At our last Rotary meeting: “Drones & Focusing on Marshfield” with Branden Bodendorfer

Branden Bodendorfer has had a far ranging business career, beginning with creating his own printing company when he was only 20. That company is now Premier Printing. He long ago realized, with the world going digital, that printing on paper was not likely to be sustainable forever. He then created a company called Tri-Media, which was designed to be an interactive company engaging the community online. He has helped to create websites and social media products. Branden saw a need for online entities to focus on local assets, often missed by the global perspective of much of what is online. He thinks that as local news media have transitioned to an on-line presence, they haven’t maintained their local focus and so a lot of local news is neglected.

Branden asked himself, how do we create an engaging on-line experience. How do we do that for Marshfield? How do we make that experience entertaining? Among his creations are a website called Explore Marshfield (exploremarshfield.com) and a webpage called Focus on Marshfield (www.focusonmarshfield.com).

(www.facebook.com/BrandenDBodendorfer) Both have been made more engaging and entertaining by using drone technology. Branden is heavily into drones. He looks them as a creative tool. He uses drones for great aerial photos and videos, many of which he has posted on his personal portfolio on Instagram. (www.instagram.com/bBodendorfer) These images have had wide distribution, even used by national media. His photo of old City Hall has been used on 20 or 30 different travel websites in the last few months. He takes some pride that from a search engine standpoint, he is probably the most popular photographer out of Marshfield. In the last year, he has had some 70 million views, whether it be on TV or on various websites.

Branden has several drones. His high-end drone can fly at about 70 mph and will fly about seven miles, although he has never taken one more than about two miles away from him. Branden is a licensed drone pilot and his drones are registered with the FAA, as all should be. There are many wonderful accessories for drones, including infrared cameras. Besides using his drone for creative photography, he has helped with searches. He noted their many other uses, including inspecting transmission lines.

source: Marshfield Noon Rotary Membership Newsletter