Looking for aerial photography in Northern Ireland - all types of aerial photography provided and explained.

Seeing the undulating landscape of Northern Ireland from the ground is breathtaking in its own right, but you haven't seen the full picture until you have experienced seeing it from the air, be it in person or via an aerial photograph.

For most people, their experience of viewing N. Ireland from the air is limited to looking out of a plane's window whilst listening to the roar of the plane's engines as it steeply climbs to its cruising altitude along the dedicated highways of the sky. For a few fleeting seconds one gets to see the world below going about its normal business unaware that they are being watched. People and cars get smaller and smaller, until the scene below becomes a massive patchwork of differing shades of green.

Very few people get the opportunity to truly experience viewing Ulster from above the ground.

Often visitors to Ireland remark upon the fantastic views they saw when they flew into the airports of the North. The large expanse of water (Lough Neagh) they flew over when approaching the International Airport, or the fantastic view of Belfast as they approached the George Best Airport. The other common quote of visitors is "Now I know why they call Ireland the Emerald Isle, because its so green".

Almost overnight websites like Google Earth catapulted photography from the air into the homes of millions around the world with its satellite photographs, up until that point many didn't appreciate how the earth looks different when viewed from above. With humans being humans, word soon spread that you could suddenly see what your neighbours' gardens looked like or what was actually behind the wall of the big house up the road. Unfortunately, only the populated areas of counties like Antrim were included in the original launch, but with a recent photographic mapping of the province, full coverage is now possible.

Increased awareness of aerial photography has been its use by the media, who started to use extracts from Google Earth in news bulletins. Then the major television companies started to use helicopters to report incidents on the ground from the air, beaming live pictures of floods, scenes of major crime, into homes around the world using their 24 news channels.

UTV commissioned a series of short clips of aerial footage showing various locations around Northern Ireland, like the Giants Causeway, and screen them just before prime time television programs.

Crucially the methods used to take aerial photos comes in many forms, aerial photography with full sized planes and helicopters, or other methods such as mast photography sometimes called elevated photography, each giving a different but interesting perspective on the ground below often revealing hidden patterns and textures that are impossible to grasp or appreciate from the ground. Arguably many people are not aware of other methods of aerial photography from that are available.

The idea of this website is simple - to explain the different forms of low or high altitude photography available in Northern Ireland, the benefits of each type, associated costs and the questions you should be asking if you commission any aerial photography and allow you to purchase aerial photos of locations on the ground, be it your home, property or just your favourite beauty spot.