bit of a rambling question but bear with me. ive been doing the real estate aerial thing for about a year and its fine, pays okay, but every gig feels the same and honestly im getting a little bored. i know thats kind of a weird thing to complain about but flying the same cookie cutter shots over suburban houses every weekend is starting to feel like data entry with a remote controller.

i tried reaching out to a couple of wedding photographers about collaborating and got ghosted both times which was discouraging. i also looked into film/TV stuff but that world seems really hard to break into without connections. has anyone found creative or unusual ways to get different kinds of work? even if it pays less i think id rather have variety. someone mentioned agricultural stuff to me once but i dont even know where to start with that

the ag stuff is interesting but its very regional and you usually need to work through an existing ag services company to get started unless you already have farmer contacts. i dabbled in it and the pay per acre is low enough that you need volume to make it worthwhile, plus the timing is really weather and season dependent. not saying dont pursue it but go in with realistic expectations.

for variety honestly the best thing i did was just start saying yes to weird requests. ive done shots for a guy who wanted aerial footage of his vintage car collection, done some stuff for local news when they needed something quick, even did a thing for a university research project once. none of it came from a platform or cold outreach, it came from word of mouth after people knew i existed and was reliable. that takes time though, which i know isnt the satisfying answer

have you tried posting in local Facebook groups or nextdoor? sounds kinda low tech but i got a suprise call from a golf course that saw my post and wanted seasonal footage for their website. wouldnt have thought of that as a niche but now i do a few courses in the area and its actually pretty chill work