Real photos, delivered fast, from downtown Raleigh. Everything you need to buy, what each item is for, what the business sells, and the order to do it in. Underlined words have a definition: hover or tap one, then come straight back.
Story Above Media (storyabove.com, still free on Oct 25). "Story" is a floor of a building and a story you tell. Backup name: Rising Story Media.
One North Carolina , owned 100% by you. Skyline work is invoiced through it.
3 photos in 15 minutes, the full gallery the same night (), books and comp cards next day. A written policy.
Raleigh's zoning code bars clients from visiting a home business (). Edit at home; shoot on location or in rented studio hours.
The : a client books one shoot and leaves with everything that shoot can feed, made overnight by your agent pipeline.
Skyline proposals and date nights stay the base income and the portfolio while the new lines start.
Grouped in the order you'd buy them. Each item has where to buy it, a used option where one exists, and a price-comparison search. Tick "Have it" for anything you already own; the totals update. Ticks are saved in this browser only.
Proposed launch prices, anchored to the Raleigh prices found on Oct 25. Add NC on top (Wake County about 7.25%).
| Service | Raleigh market | Proposed price | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proposal (Skyline) | Flytographer $425+, photos only | $450 now | Photo + video, 15-min teaser, same-night gallery, book upsell. Price changes are the venue owner's call with you |
| Proposal kit (Story Above) | $725 and $1,000 quoted on r/WeddingPhotography | $700-1,000 | Hidden pro, wireless audio, reel, same-night gallery, keepsake book |
| Date night / anniversary | GUESS: below proposal prices | $250 | 30-45 min, 25 photos, same night |
| Couples / engagement | $275-995; national median $319 | $325 | 1 hr, 40+ photos, 3 vertical clips |
| Realtor kit | $165 HDR photos at volume firms; agents pay $200-400+ | $300-450 | Photos, reel, listing page, flyer, 24 h. +$125-175 Zillow 3D + floor plan |
| Headshot, single | $100-395 | $175 | 20 min on location, 2 retouched, picked on the spot |
| Corporate headshots | $60-110 per person | $85 / person | 6-12 people ($65 for 13+), $450 minimum, instant pick on a tablet |
| Creator / model session | Branding $300-1,125 | $250 | 1 hr, 2 looks, 30 photos + 3 reel clips; comp card +$100 |
| Fresh-photo monthly plan | GBP services $125-600 a month, none with real photos | $149-249 / mo | A monthly shoot for a downtown business, photos for Google and social. Not sold as SEO |
| Restaurant / bar content | $125-200 an hour | $450 / mo | Monthly shoot, 20 photos + 2 reels, searchable library |
| Keepsake book add-on | Pro albums $300-975; Artifact Uprising 10x10 $219 | $199 / $299 | 8x8 next-day , or 10x10 Signature; digital album $49 |
| Memory scan (new, untested) | Nobody found selling it; anchors $600-5,000+ | GUESS $950-4,200 | Book + video, then splat walkthrough, then the full Legacy archive (see floor 5) |
ingest → → grade → tag & face-detect → recipes → review → deliver
One recipe per output: gallery, web page, print PDF, social sizes, reels, Google photos. AI selects, crops, orders and lays out. It never invents people, rooms or food, and you approve every kit. The client approves every word of drafted text.
| Weeks | Do |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | Hand-check the name at the NC Secretary of State and on Instagram. File the LLC, get an , open a business bank account, register for sales tax, buy liability insurance and the domain. Add lines to every booking. Start study (free FAA material). |
| 2-4 | Website live. as a service area, address hidden. 5 with local creators, 2 trade headshot sessions. Scan your own place as the first splat and memory-scan sample. |
| 3-6 | Post 4-5 times a week from Skyline and trade shoots (released frames only). List on Airbnb Services (15% fee, needs insurance). Take the Part 107 test. |
| 5-8 | Walk into 10 Glenwood South and Warehouse District restaurants with a one-page offer. Email 10 downtown firms about a headshot day. Pitch 2-3 brokerages on the realtor kit. |
| 6-10 | Thumbtack test, $100-150 on headshots and events only. Stop if there's no booking after $150. |
| 10-13 | Review which service booked, at what price, from which source. Do more of that. Ask every client for a Google review. |
A family leaving a home gets three things: a walkable 3D of it, a printed keepsake book of the house, and a short fly-through video. The home might be a parents' or grandparents' house being sold, a downsize, or a much-loved home. It's all built from your photos plus the family's old ones. Nothing is generated.
Yes, but it's small and emotional. People on Reddit keep asking how to scan a home "before we sell", and one wrote "I want it to be something I can re visit 30, 40 years from now." Most plan to do it themselves with a phone, though. Only a few mention money.
No business was found, in Raleigh or nationally, that sells a memory scan plus a keepsake book. The niche is open, but that may be because demand is thin.
Adult children (about 30-60) clearing a parent's house, parents downsizing as a gift to their kids, and long-time owners of a much-loved home. Siblings often split the cost (GUESS).
Senior move managers first, then estate-sale companies, listing agents buying a seller's gift (closing gifts run $50-300), and estate attorneys. Grief programs only as a listed resource, never as a sales channel.
| Package (all GUESS) | What's in it | Your hours | Hard cost | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | 10x10 layflat book (40 pages), a filmed walkthrough video with the family telling the story room by room, 150+ photos, up to 25 old family photos scanned for "then and now" pages | 10-12 | ~$225 | $950-1,200 $850 intro for the first 3 |
| Walkthrough | Everything above, plus a splat of up to 12 rooms linked door to door, a private link for 10 years, offline copies that open with a double-click, a VR version, and a 60-90 s fly-through video | 18-24 | ~$230 | $1,900-2,400 the best value |
| Legacy | Everything above, plus the outside, yard and street, a drone orbit (after ), an archive kit on 2 USB drives, 2 extra 8x8 books for siblings, up to 100 photos scanned, and a second visit | 26-32 | ~$570 | $3,200-4,200 |
Price anchors: Raleigh Matterport tours $150-400 (quick, empty-house jobs, not keepsakes); pro splat capture "$500-5,000+"; a house-history report $975; in-home family sessions $600-900; pro albums $300-975. Partner offers (GUESS): a $295 gift voucher agents can buy for their sellers, 10% referral to move managers and estate-sale firms, and an "estate documentation" set for attorneys at $750-1,200.
The biggest risks: thin demand, the 20-year promise, privacy, family conflict over estates, the "AI" label (explain plainly that a splat is computed from photos), and time (a furnished 3-4 bedroom house is a full day on site). The full research, with sources, is in notes/findings_memory-scan_2026-10-25.md.
| Decision | Suggested |
|---|---|
| The name | Story Above Media, after the manual NC SOS and Instagram checks |
| Camera kit now or later, new or used | Z6III + 85mm + 50mm. Used saves about $230 |
| Start Part 107 study now? | Yes. It's free to study and takes 3-6 weeks in all |
| Drone: Mini 4 Pro or Mini 5 Pro | Mini 4 Pro if you want to script flights; Mini 5 Pro for the best images |
| Which 360 camera | Insta360 X5 (Zillow-supported, $549.99) |
| Proposal price change | Yours to decide with the venue owner, after 5 reviewed shoots |
| Anything you won't shoot | Write the policy on the site |
| Try the memory scan? | Yes: pilot on your own place, then a willing friend's furnished home at cost. Also pick a name ("Keep the House", "The House Book"?), whether to take estate and divorce jobs, and whether the family narration is standard |
| Next builds | Open-source book engine first, then the splat test, then sample kits |
126 free videos, sorted by topic, best first. Every link was checked to exist on Oct 25 2026. The notes on each come from its title, channel and length, not from watching it, so skip any that turn out weak. About 30 minutes a day: 20 watching, 10 trying it.
PRACTICE lines are the hands-on exercise for each topic. Do them before moving on.