okay so bit of background. ive been freelancing for about 18 months doing mostly aerial photography work, weddings, some commercial stuff, occasional mapping jobs. its been okay but i keep running into the feast or famine thing. anyway out of nowhere a land survey company reached out asking if id be interested in a full time position flying their Phantom 4 RTK and doing LiDAR work with a Matrice they just got. salary isnt amazing but its steady and includes benefits which as a freelancer i have basically none of.

the thing is i actually like being my own boss and setting my own schedule even when its stressful. but the survey work sounds genuinely interesting and id probably learn a lot about photogrammetry and point cloud processing which i dont really know yet. has anyone done this kind of transition, going from freelance photo/video to survey and mapping work? is it a completely different world or does some of it carry over

survey and mapping is a completely different headspace from photo/video work, just to set expectations. with photography you're thinking about light and composition and making things look good. with survey work its all about data accuracy, GSD, overlap percentages, making sure your GCPs are dialed in. the creative part basically goes away. that said the skills you build are genuinely transferable to higher paying commercial work down the road and a lot of companies are desperate for people who actually understand the flight side AND the processing side.

the Matrice with LiDAR is also just a cool platform to work with. if they're willing to train you on the processing software like Pix4D or Reality Capture that alone is worth a lot. i'd probably take it for a year, absorb everything, and then reassess.

benefits are no joke when you've been freelancing. i went back to a staff position after two years on my own partly because my health insurance situation was getting ridiculous. dont underestimate how much mental energy goes into worrying about that stuff, it adds up. the survey role sounds like it has a real ceiling for learning which is cool but yeah id just make sure you negotiae the salary as high as you can get it before accepting because once youre in its hard to move the number much