The Service

Personal Aerial Photo Missions

Sundog's Photo Flight service invites professional photographers, amateurs, students, and anyone else interested in photography to conduct their own personalized aerial photo missions aboard our specially modified aircraft. You choose the criteria for your mission, including what you want to photograph and time of day or night you'd like to fly. Sundog will coordinate with Air Traffic Control, factor in the weather and work with you to schedule the photo flight. Once sercured in the co-pilot seat, we will fly you to your photo location and give you the opportunity to collect stunning images from an aerial perspective only achievable with an aircraft. Sundog's aircraft, modified specifically for aerial imaging, comes equipped with a very high resolution professional digital camera that can be mounted looking down through the belly or out the side of the aircraft, allowing obstruction-free photography of your target. A tablet will give you full control of our camera right from your seat. With amazing visibility out the window you will be able visualize your perfect shot and work with your pilot to get it. If you have your own camera that uses a standard 1/4 20 tripod mount and has remote trigger functionality, it can be mounted as well. Of course, you can always handhold your camera or phone for pictures out the window too!

The Misson

Choose A Photographic Objective

Whether you need a specific image for work, are looking to enhance your photography portfolio, want to post your own unique content on social media, or would just like to take memorable pictures of something meaningful to you or someone you love, Sundog can help you do it... once you tell us what you want! You can pick target locations, specific events or even general themes. Sundog will work with you to get the shots you are looking for. Common photo objectives include:

The Process

What To Expect

Once you share your photographic objective and availability with us we will review the aircraft schedule, analyze the weather forecasts and update you on potential flight opportunities. Small aircraft operations require a certain amount of flexibility with weather so you can anticipate having a target date as well as backup dates, any of which are subject to change with the changing weather. Once your flight time is confirmed, you will meet your pilot at the designated airport where you will:

• Review flight details with pilot
• Sign flight waiver
• Pay for flight (if not prepaid)
• Review camera operation
• Receive passenger safety briefing
• Conduct photo flight!
• Flight debrief
• Download images within 24 hours

In addition to having an amazing photographic experience that you will always remember, you also get to keep any of the images you took with our camera - because that was the point! We typically shoot directly to very-fine quality JPEG images. This lets our camera operate most efficiently and reduces image transfer time. The image files typically range from 35-50 megabytes in size and represent the full 61MP resolution of the camera (9504x6336 pixels). While images right out of the camera are stunning, they can be enhanced even more if you take the time to do some light image processing, which typically includes: rotating and cropping to highlight your area of interest, adjusting the contrast, and sharpening the image. There are several free photo editing tools that will let you do simple image processing, or for a nominal fee you can have us enhance your "keeper" images for you. The processed digital imagery can be provided to your preferred print shop and is of sufficient quality to be printed to poster-size or larger. Of course you can also reduce file size (and quality) to easily share images on social media and email.

If you have image processing expertise and would prefer to shoot in RAW image format, let us know before your flight. As you are likely aware, this will result in much larger image files and will require specialized software to view/process.

How Much?

Photo Flight Pricing

Sundog offeres fixed, up-front prices in the greater Kansas City Metro area. Photo flight requests outside of the KC Metro may require minimum order amounts, and unique requests may require custom pricing. Flying an airplane isn't cheap but we are always happy to see if we can accomodate your needs with fair and resonable rates.