Photo Tip for Shooting 16′ Above Ground with Pole Pixie

What a cool tool! I discovered this on the www.realestatephotography.com website a few weeks ago.  It’s relatively inexpensive and easy to transport. All you need is a strong extending painting pole.

It can seem a little unwieldy with the camera attached, but with a little practice it’s easy to maneuver. I think the key is to keep the bottom of the pole on the ground as you raise the camera into the air. The website www.polepixie.com has some helpful hints and lots of warnings about how to handle the whole unit so that one does not lose an expensive camera.

I have a heavy duty pole (get brand) that allows me to keep the pole pixie adapter, a tilting mount and the protective plate attached as one unit which I can just pop it off the pole and place in my car. This is great because I think it can be time consuming to realign the camera with the arrow on the bottom of the plate each time.

Once you have managed to attach everything and practice raising it in the air you can then start shooting. Unless you wish to invest in a small TV ($$) and attach it with cords to your camera, so that you can see a live feed – it’s really blind shooting. I kind of like the trial and error method using my camera’s 12 second timer. So far on the 3 properties I shot, it took me 5-10 tries to get the right angle and a focused shot. Not bad.

What a difference it made on this property. I was at the very edge of at 10+ foot drop off and well below the front door of this condo. Here is what it looked like shooting from 5’4” above ground.

Here is what it looked like from 16’ in the air.

I then used the straightening (skew) feature in Photoshop Elements to get the final angles correct.

Here’s another property that was not as dramatic, but notice how the porch looks much better as do the trees in the back of the home.

If you are shooting properties and don’t care to invest in a 15’ tripod or big rig you need to haul on a trailer hitch, I suggest trying the pole pixie and using a heavy duty paint pole that you can pop off the end.