Aerial Photography

Thirteen of the best sites for aerial photography. Know of another site that should be listed here? Leave your suggestion at the bottom of this page.

1. TerraServer - Offers aerial photos of just about any point in the world. Includes both aerial photography and satellite images. (Satellite images are taken from a much higher distance and provide less detail than aerial photography from low-flying airplanes or helicopters.) You can buy the photos directly from the site. (www.terraserver.com)

2. Jason Hawkes - Hundreds of stunning aerial photos from this London area photographer in multiple categories, from agriculture to castles, to sports stadiums to cities at night. Photos can be purchased as stock images. (www.jasonhawkes.com)

3. Aerial Photos of New Jersey - Despite the name, this company does not only do aerial photography of sites in New Jersey. Aerial photographs of construction sites, residences, photos for ad campaigns, shopping centers, aerial photographs of traffic accident locations and more. Custom photos and/or stock aerial images available. (www.aerialphotosofnj.net)

4. Kite Aerial Photography by Scott Haefner - Photography created by attaching a camera to a kite produces interesting and often amazing aerial photos. Subjects include multiple places in the San Francisco Bay area, New Zealand, France, the Burning Man Festival, Cadillac Ranch in Texas, many more. (scotthaefner.com)

5. USDA Aerial Photography Field Office - You can’t see any of the images at their site, but if you are looking for aerial photography of a specific place in the United States, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has over 10 million aerial photographs dating back to 1955. Chances are they have a photo of the area you’re interested in. (www.fsa.usda.gov)

6. Professional Aerial Photographers Association - Member organization for aerial photographers, the PAPA site offers information on joining and a gallery of stunning aerial photos from the last decade or so. (www.papainternational.org)

7. Google Maps - Online service gives you satellite photos of anywhere in the United States and lets you zoom in on specific locations, sometimes all the way down to street level. It’s not purely aerial photography, in that the photos weren’t taken from planes, but still pretty cool. (maps.google.com)

8. Flyin Phil’s Photos - New Jersey-based Flyin Phil offers hundreds of aerial photos from flights over the Northeastern United States, specifically New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Photos include major and minor cities, shorelines, airports, highways, bridges, clouds, amusement parks and more. Offers some video clips as well. You can purchase prints of Phil’s photos if you see something you like. (www.flyinphilsphotos.com)

9. Tiger Aerial Photography - Aerial photography company serves the always busy construction and real estate industries throughout Florida. You can see many examples of their work at the site. (www.tigeraerial.com)

10. Photography Works - Offers aerial photography services using airplanes as well as aerial photography from blimps. Also offers elevated photography using masts to get photos from 25-50 feet up. (www.aerialphotographyworks.com)

11. Aerial Photography & Satellite Imagery from Berkeley Earth Sciences & Map Library - Over 80,000 aerial photographs, with an emphasis on California, particularly the San Francisco Bay area, but other images as well, dating from 1931 to the present day. (www.lib.berkeley.edu)

12. Wingover Photo - Massachusetts-based aerial photography company offers services for capturing images of construction site progress, private estates, commercial buildings or office parks, golf courses, more. (www.wingoverphoto.com)

13. Aerial Photography at Wikipedia - In case you don’t know what aerial photography is, this site will tell you that it is photos taken from the air. It also tells you about the challenges in taking aerial photographs, which is sort of interesting. (en.wikipedia.org)