Aerial photography of gardens, landscape designs, and horticultural projects — for designers, owners, and award submissions.
The garden seen whole
A garden seen from the ground is always a sequence of partial views — one bed at a time, one path at a time, one season at a time. Seen from above, the same garden becomes a composition: the relationship between the structural elements, the colour rhythm of the planting, the geometry of the paths and water, the way the garden sits in its broader landscape. For the designer who shaped it and the owner who has tended it, the aerial view often reveals the garden’s true character for the first time.
We work with landscape designers, garden owners, horticultural businesses, and award juries to produce aerial photography of gardens across their seasons. Each engagement is built around the specific brief — design portfolio, owner record, award submission, publication — and the time of year that best serves it.
Designer portfolio work
Landscape designers commission aerial photography of completed projects to build the practice portfolio and to support competition entries. We work with designers across Melbourne and into regional Victoria, often returning to gardens at different seasons to build a multi-year visual record of how the design has matured.
Each portfolio shoot delivers a curated set of edited aerial photographs alongside the underlying full-resolution files, with the right of use needed for portfolio, social, awards, and publication built into the engagement.
Owner commissions
Garden owners — often gardeners themselves — commission aerial photography as a record of a garden they have spent decades shaping, as a gift to family, or as a working document for ongoing development. These shoots tend to be quietly emotional commissions, and we approach them with the care they deserve.
Owner commissions often become print pieces — see our printed stills page — and we are happy to advise on the frames most likely to translate to wall presence at scale.
Pricing and seasonal planning
Pricing starts from $100 AUD per hour with editing and printing options on top. Seasonal work — spring bulbs, summer perennial peak, autumn colour, winter structure — is best booked at least six weeks ahead. Get in touch with the garden, the designer or owner, and the season you are aiming for, and we will propose a shoot.
Multi-season photography of a single garden — capturing it across an entire year — produces a particularly powerful archive and is often the most cost-effective way to build a comprehensive visual record.
Why local pilots make a difference
There is a meaningful difference between a drone operator who travels into a suburb for the first time on shoot day and one who flies it week in, week out. Local familiarity translates into faster setup, smarter shot lists, fewer wasted batteries chasing the wrong light, and a much higher hit rate of usable frames per hour on site. Bayside Aerial is based on the bayside and our pilots fly Elwood, St Kilda, Brighton, Albert Park, Port Melbourne and the surrounding inner-south suburbs constantly.
That regularity matters specifically for gardening drone photography work. Each suburb has its own combination of helicopter flight paths, residential overflight density, beach-crowd patterns, prevailing winds across Port Phillip Bay, and seasonal airspace activity around major events. We track all of this as part of routine flight planning, and our clients benefit from never having a shoot delayed by a regulatory issue we should have spotted in advance.
How we deliver, and what to expect
Most engagements begin with a brief — an email, a phone call, or a meeting on site. We respond within one working day with availability, indicative pricing, and any clarifying questions. Quotes are fixed where the brief allows; hourly where the brief is open-ended. We invoice on completion and accept bank transfer, card, or PayPal.
Imagery is delivered through a private gallery link with full-resolution download, typically within 24 to 48 hours for fast-turnaround real estate work and within one to two weeks for larger commissions. Where the engagement involves video, we deliver master files in the codecs and frame rates your platform requires, alongside vertical and square cuts for social where these have been part of the brief.
We are quiet on site, dressed neutrally, and unobtrusive in the way we work. We do not bring spectators. We arrive on time and we leave a site no more disturbed than we found it. Many of our long-standing clients tell us this professionalism — as much as the imagery itself — is the reason they continue to book us.
Compliance & insurance — what it means for your project
Bayside Aerial is CASA accredited and the chief pilot is UK GVC and A2CofC trained, with full third-party public liability insurance. ABN 51 325 381 892. All flights are logged in accordance with CASA requirements, and all imagery is geo-tagged and time-stamped. We can supply documentation for review by clients, body corporates, builders, or insurers on request.
This compliance matters in practical ways. Real estate listing portals will not accept aerial imagery from non-compliant operators. Construction sites and tier-one builders require sub-contractor pre-qualification with current insurance. Wedding venues increasingly ask for evidence of cover. Insurance claims involving drone imagery require flight logs and pilot credentials. Where any of these matter to your project, we have the paperwork ready.
Ready to fly?
Whatever your project, every shoot is approached with care, craft and full CASA compliance. Get in touch with a brief and a date — we respond to enquiries within one working day.