Night flights take off for Skylens
An aerial photographer and video company run by two former Shropshire Star photographers has become one of the first in the region to win a licence to fly drones at night.
360Skylens Aerial Photography and Video was started by Paul Watkins in 1995, shooting for local and national businesses, including aerial photography from helicopters and light aircraft.
Starting with the development of telescopic masts on vehicles that put cameras up to 26m high and a tethered helium balloon system with a remotely controlled camera head before moving on to to become one of the first in the UK to operate drones.
Alongside another ex-Star snapper, Andrew Cunningham, the business now runs three drones, and has won work as far away as Istanbul.
Now, following an intensive course, theory test, flight test over and above the standard CAA testing, the company has gained an enhanced permission for aerial work allowing it to operate the fleet of drones at night time.
Mr Watkins said "It is great to be able to expand the range of shots we are now able to achieve with this enhanced permission, and we are really pleased that the CAA has awarded us this so we can now work with our clients to produce even more eye-catching images."
Mr Cunningham added: "We are a small company, both of us are qualified photographers with over 40 years combined experience, and have been operating drones, or UAVs, for a number of years now.
"We were among the first to do so commercially in the UK, so we have a lot of experience and aim to film from a photographers point of view rather than just a UAV pilot or camera payload operator."
Among the work obtained by the company is for marketing packages – including one recent film for the Lake Vyrnwy Hotel - while Skylens has also used drones to make 3D models and offering a mapping service that can be used for surveying and assessing insurance claims.
Mr Cunningham added: "We are always looking for companies especially in the Midlands that we can develop a relationship with to work with them to help raise their profile in terms of video and photography.
"We are happy to work with existing video production companies to provide UAV filming services to add that extra wow factor to their films."
