[Leica] Aerial Photography

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 11:26 AM -0800 3/14/06, Ted Grant wrote:
>B. D. Colen
>Subject: Re: [Leica] Aerial Photography
>
>>Thanks, Sonny....My question was going to be...Is this person a
>>photographer? A professional quality photographer? And, if not, why would
>>he think that owning an airplane and a camera makes one a professional
>>aerial photographer? :-)
>
>Quite frankly guys I've never seen anyone drive and talk on a cell 
>phone without endangering the lives of others. Let alone a guy 
>flying a plane and take pictures at the same time. :-(
>
>I've had some pretty hairy rides under my belt shooting aerials with 
>pilots who supposedly had flown photographers and they knew all the 
>right ways to handle the plane. I found in some cases I had far more 
>airtime than the pilot.
>
>All you have to do is come back from a shoot with tree branches in 
>the under-carriage and it puts a whole new perspective on believing 
>the pilots ability.
>
>So I began giving them instructions before we took off! Pissed off a 
>few, their problem, but at least they kept looking at where we were 
>going and not looking at what I was photographing!
>
>Surely that isn't what this fellow means? Fly plane & shoot at the same 
>time?
>
>Besides the best aerial photo platform is a helicopter in my book.
>
>ted

I definitely prefer shooting from a small plane if possible rather 
than a helicopter. With thorough instructions to the pilot I can get 
a lot more done in a short time and the thing generally doesn't 
vibrate as much. I can go down one shutter speed in a small plane 
compared to a helicopter.

One of the scarier experiences I've had shooting aerials was when we 
left the doors off at the back (I was sitting on a bench just behind 
the propeller bulkhead) and as we started banking to do my shots I 
noticed that the bench wasn't fastened to anything except the seat of 
my pants. It took me a few heart pounding seconds to realize that the 
seatbelt was attached to the airframe and not to the bench, but then 
we had to fly back with me holding onto the bench as well as my 
camera equipment to keep it all from falling out, and trying not to 
accidently unbuckle the belt.

He didn't charge me for that flight.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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