Robertson's Photography often goes airborne

By Jim Obert

Business Today

Steve Robertson of Cape Girardeau says he grew up as a military brat. Not an Army brat or a Navy brat, but an Air Force brat. Born in San Antonio, Texas, to a father who was a career Air Force officer, Robertson spent years at many bustling Air Force bases.

When the time came for Robertson to attend college, his family was stationed at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, which made it easy for him to zoom down to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where he majored in photography.

After graduating college in 1969, Robertson moved to Cape Girardeau and worked as a photographer -- land-based -- for the Naeter brothers' newspaper, then the newspaper started by Gary Rust.

Finding the news business not quite to his liking, Robertson did a stint with the federal government. But looking at schematics and pushing paper was not the lofty life he desired.

Robertson returned to Cape and in 1981 opened a photography business on Perryville Road. Engagements, weddings, graduations, reunions, portraits, you name it and he shot it. But one facet of photography was missing -- aerial.

He didn't have to wait long, because in 1981 Procter & Gamble hired him to photograph its plant in north Cape Girardeau County. Robertson hired a pilot and plane to take him up. That was the first of several aerial photography jobs he did before he got a pilot's license and bought his own plane.

"I wanted to be a pilot like my dad, and I had been around planes all my life," said Robertson in his office on Broadway, in a tall Victorian-style house where he also lives.

When Robertson turned 36, a friend, Don Grossheider, gave him a free flying lesson as a birthday present.

"I was hooked," he said, smiling at the memory. "I got my license and bought a Cessna 150, a little two-seater. Aerial photography was a natural."

In the nearly 20 years since he became a pilot, Robertson has gone through five airplanes. His current plane is a Mooney, which is made in Texas. A fast, low-wing four-seater with retractable landing gear, the plane is ideally suited for the transcontinental work Robertson often does.

His first aerial assignment as his own pilot was in the early 1980s. The manager of Wal-Mart in Cape Girardeau called him and said that Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., wanted some aerial photos of the local store. When asked if he did that kind of work Robertson replied, "I sure do."

He took to the blue sky that very day and Wal-Mart got the eye-in-the-sky photos it asked for.

"Then they asked me to do the Wal-Mart store in Anna, Ill., and 10 more sites."

A long-time relationship with Wal-Mart developed, a relationship that continues to this day.

"They hired me to photograph Wal-Mart stores that had closed but were looking for tenants, new stores and farmland the company owned," said Robertson, adding that many of his aerial photos, including those of the Wal-Mart Supercenter that opened in Jackson a few years ago, can be viewed on the Internet at www.wal-mart.com/realty.

Robertson has done aerial photography in almost every state in the continental U.S. He has flown up and down the East and West coasts on assignments for Wal-Mart. Other companies have hired him for jobs in other parts of the country.

He shoots his photos through a porthole in the side of the plane. The porthole is a small ventilation window that a pilot generally uses to talk to a lineman while on the ground, or to get ventilation while the plane is taxiing down the runway.

Robertson says he used to use medium-format Pentax cameras in his aerial work, but last year switched to a digital Fuji S1.

He has photographed the Procter & Gamble expansions over the years, and he regularly does aerial construction updates on the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge for the state Department of Transportation. He does work for Lonestar.

Regular clients include area appraisers and real estate agents.

One of his most exciting assignments was in mid-December. His job was to take photos of an apartment complex owned by a Missouri company. The catch? -- the apartments were about 3 1/2 miles from the end of one of the four main runways at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, Ga.

"Hartsfield is the busiest airport in the world now," said Robertson, his eyes widening a little. "It's busier than Heathrow in Britain and O'Hare in Chicago.

Robertson says he called the airport about three weeks before he wanted to do the job. He filed a photo plan with the airport. He said he could not be denied access to the area because he was a bona fide user of air space.

When he arrived south of the "target" he informed the air traffic controllers of his readiness to photograph the apartments.

"They asked me how much time I needed, and I said five minutes or less. So they held up all air traffic. I went in, circled the target a couple times and got out. Then boom! The airport released all this traffic. The sky was just black with airplanes. It was pretty exciting!"

A major factor in scheduling aerial photography jobs, says Robertson, is the weather. There is usually a weather window, and this becomes more important when jobs are in other states.

"I couldn't do work on this scale with a Cessna 150 or some other little puddle jumper. You've got to get there before the weather changes," says Robertson, adding that his current plane dashes along at about 165 mph.