so this happened a few weeks ago and im still a little annoyed about it but figured it might help someone else. landed what i thought was my first legit commercial gig, a construction company wanted progress shots of a site every two weeks for like 4 months. seemed perfect right, recurring work, easy flying, good portfolio material.

we agreed on a price verbally and i showed up and did the first shoot no problem. sent the photos, they loved them. second shoot same thing. then on the third one i get an email saying they decided to go a different direction and thats it, no more shoots. they paid for the two i already did but i had basically turned down another job that week because i thought i had this locked in.

i had no contract. i know i know. i just assumed because they were a real company with a real office it would be fine. lesson extremely learned. does anyone have a contract template they use for recurring work like this or should i just pay someone to draft something, wondering if a generic freelance contract would even cover the drone specific stuff or if theres something more tailored out there

ugh yeah contracts are the thing nobody talks about when they get into this. i use a pretty simple one i found on AOPA's site and modified it myself, covers deliverables, payment terms, cancellation policy, usage rights. the cancellation clause is the key thing ? mine requires 2 weeks notice or they owe me 50% of remaining scheduled sessions. would that have saved you the full amount, probably not, but it changes the conversation entirely when you have it in writing up front.

honestly a generic freelance services contract works fine for most of this, you dont need something super drone specific unless youre doing something complicated like mapping or you have data handling requirements. just make sure it covers what happens if weather cancels a shoot and who bears that cost, that comes up way more than clients bailing early in my experience

this is kind of a rite of passage thing unfortunately. happened to me with a real estate photographer who was going to subcontract me for all his listings, got two shoots in and then he just... stopped responding. no contract, no nothing. i think about that whenever anyone suggests a handshake deal now.

one thing i'd add ? even just sending a detailed email that outlines the scope and price and having them reply confirming it is better than nothing from a legal standpoint. obviously a real contract is better but people sometimes balk at signing something formal for smaller jobs, a confirmation email at least shows mutual agreement. take that with whatever grain of salt, im not a lawyer obviously