A few more from the Air Thaddeus flight on Sunday...

[leek]

<table><tr><td>A light aircraft that took my fancy at Bankstown...</td><td></td><tr>
<tr><td></td><td>Taxiway - Helicopter Style...</td></tr>
<tr><td>McMansions</td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td>Lake Burragorang #1</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lake Burragorang #2</td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td>Lake Burragorang #3</td></td></table>

[leek]

Gee... No feedback?? Not even Craig??

[Alpha_7]

 LOL, John believe it or not I had typed up half a C&C, when I came back the page had timed out.


#1 Not bad, but you were so close to keeping both propellers in the shot completely I would of liked them in the shot

#2 Heheh, well nice leading lines, but your horizon aint straight

#3 How the other half lives, nice aerial shot, I'd have expected more cars

#4 Nice shot, I like the water leading you further into the shot, pity about the reflections..? is it a reflection or a very odd cloud (top RHS?)

#5 Give you a good sense of size, but I find the sky a bit boring

#6 Too much sky for me in this shot, I imagine you might have had trouble framing the shot lower due to being in the chopper but I may of tried to crop the sky lower

[thaddeus]

To make aerial photos work, I think the composition needs to scream that it was taken from the air. This is pretty obvious at beachside locations, but not in the mountains. In retrospect, I was probably flying at the wrong height because flying at clifftop height gives the viewer the impression that you are simply standing on another cliff. Plus it gives pretty boring lines - flattening out the mountains or as my NZ mates call them, "hulls." Sorry about that, I'll keep it in mind for future photographic flights. Sometimes when my shots don't scream "aerial" enough, I include a bit of cockpit or people with headphones on, or people on the ground looking up and waving. (I like to think they are waving hello, but they are sometimes waving "stop blowing dust all over my washing.")

With landscapes, I think there's got to be some overall message, eg serenity, energy or whatever. I am not sure what the message is from these photos. Perhaps the theme of emptiness could have been shown with some closeup shots of the shoreline showing how low the dam was. Or perhaps we could have buzzed closer to the old mines on the edge of Lake Burragorang to show disuse.

This brings me to crew resource management, which is the interaction between photographer and pilot. As a pilot, I will fly the safest line possible, which in this case is a reasonable height within autorotative distance from a reasonably flat shore. That way if we have an engine failure, I have time to set the aircraft up for autorotation, get out a mayday call, have the best available selection of potential landing areas, etc. However, it probably makes for boring shots. So, feel free to tell the pilot what you are shooting and if there are any particular angles you want. Sometimes the pilot will be able to oblige, other times, the risk will outweigh the reward (eg Q: "Can you do a descending vertical hover in this valley right in front of the waterfall?" A: "No, because there's no way out if the engine fails" or Q: "Can you skim along this highly reflective water at about 10 feet?" A: "No: people die doing that because they can't see the surface of the water any more - it's just a giant mirror of the sky"

Minimising reflections is important, and it was good to see that you and Rog turned up in dark clothes. You will note that I flew without a map because I have had too many problems trying to cut out its reflection from photos. I therefore keep the front seats pretty bare. Use of CPL is very important - I generally spend as much time getting the CPL orientation right as I do on composition (which arguably is not enough, but anyway!) After a while you can do the orientation/zoom and CPL in one smooth motion. Doors off is better, however due to the direction the rotor rotates, things that are dropped from the front passenger seat have a chance of getting sucked into the tail rotor, so I generally only take the doors off after I've flown with the person a few times and are comfortable they aren't going to do things like try to blow their nose, reload cameras, etc which could cause a risk.

Hope this helps.

[Alpha_7]

To make aerial photos work, I think the composition needs to scream that it was taken from the air. This is pretty obvious at beachside locations, but not in the mountains. In retrospect, I was probably flying at the wrong height because flying at clifftop height gives the viewer the impression that you are simply standing on another cliff. Plus it gives pretty boring lines - flattening out the mountains or as my NZ mates call them, "hulls." Sorry about that, I'll keep it in mind for future photographic flights. Sometimes when my shots don't scream "aerial" enough, I include a bit of cockpit or people with headphones on, or people on the ground looking up and waving. (I like to think they are waving hello, but they are sometimes waving "stop blowing dust all over my washing.")

With landscapes, I think there's got to be some overall message, eg serenity, energy or whatever. I am not sure what the message is from these photos. Perhaps the theme of emptiness could have been shown with some closeup shots of the shoreline showing how low the dam was. Or perhaps we could have buzzed closer to the old mines on the edge of Lake Burragorang to show disuse.

This brings me to crew resource management, which is the interaction between photographer and pilot. As a pilot, I will fly the safest line possible, which in this case is a reasonable height within autorotative distance from a reasonably flat shore. That way if we have an engine failure, I have time to set the aircraft up for autorotation, get out a mayday call, have the best available selection of potential landing areas, etc. However, it probably makes for boring shots. So, feel free to tell the pilot what you are shooting and if there are any particular angles you want. Sometimes the pilot will be able to oblige, other times, the risk will outweigh the reward (eg Q: "Can you do a descending vertical hover in this valley right in front of the waterfall?" A: "No, because there's no way out if the engine fails" or Q: "Can you skim along this highly reflective water at about 10 feet?" A: "No: people die doing that because they can't see the surface of the water any more - it's just a giant mirror of the sky"

Minimising reflections is important, and it was good to see that you and Rog turned up in dark clothes. You will note that I flew without a map because I have had too many problems trying to cut out its reflection from photos. I therefore keep the front seats pretty bare. Use of CPL is very important - I generally spend as much time getting the CPL orientation right as I do on composition (which arguably is not enough, but anyway!) After a while you can do the orientation/zoom and CPL in one smooth motion. Doors off is better, however due to the direction the rotor rotates, things that are dropped from the front passenger seat have a chance of getting sucked into the tail rotor, so I generally only take the doors off after I've flown with the person a few times and are comfortable they aren't going to do things like try to blow their nose, reload cameras, etc which could cause a risk.

Hope this helps.

Lots of good information here, almost deserves it's own thread. I think if you made the information a little more generic about Aerial photography we could store it in one of the resource sections of the site ?

[suzanneg]

What a difference a monitor makes. I looked at these at work, and airial shots didn't look so special, but at home on my LCD screen the colours a stunning.