American Canyon and Fairfield before descending into Rio Vista.
Other than the real estate the best aerial photos I got were of the lighthouse.
Livermore Ca. and wilderness areas.
I just finished an aerial photo job for an outdoor magazine highlighting the wilderness areas near Livermore, Ca.. I had the sun to the east so I was shooting to the west and just past the wilderness areas I could clearly see San Jose just over last hill. Oakland to the northwest was also in view.
The wilderness areas are Ohlone and Sunol. Livermore is just to the north of both areas as are Dublin , Pleasanton, San Ramon, Tracy and Danville. I am told that the hikes there can be challenging but the scenery and wildlife more than make up for that.
Other communities quite close are Fremont, Newark, Santa Clara, Hayward, Union City and Milpitas.
It is a pleasant surprise to find real wilderness areas so close to a major metropolitan area.
Klamath River Aerial Photo
Klamath River at Happy Camp, California
A while ago I had an aerial photo job to photograph the upper Klamath River in far Northern California. Our mission was to photograph the upper 4 dams that have been scheduled for removal.
The route north took us up the Sacramento Valley generally paralleling US 5. The first towns we flew over were Dixon, Davis and Woodland. This track kept us to the east of the Travis Air Force Base control zone and to the west of Sacramento International and Sacramento Executive airports.
We flew over smaller airports at Williams and Willows. Beale Air Force Base to the east has testing of drone aircraft and consequently needs to be avoided.
Larger airports at Red Bluff and Redding have fuel as well as resturants but we overflew them and passed over Lake Shasta and to the west of Mt Shasta. We descended into the Siskyou valley and landed at Yreka Montague where we took on fuel and borrowed their crew car to zip into town for a quick lunch. The weather was crystal clear and our photo mission went very well.
With 4 hours of fuel still on board we decided to fly nonstop back to Rio Vista. The trip back took 2 hours and 44 minutes and total for the day was just short of 7 hours.
Monterey Golf smoked out
Pebble Beach from above
The Monterey and Carmel area have over 2 dozen golf courses. I have been fortunate to photo and map several of them. For once it is an area with few air traffic problems as jets descending into San Francisco are still quite high and local traffic going into Monterey is for the most part to the north.
Fog however can be a problem. As with much of the Pacific coast fog can lay well off shore and then quickly move in to make aerial photos impossible.
I had the assignment to map Pebble Beach last summer and encountered a much less common ( thankfully ) hazard. When I left Rio Vista Monterey was reporting clear skies. I flew to the north of the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose air traffic control areas. I crossed San Pablo Bay and stayed north of Alcatraz Island and crossed over the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge. I flew south just off of the coast past Pacifica, Montera and Half Moon Bay. As Monterey came into view I saw that a forest fire had started in the mountains to the east toward Salinas and the smoke was covering the peninsula. The chance for photo mapping looked grim. Luckily the fire was quickly extinguished the offshore breeze cleared the smoke and I was able to get the mapping done.
Aerial Mapping in Walnut Creek and Diablo
CordeValle Golf Course
Our photo plane has a camera hole in the belly. It is fitted with a camera mount that allows for vertical photographing. Vertical photos can then be stitched together with the proper software to make a map type file that is attractive and can be the basis for measurements and other technical uses.
The project is accomplished by flying parallel lines equidistant from each other with the aid of the navigational computer. The camera is computer operated to fire at preset intervals.
The advantage of this aerial photo method as opposed to flying quite high and recording the same area with a few shots is the greater detail captured. Because we fly at a fairly low altitude and take lots of overlapping photos we get vastly better detail and resolution.
This service is especially attractive to golf courses where bunker, tee and pin placement, etc can be measured.
We recently utilized this procedure on golf courses in Walnut Creek and Mt Diablo.
Video of California Delta
We are currently filming a video documentary of the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta. The filming will be shot over the next four weeks. Our base of operations for the project will be our Rio Vista facility.
The Delta is bordered by Stockton on the east, Pittsburg and Antioch on the west, Sacramento on the north and Tracy on the south.
Surveying this fantastic area from the air is a great experience. Much of the Delta is not accessible by road. A boat makes much more of the Delta available but only from the air can one really get a good feel for just how diverse this area is.
Large tracts are productive farm land. This time of year these fields have been harvested and are a magnet for migrating waterfowl and aerial photos of the birds are always a possibility.
The central part of the
Central California Delta
is a maze of interconnecting rivers, sloughs,"lakes" and islands.
Recent projects in Napa and Marin County
Solar Panels
This past year I had the pleasure of aerial photographing and shooting aerial video in several Napa and Santa Rosa valley locations. I documented the installation of solar panels on both Petaluma high schools. They were very nicely done. I then flew north up the valley past Santa Rosa and took video of a dozen vineyards. Two vineyards were near the top of the mountains and made for very dynamic video shots as we came over the crest and descended sharply down into the Napa valley.
We then hopped over Hood Mountain to Saint Helena and flew south down the Napa Valley past Yountville where we took video of several more vineyards and then stopped at the Napa County airport for lunch before heading home to Rio Vista.
Seen from the air the wine country is even more beautiful than from the ground.
real estate developement
Shopping center near Oakland, California
I have been doing a lot of aerial photo work for California real estate development companies lately. One of these projects covers more than 2000 acres. Another in the South Bay is only 37 acres. From my recent experience most of the development in the greater Bay area is being planned in the South Bay area and over by Santa Cruz. One can easily see why that area would be a great place to live and work.
The South Bay itself is undergoing some long overdue restoration with the reclaiming of large wetland areas. This will surely offer increased recreational opportunities.
Road Construction and paving Aerial Photos
Richmond, California
Despite the economic downturn and the slump in new housing construction highway repair and improvements have given a boost to that section of the local economy throughout much of California and no end is in sight.
Government funding is still available in this vital infrastructure sector and new projects are being put out for bid almost daily.
This is an area where aerial photos play a vital role in the planning, constructing and finishing stages of the project. Often job sites are photographed every few days to allow engineers and supervisors to track the progress of the job and quickly identify any problem areas.
With contracts often worth six and seven figures the small amount spent on timely informative aerial photos is well worth the cost.
We just finished a big project north of San Jose that should give the economy there a boost. This aerial photo was taken near Dublin California
Building site Bay Area California