On 28th of July 1858, the French photographer Gaspard-Félix Tournachon aka  Nadar or Félix Nadar, took the first aerial photograph which he did from a balloon.

Nadar invented a gas-proof cotton cover and draped it over his balloon baskets, he was able to capture stable images. He also pioneered the use of artificial lighting in photography, working in the catacombs of Paris. He was thus the first person to photograph from the air with his balloons, as well as the first to photograph underground, in the Catacombs of Paris.

In 1860, James Wallace Black conducted the first successful aerial photographic effort in the United States when he took a series of photos from Samuel Archer King’s balloon overlooking Boston. Black’s success came on the eve of the Civil War, where photography from balloons became a key tool in military reconnaissance. Thaddeus Lowe, a pioneer in balloon reconnaissance, flew high above the battlefields to observe troop movements during the Civil War.   The Beginnings and Basics of Aerial Photography