Bergman Photographic Services Inc. has built an organization with a proven track record of excellent performance throughout the West. Our primary mission has been to provide support for mapping companies and governmental agencies completing small to medium mapping and reconnaissance projects on a year-round basis. Services cover the full range of aerial photography, with sufficient staff and equipment to provide rapid and reliable service.

The following describes our operations in approximate order of occurrence.

Initial orders, status checks and other communications with BPS can be made across our counter in Southeast Portland or via telephone, FAX and E-mail. Our experienced staff will quickly gather the appropriate information to answer questions, provide a quotation or start the flight planning process. Inter company communications are enhanced by cell phones, text pagers and radio links so even airborne flight crews can be reached in most cases.

A key part of our quality control and reliable service is accurate and complete flight planning. All flight lines are digitized accurately and arranged into electronic routes. Each job packet contains a BPS standard worksheet with all project parameters, a line listing with waypoint names, altitudes and exposure counts, a printout of the electronic data (for back-up), the electronic flight line data, flight maps and any other pertinent data. The standard worksheets also provide information about acceptable weather conditions, sun angle limits, site contacts and GPS products that might be required.

While most projects arrive with prepared flight maps and a spec sheet, we can design and prepare flight projects for our customers as an additional task. Our experience and excellent software tools can often minimize the flight costs and enhance the usability of the photography.

BPS fulfills the role of "flight department" for many local mapping companies as well as several governmental agencies and companies from other parts of the country. In this role, we manage a large workload year-round. Every day we watch for weather opportunities throughout the region and match appropriate aircraft, cameras, and crews to the available conditions. Considerable online resources exist for weather information, but they must be mixed with our local knowledge, site contact reports, webcams, and a little luck for adequate decision making. We track current observations and short-term forecasts with DUAT, NOAA, and other web sites to view satellite and radar images along with various levels of analysis that give a certain amount of insight for events to come.

As our morning dispatch efforts turn into crew/aircraft/camera assignments, we quickly assemble the equipment and data necessary for the assignments.

Because photo line starts and stops have been accurately digitized in the flight planning process and our GPS screens show mileage to the start and end of each line at all times, we can precisely and reliably ensure that the starting point is accurate and the end point is at or past the line terminus. The camera operator can verify or override the electronic data, but we have found our polished and practiced system to be very reliable and accurate.

Flight altitudes are corrected for atmospheric conditions with our WAAS corrected GPS so pre-planned photo scales are accurate. During the photo flight, a flight log is filled out with daily crew/setup information and all data for the flight operations. This information is used directly in the film processing and editing.

Endlaps can be set by a variety of methods. Over rough terrain, we still prefer to use the classic ladder/lap approach with the camera operator synchronizing a moving grid in an optical or video viewfinder to the ground. In many cases, we use GPS triggering programs to cycle the camera based on ground distance interval, latitude/longitude divisions, or pre-planned points on the ground. We are also able to gather GPS photo centers during the flight at several levels of precision. A simple, low precision log file is a great help in preparing index maps, while a full Airborne GPS file can significantly reduce the required ground control for a mapping flight.

Each of the BPS aircraft has qualities that fill certain missions the best. Our Cessna 180 is ideal for low, tight flights that require slow airspeeds and maneuverability. It is versatile enough to work up to 18,000 feet, but we usually move medium to high level projects to our Cessna T210 or Twin Cessna 310 where we are able to increase speeds and still maintain high photo quality. The T210 can work at altitudes up to 29,000 feet and is a very stable platform, especially with the use of our Zeiss TAS gyro camera mount. The 310 is also turbocharged for altitude capabilities up to 25,000 feet, but boasts a larger cabin and slightly higher speeds. The ultimate for dispatch speed, speed over the project, and high altitude operations is our Aero Commander Turboprop. Fou high accuracy mapping, and ultra low operations, we have a helicopter capability to carry our 6” mapping camera as low as 300 feet above the ground.

Three of our cameras (both 6" and one 12") are equipped with Forward Motion Compensation. FMC moves the film platen during the exposure at the correct rate to neutralize the speed of the aircraft over the ground. This adds considerable sharpness to the image, and because the feature is part of newer cameras that have sharper lenses in general, the whole package is superior.

Our aircraft are all set up to quickly interchange cameras, viewfinders, computers and other photo related parts. We have vertical viewing navigation sights, forward looking telescopes and video based control units. Each has advantages and can be generally interchanged as desired. Maintenance is handled by our staff mechanic and other flight crew or lab staff who are not otherwise occupied. We enjoy the luxury of flying very well maintained aircraft.

Upon completion of a photo flight, the flight crews mark the film cans with processing information and attach copies of the daily flight log. The film processing staff uses the information to adjust the process machinery to ensure the planned results. In-house we process C-41 based films such as Agfa H100 and Kodak 2444.

Processed film is edited promptly to verify the film is clean, scratch-free, processed properly and all specifications are complied with. Exposure level, endlap, alignment, altitude, level, crab, lighting (clouds & shadows) are all checked. A lettering log is prepared during editing that details the exact lettering for each frame. This allows our lettering sub-contractor, Northwest Lettering, or internal lab personnel, to annotate the film accurately in in compliance with customer specific lettering templates.

Flight indexes are prepared using original flight maps, flight log sheets, check prints and GPS log files as the input to produce both interim and final index sheets. Some indexes are still prepared on mylars or paper, but most are created digitally. We have a variety of software tools including ArcView, Delorme and Maptech products to assist with these tasks.

Lettered film is checked against the lettering log by lab personnel for accuracy and placed into the production schedule. We use three electronic dodging contact machines to print both check/final prints and film positives. Between the three machines, we have four different light sources that are matched to the different types of films. Our EPC machine has a vacuum platen for the highest geometric accuracy film positives. Almost nothing is automatic on the production of high quality prints or diapositives; hard work and experience make the difference.

As most mapping and interpretation is computer based, our most common end product is a photogrammetric quality digital file, scanned from the original camera film. Our Leica DSW scanner will provide up to a 10 micron scan in a variety of file formats. Finished scans are delivered on USB hard drives, DVD disks, or FTP electronic transfers.

Quality control is exercised throughout the entire process with multiple check and cross check points. A log of many of the checks is contained on the back side of the flight log and saved as a permanent record. Final inspection is done by non-production employees prior to shipping to ensure compliance with all specs. Time lines and scheduling are tracked with the aid of a magnetic tag that follows the projects through the various phases of work. A daily morning production meeting allows full communication of status for all projects and allows a smooth flow of work.

BPS has a large reserve of equipment and personnel. Our current area of operations is limited (by choice) to Northwest US, Western Canada and the Alaskan panhandle to allow us rapid response to our loyal customers. We specialize in small to medium size projects and work hard to keep a very short turnaround time. Usually, weather is our limiting factor, not capacity.