Calvin Ludwig
- Construction Drone Pilot
- $250,000 annual revenue
Calvin Ludwig was a construction project manager in Denver when he got a drone for Christmas 
He put a few aerial shots in his company’s monthly project report, and the bosses asked him to shoot their other projects too 
That was the start of 4Blades Digital, which photographs building sites for developers and builders, from weekly progress shots to final marketing photos.
Calvin explains…
I didn’t set it up as a photography company. I set it up as a subcontractor in construction.
He knows what a builder needs on record, because he spent 10 years needing it himself.
Like filming every sidewalk around a site before work starts, so there’s proof when the city blames the builder for a crack two years later 
He ran 4Blades as a side hustle for five years, quitting once it matched his take-home pay of around $1,000 a week.
The company brought in about $250K in 2023 and just over that in 2024…
Making typically $20K to $30K a month with my business is substantially more than I was making as a project manager.
You’ll need an FAA Part 107 license to fly a drone for work in the US.
One drone company charges $3,588 for a year of monthly progress photos at one site, so 10 sites would bring in about $3K a month 
Calvin’s advice is to pick an industry you’ve worked in and find a problem a drone could solve there.
Then offer one local business in that industry a free first shoot, and use the results to pitch a monthly contract.