Look Up and Smile: Aerial Photos to Start

If weather permits, airplanes will begin flying over Orange County this weekend to snap pictures as part of the county’s first digital aerial photography project.

At least two planes hired by Pictometry LLC, a New York-based corporation that won a $184,000 county contract in November, will use a computer-assisted camera to photograph every square mile at an elevation of 4,000 feet.

“The planes are ready. They just need good weather,” said Diane Thomas, a county spokeswoman.

Thomas could not predict exactly how long the shoot will last. It would take one airplane 30 days to finish the job or two airplanes 15 days, depending on weather conditions, she said.

Initially, the project was to include selling high-quality color photographs of individual homes on the Internet to defray the county’s costs. But the Board of Supervisors dropped the idea after a public outcry.

Supervisors said they received hundreds of complaints from residents concerned that their privacy would be invaded or that the photos might fall into the hands of criminals.

As a result, supervisors modified Pictometry’s contract so it would not include making the photographs available to the public. Instead, the images will be stored in a county database for planning projects and also sold to cities and governmental agencies, including police and fire departments.

Rather than taking pictures from directly overhead, Pictometry will shoot at an angle, allowing users to measure the height, width and length of any feature in an image, including gullies, buildings, trees, utility poles and roads.