On Test with Polepics

When it comes to getting off the ground, CEO and Founder of Polepics, Steven Draper, has a wealth of knowledge. In fact he has several thousand hours experience  flying commercial airliners all around the world.

But does a camera pole have anything in common with piloting a Boeing 777? We catch up with Steven on a recent test session to find out.

A head for heights is certainly still needed!

“I feel that my experience as an airline captain, piloting big jets like the 777 around the world certainly adds a lot to my business. For example I’m not just ‘having a go with the mast’ this evening, I’m actually reviewing every aspect of it’s operation and using this to produce a workflow that I can use everyday on location. There isn’t a lot of global experience using masts readily avaliable, certainly not big 70′ truck mounted masts like this with $6000 of computer controlled camera perched on top – so I have to work out most things for myself.

An operating procedure is something I can use to help me do things in the same sequence and put things in the same place each time I use the mast. This dramatically reduces the chance of making a mistake like sending the camera all the way to the top of the mast with the lens cap on, treading on something expensive of forgetting where I’ve placed one of the locking pins.

The second area I’m looking at is the mast handling, where the cables go, how to teather and level it. What things are super critical to get right, what to do in the unlikely event that things go wrong or it suddenly becomes very windy and I need to lower the mast.

Then comes the camera handling. It’s getting pretty dark right now and we can see that there is about 15kph of wind gently pushing the mast. You can see the tops of the trees swaying gently. I want to know what shutter speeds are suitable – we can control it all from the computer so it is good to know where the sweet spot for the best image is at various elevations. Look at how quick the sun is setting, I can fire off a bracketted sequence with one press of the apple mac laptops trackpad mouse.

On other tests I’ll be looking at specific image possibilities too, although tonight I’m really interested in low light and shutter speeds. I wasn’t planning on shooting my own home, the car position isn’t quiet right and for a house picture you’d ideally need to have those ladders, christmas lights and cars out of the way, still the tiles will be good for the sharpness test – looks like we’ve lost one or two tiles in the strong winds over winter. It looks like we can do roof surveys too!

‘Steven’s Home is a willing test subject’

Just moments to lower the mast for another angle. Sharp at 1/50s  f5.6  ISO 800

Finally we have to remember that this is a unique mast setup and while it is one of the most advanced I’m always looking at ways that its individual components can be made even better. I work closely with Luksa and they are very interested in my feedback, and yes there are a few tweaks in the pipline to make the mast even better!

Proper Preperation Prevents Pain! And so with this work ethos in mind, the mast system has a lot in common with the mentality I used every day that I worked as a commercial pilot. Attention to detail, care and situational awereness are just as important to me now with polepics as they were flying jumbo’s at 38000′

‘Polepics One’ with the mast at 30′ just under half extension.

Thanks Steven. And if you’d like to join the list of people who would like to see polepics in action at your location then please get in touch. We’d be more than happy to come along and show off your best angle with our unique combination of equipment, operator and creative experience.