Aerial photography

[Nicolas Claris]

Many time a year I fly whith helicopter to shoot boats.

I particularly enjoy it, but, apart photo technics, there are some things to know regarding safety.
I would of course be happy to answer here to any questions, but, for those who wants to do aerial photography for the 1st time, I would like to point to a very well written article in Sportshooter.
I had the link to it in the old times of RG forum by a very good aerial photographer Cameron Davidson, who BTW, did write that article:http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1214 worth the read!
If you have time pay a visit to Cameron website: http://www.camerondavidson.com and http://www.camerondavidson.com

best

[scott kirkpatrick]

It's a little dated, but there was a profile and series of advice articles on Mike Fizer on Avweb a while back, at

http://www.avweb.com/news/profiles/182929-1.html and links to additional sections.

That profile was done in 2000-2001, shortly before he went digital. For a less compmlete discussion, with his current equipment, see http://www.aopa.org/photocontest/tips.html ,
and a great portfolio is at http://mikefizer.com .

Fizer is the principal photographer for the AOPA set of magazines, and does mostly fixed-wing air-to-air shots.
He apprenticed under Paul Bowen, and the two of them are probably the best in the world at photographing airplanes. My favorite Bowen picture is of a small jet emerging from the top of the clouds, leaving a trail of wingtip vortices behind it. I'll add a link if I can find it. Here are lots of his vortices: http://www.airtoair.net/store/Details.cfm?ProdID=7&category=4 (it's a signature shot of his, apparently).

When the subject is a classic prop plane the issue of a completely briefed plan for formation flying and handling the things that can go wrong is critical. There is also the issue of setting shutter speeds to get just the right amount of propeller blur. He likes gyros.

I've had 15 years' experience and several thousand hours time as a pilot and flight instructor, and I will not try any of the things these guys require of a pilot. It's really for pros with specialized (usually military) training.

Now for the simplest question -- how to cut through the haze that ruins most of the shots I take from seat 11A on airline flights?

scott

[Nill Toulme]

Just as a cross-reference, this nearby thread (http://www.openphotographyforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=538) digressed over into some very interesting discussion by Nicolas and others regarding shooting from choppers.

Nill
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www.toulme.net