Aerial photographs: a bird's-eye view
Geography · Key Stage 1 · The School
Looking straight down
An aerial photograph is taken from directly above a place, looking straight down. It could be taken from a plane, a drone or a satellite. It shows real roofs, real roads, real trees, exactly as they truly look from up high.
Everything looks different from above
A house looks like a small rectangle from directly above. A road looks like a thin grey line. A tree looks like a green circle. Things you know well can look strange and unfamiliar from this new, unusual angle.
Photo or drawing?
A photo shows every real detail: every roof tile, every parked car, every shadow. A map leaves almost all of that out. A map draws a simple shape for a house and a simple line for a road, on purpose, to make it easier to read.
Matching an aerial photo to a map
Look at an aerial photograph of your local park and a simple map of the same park, side by side. Find the pond on the photo: a real, blue, irregular shape. Find the pond on the map: a simple blue oval in roughly the same spot. Find the path on the photo: a real, curving, grey-brown strip. Find the path on the map: a simple dotted line. Same real place, two completely different pictures of it, each useful for a different job.
When to use each one
Use an aerial photo when you want to see exactly what is really there. Use a map when you want something simple and quick to follow. Real geographers often use both together, checking one against the other for a fuller picture.