Wayne wrote:

If I had a friend that was commercial rated, could he fly while I took the
pictures?

Of course.

Would I have to pay him as am employee?

That's up to him.

Could we split costs, and have him to his necessary IFR stuff to
keep current and shoot some pictures while we are up?

Well, you can't be a very good safety pilot if you're taking photos, but there's
no reason you can't do his currency work and your photo work on the same flight.

George Patterson
If you're not part of the solution, you can make a lot of money prolonging
the problem.