Photographers, surveyors, the TV and advertising industry and building inspectors are all embracing the relatively new technology to make their work easier, safer or more innovative, Total RPA chief executive and chief instructor Andrew Campbell says.

“Most pilots are starting their own businesses with photography or adding aerial photography to their business,” he says.

“We get lots of real estate photographers, general photographers for weddings and things like that, marketing photographers.”

About 90 per cent of the commercial drone market is in photography, followed by mapping and surveying then asset and building inspections.

“Basically, instead of having to put a man on the roof of a building, which requires barricades put up, they can fly a drone over the roof with a high resolution camera,” Campbell says.

“It’s going crazy. People are finding new uses for the things everyday.”

Software engineers are also working with drones, applying the technology in fields such as shark detection.