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Meet Tylor Foster of First Take Aerial

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Tylor Foster.

Tylor, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
My name is Tylor Foster. I am the Owner and Chief Pilot for First Take Aerial. Originally from the Chicago area, I relocated to the West after graduating with a degree in Civil Engineering from Purdue University. Boiler Up! Upon graduating I began working for one of the largest general contractors in the US, Granite Construction. When the drone industry started to “takeoff” (no pun intended) I became involved with drones for construction progress documentation and volumetric earthwork data analysis. I became fascinated with the technology and gained a passion that opened up a lot of doors. I started to see all of the different opportunities that drones bring to many different industries.

Wanting to pursue these roads, I bought myself a setup and began my journey. I started practicing flying and exploring different techniques and avenues. During this time I was located in Reno, NV. I got to adventure and fly around one of the most beautiful places in the world, Lake Tahoe. Seeing places like that from a new perspective brings it a whole new dimension of beauty. You get hooked.

After spending a few years in Reno I relocated here to the Valley. A new place, new faces, and most importantly new opportunities. The valley offers many avenues for successful drone business: construction, real estate, events, you name it. I really enjoy the construction industry since that’s my background. I believe it brings a new perspective to that line of work. Sometimes construction gets a bad wrap because many times (at least in the infrastructure industry) it causes a lot of people to be delayed in getting where they’re going, sometimes for years. I like to make those people say, “Hey, that’s pretty cool.”

I’ve gotten involved in some other routes like real estate, weddings, and events. To me, it doesn’t matter what type of job it is. It’s always fun. Over the last few months, I’ve also incorporated ground services. I can’t always get the shots I want from the drone and it’s good to mix in some groundwork too. I really enjoy the creative side of this industry. It’s amazing to me how I can evoke certain emotions out of people based on the clips and music in a video.

Sometimes just changing the music can make someone feel two completely different ways about the same visual. I’m excited to grow, and I look forward to a wonderful year in 2018 and many years after that. With this technology continuing to evolve every day, I’m always learning, and I want to educate and learn with my clients. No job is the same and I embrace that. I love to experiment, push the envelope, and try new things to bring clients the best quality product possible. I want to make First Take the Valley’s First Choice.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s not always smooth flying. I’ve definitely encountered my share of turbulence. Okay, sorry for all the drone puns…

This biggest struggle for our industry is the FAA. They seem to have blanked the commercial side of the drone industry with a litany of rules and regulations because there wasn’t enough time to think it out. Drones started flying off the shelf and a few bad eggs spoiled it for the rest of us. A couple of poor decisions from early operators like flying near airports or just recklessly, in general, have caused some regulations that hinder business growth.

In general, if a potential project lies within a 5-mile radius of an airport it may take as much a 6 months to get authorization from the FAA to fly there. Say I were to have a real estate property to get pictures for. If the property is 4.9 miles away from the airport and I only want to fly the drone 50 feet above the ground I have to submit for authorization. Again, that may take 6 months (yes, I’ve had them take that long). The FAA says they have about a 90 day turn around time for requests.

The majority of them go over that 90 days. That realtor is hoping to have that property sold by then! However, the FAA is slowly, I mean slowly, working at speeding things up and actually have a test program out there (LAANC) that can give operators an “instantaneous” response to an airspace authorization request. Phoenix Sky Harbor Int’l Airport is actually one of the 50 airports in the U.S. giving this a go.

The other hurdle is getting the knowledge out there that this technology exists. I know some of you may be thinking, “How do people not know about drones?” You’d be surprised how many people I run into that don’t know of them or what they can do. And many people who know of them only know the negative news about them (the few bad eggs I spoke of earlier). This is something I like though. Teaching people about the endless possibilities and great things drones are doing for businesses and human life is what keeps me moving.

First Take Aerial – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We do it all! I’d need a whole day to tell you all the possible uses for drones, but I’ll name a few we focus on.

Construction – progress photos, progress video, time lapse, 360° aerial photo, 2D/3D ortho mosaics, volumetric data analysis, inspections, marketing glamour shots, and many more (some even unknown yet),

I like to focus on construction because again that’s my background and what I went to school for. I’m passionate about construction and I’m passionate about drones so why not combine the two?! I think there’s a tremendous amount of value for drones in the construction industry. From progress monitoring to volumetric data analysis, to safety. There’s a definite use for them, but also I believe an undeniable need.

Real Estate – interior and exterior photo, interior and exterior video, aerial photo, aerial video, 360° aerial photo, full property video tours, guided video tours, and 2D/3D orthomosaics.

I also really enjoy the real estate industry. I mean let’s be honest… who doesn’t like looking at awesome houses online? That’s the beauty of the drones in real estate. It get’s people looking. Helping a realtor sell a house faster and for possibly more money because of a short video that catches the attention of many more buyers than just driving by is what I love. If you’re a realtor, imagine giving a tour during an open house. You can only show it to as many people that are there. You’re taking time to do it over and over again to find a potential buyer. Why not record it once and reach thousands upon thousands of people who are already online home shopping?? Then the people who call you generally are more solid of a lead.

A few other common services are golf course tours, weddings, events, lifestyle, sports, tv/film, roofing inspections, video production, and many more. We’re constantly looking for new ways to use drones across any industry. We want to be leading that effort and bringing people new ideas while keeping our ears open and listening to our client’s ideas too. After all, we do this for you.

I believe what I’m most proud of and what sets us apart is the same thing. Our attention to detail. Sure there are many people who can fly a drone and post their stuff online, but we put in the time after the flying to go through our videos and photos, pick the best, use the best, and make it look the best. I see everyday videos online where there is a bunch of jerking motion and quick movements that pull the viewer’s attention away from the purpose of the video. We only shoot and use that buttery-smooth, cinema-like footage in our productions. We analyze each frame and only select the best quality material. If we don’t have it, we’ll make sure to get it.

We strive to build relationships, we strive to carry excellence in our work. We want you to trust us because we guarantee you’ll be pleased with your product. If not, we’ll work at it until you are. Our goal is to be the first place you call for your needs.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career so far was getting that first check from one of my clients. That’s when the light really turned on and I said to myself, “here we go.”

The reason it was so memorable for me was because I had done quite a bit of pro bono work for this client beforehand. I was building my portfolio to be able to showcase my work and start charging for my services. I was always nervous that I would do a bunch of free work and they wouldn’t think it was that great and I wouldn’t get any further contracts with them or anyone else.

That moment when someone hands you money because they think your work is that valuable, it gets you going. I knew then that if they liked it, I’d bet there are a whole lot more people out there who will like it too. Every time again a new client that drive gets more and more intense, but the most rewarding thing is delivering the product to your client and hearing them say “this is awesome.”

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