I recently collected two NFTs from aerial photographer Vitor Esteves. I purchased one of Menton, France and one of Las Negras, Spain (pictured above). Both are from his 1/1 Coastline Villages collection on Sloika. I know that NFTs aren't nearly as popular as they were last year, but that is exactly why now is a great time to be collecting. Talented artists continue to create, but ETH gas fees have come way down (a few dollars versus sometimes over a hundred at the peak) and there is now far less competition out there. It is no different than trying to buy great real estate when the rest of the market is sleeping.

At some point, I'm going to need to pull the trigger on a good NFT display. I've been contemplating a Tokenframe, but I also think that most TVs are going to appropriate this function pretty soon. Some already have.

Last week, Joe Berridge, Partner at Urban Strategies, gave a presentation at the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance titled, Toronto: The Accidental Metropolis. I’ve seen Joe give similar presentations to this one before, and I always thoroughly enjoy his focus on Toronto’s position as a global city.

Here is a slide from the presentation that projects out Toronto’s population to 2071 and compares it to the largest cities in the US.

But the two slides that have been really making the rounds online are the following ones. The first is a rendering of what downtown Toronto looked like in 2000. 

I remember this time clearly. Queen West seemed to end at Spadina. King West and Ossington weren’t things. And “Richmond and Adelaide” felt like the greatest club district in the world. (If you’re not from Toronto, these references will likely mean nothing to you. Sorry.)

The second slide is a rendering of what Toronto will look like in 2025. The transformation is just incredible.

I’ve seen some people comment that the Toronto of 2000 was relatively affordable; the Toronto of 2018 is unaffordable; and the Toronto of 2025 will be even more unaffordable with all of this new development.

But I don’t understand that logic. Considering the growth rate shown in the first slide, imagine how unaffordable this city would be if we weren’t building new places for people to live and new places for people to work.

For the full slide deck, go here. And for recent aerial photos of Toronto’s downtown core, check out my Instagram page.

Real estate companies often have a need for aerial photography. Perhaps you want to showcase an existing building. Perhaps you want to capture the views from a future/proposed building. Or perhaps you’d like to document a building under construction.

Usually in the latter case, you have to find a neighboring building and negotiate some sort of agreement so that you can place a camera on it and document your construction site. This is probably still the solution if you want a clean time lapse video.

But drones have opened up a new world of possibility and today I thought I would share with you a company called DroneBase. They’ll probably hate that I’m making this reference, but one way to describe them is Uber for drones. They connect a “large network of drone pilots” to customers needing drone footage for commercial or creative purposes.

If you take a look at their website, you’ll see that they cater a lot to the real estate and construction industries. I’m not sure how active they are in Toronto and Canada right now, but if they aren’t that active I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they are. 

And over time, I am sure that a network like this will only mean faster, better, and more affordable aerial footage.

I recently collected two NFTs from aerial photographer Vitor Esteves. I purchased one of Menton, France and one of Las Negras, Spain (pictured above). Both are from his 1/1 Coastline Villages collection on Sloika. I know that NFTs aren't nearly as popular as they were last year, but that is exactly why now is a great time to be collecting. Talented artists continue to create, but ETH gas fees have come way down (a few dollars versus sometimes over a hundred at the peak) and there is now far less competition out there. It is no different than trying to buy great real estate when the rest of the market is sleeping.

At some point, I'm going to need to pull the trigger on a good NFT display. I've been contemplating a Tokenframe, but I also think that most TVs are going to appropriate this function pretty soon. Some already have.

Last week, Joe Berridge, Partner at Urban Strategies, gave a presentation at the Institute on Municipal Finance & Governance titled, Toronto: The Accidental Metropolis. I’ve seen Joe give similar presentations to this one before, and I always thoroughly enjoy his focus on Toronto’s position as a global city.

Here is a slide from the presentation that projects out Toronto’s population to 2071 and compares it to the largest cities in the US.

But the two slides that have been really making the rounds online are the following ones. The first is a rendering of what downtown Toronto looked like in 2000. 

I remember this time clearly. Queen West seemed to end at Spadina. King West and Ossington weren’t things. And “Richmond and Adelaide” felt like the greatest club district in the world. (If you’re not from Toronto, these references will likely mean nothing to you. Sorry.)

The second slide is a rendering of what Toronto will look like in 2025. The transformation is just incredible.

I’ve seen some people comment that the Toronto of 2000 was relatively affordable; the Toronto of 2018 is unaffordable; and the Toronto of 2025 will be even more unaffordable with all of this new development.

But I don’t understand that logic. Considering the growth rate shown in the first slide, imagine how unaffordable this city would be if we weren’t building new places for people to live and new places for people to work.

For the full slide deck, go here. And for recent aerial photos of Toronto’s downtown core, check out my Instagram page.

Real estate companies often have a need for aerial photography. Perhaps you want to showcase an existing building. Perhaps you want to capture the views from a future/proposed building. Or perhaps you’d like to document a building under construction.

Usually in the latter case, you have to find a neighboring building and negotiate some sort of agreement so that you can place a camera on it and document your construction site. This is probably still the solution if you want a clean time lapse video.

But drones have opened up a new world of possibility and today I thought I would share with you a company called DroneBase. They’ll probably hate that I’m making this reference, but one way to describe them is Uber for drones. They connect a “large network of drone pilots” to customers needing drone footage for commercial or creative purposes.

If you take a look at their website, you’ll see that they cater a lot to the real estate and construction industries. I’m not sure how active they are in Toronto and Canada right now, but if they aren’t that active I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they are. 

And over time, I am sure that a network like this will only mean faster, better, and more affordable aerial footage.