Jim Doogan’s business is really high tech stuff. Doogan, who owns Advantage Elevated Photos, shoots “elevated photos” using a specially equipped truck that lifts his Nikon 8008, or a video camera, 50 feet in the air. The resulting pictures provide more detail than photos taken from a plane, helicopter or other airborne contraption and provide a vantage that can be missed by a photographer shooting from ground level. And it is safer than sending a photographer in the air using a bucket truck or platforms, Doogan said. On a recent Friday evening, Steve Cleary, owner of J.G. Goff’s Pub in Providence, hired Doogan to take photos of the after work crowd enjoying cocktails on the pub’s patio. Cleary wanted pictures showing his customers sipping drinks around an outdoor fountain and under the shade of green table umbrellas, emblazoned with the Heineken logo. Plus he wanted to include the backdrop of the nearby Providence River and the Hurricane Barrier.
“I can’t get the water from the ground,” said Cleary, adding elevated photos will also conveniently include “the traffic count too.” From 50 feet in the air the camera could easily capture cars passing by on the Point Street Bridge.
Cleary is planning another waterfront pub in Bristol and he wanted pictures of Goff’s “to show it to my lenders. I want to show it’s a popular spot.”
To get such shots, Doogan outfitted a Ford pickup truck with special equipment, including a custom-made cover for the back of the truck, a winch system that lifts the camera, and video monitors and a control panel that allow him to remain earthbound while setting up camera shots. The control panel allows him to rotate the camera to various positions and move the winch up and down.
Though he must lower the winch to change the camera lens or load more film, to actually snap the pictures he uses a remote control device and wears headphones, which let him hear whether the camera took a picture or not. A whirring sound will alert him if the film does not advance or needs to be replaced.
It cost about $80,000 to buy the truck and outfit it, Doogan estimated. The technology is protected by a utility patent.
He likes to joke that his Nikon camera is not used to its fullest capabilities, since he is the primary photographer. “It’s a really nice camera,” Doogan said. “It’s probably sad that it fell into my hands, because all it does is stay on automatic.”
Doogan, who lives in nearby Massachusetts, worked as a lawyer for about 20 years before deciding to get into the photography business. He practiced corporate law, including working for Metropolitan Life Insurance and the now-defunct Old Stone Bank. After federal officials closed Old Stone, however, Doogan said he and Guy Pirolli, a former bank colleague, decided to start a business together in late 1995.
Pirolli, who came up with the photography idea, was later offered another job and left the business, Doogan said.
But Doogan – who runs Advantage from a Davol Square office – said he preferred to continue the business, instead of searching for a new job. Besides, he added, “I enjoy it for the fun side of it and going to oddball places.”
Among his jobs since starting out: Photographing Nibbles Woodaway, a.k.a. “The Big Blue Bug” for a local ad agency; helping Cox Communications get the right vantage to film baby osprey in their nests; and taking pictures of a training program for accident reconstruction investigators at Quonset Point.
“It won’t take the place of aerials,” Doogan said of elevated photos. But it does offer a reasonable alternative – at a cost that starts around $100 for a set of pictures, he added. In fact aerial photos wouldn’t have been an option for Goff’s owner, because planes can’t fly below 1,000 feet in a congested area, said Doogan, who has aerial photographers he works with for some customers.
When he first started, Doogan said, he thought elevated photos would be in high demand with real estate agents and lawyers handling serious cases, such as wrongful death suits. But he’s found he’s more likely to be hired for “the simple things.” For instance, he is sometimes hired to take pictures of property damage and automobile accident scenes and building sites where the developers are seeking zoning approvals.
“The real money, the real success has been lawyers, insurance companies, architects, engineers, developers,” he said.
Cleary, the pub’s owner, is also in the real estate business. He recently commissioned Doogan to photograph a 12.3 acre parcel in the Quincy, Mass., area.
“Instead of walking it, I have him go up there and put his camera up and I can see in 10 minutes what it would take me three hours to walk,” Cleary said.
Gloria Kurz, who owns Mansions & Manors real estate service in Jamestown, likes to use elevated photos to market the luxury and waterfront properties for which she is the listing broker. She uses Doogan’s photos for colorful fact sheets about individual homes, as well as newspaper and magazine advertisements. One fact sheet Kurz created of a waterfront Victorian in Jamestown, included five different shots of the house and its panoramic view of Narragansett Bay.
“From a marketing perspective it’s wonderful,” she said. “It’s the effect of aerial, but much more definition.
“That fact sheet is a wonderful document, because that’s what people take away with them; that’s how they remember a property,” Kurz said. “It’s like taking a picture of a person. If you’re a model, there’s a profile you have or pose you have that you like. And it’s taking advantage of that.
“It’s an important piece of the strategy. It’s hard for me to think of marketing this type of property without this resource,” said Kurz, who has been in real estate for 13 years. “If he decides to move away or stay away from real estate, I’d be devastated.”
Kurz actually met Doogan about three years ago, when he was photographing one of her neighbor’s homes and introduced himself to her. Doogan said that is actually typical of how he attracts new business – by talking to people while he’s on a job.
“Most of the time this goes up, this becomes a curiosity and people want to know what the heck it is,” he said.
ELEVATED VIEW: left.
GROUND LEVEL: right.
