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Aerial Photography Theory

(soft music) So aerial photography theory. What does that even mean, right? Well, it's kind of the art and the practice of why we do what we do and what we're hoping to accomplish. And I think it's important to really learn from our past, right? Why is aerial photography even a thing? Well, it was originally used by the military as a way to map landscapes and to really understand, dissect and digest these places that they were gonna be potentially landing or utilize in war. And from beyond that, it kind of became this tool that we use to map mountainous landscapes and map river systems. And really in many ways, just kind of have a deeper understanding of these locations and places that we've spent so much time on the ground exploring. Now for me, one of the things that I really want to help you to understand is that mistakes will be made. I've made plenty. In fact, one of the biggest and hardest learned lessons when it came to aerial photography was my first time trying to shoot aeri...

al photographs in Iceland. I had like many, fallen in love with these beautiful rivers of glacial streams, kind of bringing this glacial flower to the ocean, weaving these beautiful patterns. And I remember it was on a flight actually from Ireland to Iceland. I took a different flight path, it wasn't from the US, and I flew over this beautiful braided stream. And at the time, I didn't even know what it was. And I was like, this is amazing, these patterns, it looked fake almost. And I wanted so much to document it. I remember the little window pane. I just had a frosted glass from just breathing on it so heavy from being so enthralled in what I was seeing. And I kind of vowed at that moment. I was like, I'm gonna go back and really document this figure out what it is. And it took me a few years and I remember one trip, being there on an assignment having a couple extra days and calling around basically to hire a pilot, calling a few friends of mine, basically being like is there any pilots you know that would that would do a flight seeing tour, right? That's kind of one of the the key terms there to remember is flight seeing, which is you're not looking for a flight instruction and you're not really kind of looking for just sight seeing but you wanna do some flight seeing. And usually that entails that you're gonna wanna shoot photographs. And so I found my pilot and he kind of had a little bit of nervousness. He's like, "Yeah, I'll take you to that spot that you wanna go but you realize it's like late winter, early spring, right?" And I'm like, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. It'll be beautiful. Great." And we go over this river and I had done all this research, or I thought I had, right? And I had looked into this river that was extremely braided and really beautiful and had just gorgeous golden patterns going through it that I had seen in people's photographs from the past. And my previous flight experience kind of this was the general area. And I remember getting out there and even like 45 minutes before we even made it to that area and I'm looking down and I'm like, all I'm seeing is white. It's just white and patches of brown. And I realized that the rivers hadn't even started flowing. We got over this river and it was just a dry river bed with basically just the tendrils of the river and snow kind of filling in and all that color was gone. And so what I thought had been maybe a lot of planning, what I thought had been really a good effort on my part to understand when I was going and why I was shooting and and all these things and be prepared, was basically a lost cause. I had blown it, right? I had wasted that time, that money. Yeah, I saw some beautiful things. Yes, I had documented a gorgeous landscape but what I was hoping to see and what I was hoping to achieve was not gonna happen. And that was one of the first lessons that I realized is that these landscapes change, right? They change from season to season. And understanding that seasonality of how they change is really important. And when we dive in a little bit later into kind of this planning process, I really want you to consider and think about first and foremost, are you going up there in the air just to kind of explore your area just to see what's there? That's fine. That's great. In fact, that is an excellent use of time. But if you're hoping to go out and create something specific, you need to really be asking yourself, is this the right season? Do I have the right equipment? Is this craft going to get me that shot that I need? Meaning, do you need something that can fly really, really low? Like, like a paraglider or something like that? Or do you need to stay 1,000 feet above the ground? Like, like you might in a Cessna or something along those lines. So really starting to ask yourself all these questions, rely upon past experience, rely upon tools like this workshop to really help educate you as to what you're hoping to create. Now, I also wanna just touch on the difference between a drone and aerial photography. And I kind of summarized the aerial photography as this is where you're renting a craft, you're hiring a pilot, you're going out with the intention of shooting from typically a much higher elevation. When would you use a drone? A drone is an incredible tool. Something I use a lot and I will go over it slightly when we talk about some of the tools and some of the ways in which you can document from the air. For me, most of the time, I'm looking at the pros and cons. A drone is a tool where you would have to get pretty much right near your location, right? Usually within a mile away, at least, okay? So you're having to hike to that location, you're having to drive to that location. You're having to basically be near there. And then that drone has a limited flight elevation and capacity for distance, right? I believe the elevation's usually 1,500 feet unless you get the drone unlocked, which is not something I can answer for you on how to do that. And the distance, which usually is right around a mile or something along those lines. A drone is an incredible tool. What a drone can do is it can provide you an aerial perspective in really tight places like a canyon or somewhere like over potentially a crowd of people where you have permission to fly that drone. It can provide you a more intimate perspective because you could never hover a plane or a helicopter 20 feet above the ground. So when there are these moments where I just want to get a slightly elevated perspective. Oftentimes, I'm using a drone like I would a camera. This is a wide angle shot that I want to get and I really don't need to be 1,000 feet in the air. I want to just be 50 feet in the air, 30 feet in air maybe just right over my head, right? So thinking about the drone and how it can create a solution for kind of a creative problem, that's the way I like to look at it. Now, a drone can also be amazing in a place where you're way, way, way deep in the middle of nowhere and there's no chance of eating a helicopter or a plane or it's cost prohibitive, a drone typically will set you back right around $1,000 to $2,000. If you're getting kind of a personal drone, as opposed to like a bigger eight-wing or six-blade drone. Mostly what I'm referring to here is kinda like a DJI Mavic or a Zoom or something along those lines. Now there's a lot of companies that make amazing tools. I would really suggest going with the one that you feel the most comfortable with. A drone is something I will always include in my kit if I'm going on an expedition or if I'm hoping to document a new place. But when it comes to really seeing a place and seeing a place that really occupies a large swath of land, I wanna fly typically in Cessna. The Cessna is basically a very common aircraft, right? That has really not changed its shape or design for many, many years. It's something that I'm very comfortable flying in. It's something that is typically very affordable. What I would say, and don't quote me on this, but you can typically find as Cessna pilot who will take you up for right around 250 bucks to 400 bucks an hour, that's pretty average, right? And Cessna, the nice thing, is it can fit about four passengers, typically. Two up front, two in the back. Why is this nice? Because you can bring all of your equipment or most of the equipment that you need. You can put it at your feet. You can also bring a friend with you if you need somebody else documenting another perspective or if you wanna split that cost. Now, the beauty of flying in a Cessna for me is that it's usually fairly affordable, right? The second thing is that you can fly a large distance. That Cessna can take you really hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles. You can see a ton of the landscape and also your ability to get six, eight, nine, 10,000 feet, whatever you want, in the air allows you maximum flexibility for creativity. Now, one of the beauties of a Cessna is that you can slow way, way down and kind of glide across your landscape. But one of the cons is that you are always in movement and that can be fairly challenging if you're hoping to hover above something. A helicopter is also another amazing tool and something to kind of consider. It can be fairly cross prohibitive yet there are a lot of outfits that will do it pretty affordably. Helicopters kind of bring different challenges, right? There's reverberation from the wings. There are aspects of flying in a helicopter where there are flight restrictions, there are noise restrictions. You oftentimes are more affected sometimes by wind. It's a different type of craft that presents different types of challenges, but usually the biggest setback is the fact that a helicopter is gonna be about three to four times the cost. So for me again, the drone has its place, right? It's when I wanna shoot these intimate close up landscapes, when I'm hiking somewhere way into the back country. When I just need to kind of follow someone 15 feet above them from behind. Yes, a drone can create a very similar image to what you could shoot out of a Cessna. Although when I can bring my 60 megapixel camera up in the air and really document something from a fine art perspective, there's nothing more, I guess you could say, fulfilling than sticking your own body out of that plane, sticking your own body out of that window. Feeling the cold, feeling the wind, and really creating this image yourself. I mean, that is I think, the one experience that will never come close to sitting there staring at a screen. And so I really wanna urge you to understand that if we're talking about storytelling, and we're hoping that we leave this class or we leave that experience with a story to tell, nothing is gonna provide a more immersive deeper experience than actually being in a plane, actually feeling that wind and actually creating that image yourself. So again, each craft has its own place. Between these things, there's a bunch of other scenarios, there are paragliders that can get you really close to the ground. They can fly pretty slowly. There are trikes, there are a bunch of other tools that you can use as well but these are pretty much the most common. Now, why do we do it, right? Why kind of banking on this idea of aerial photography theory, why would we do it? Well, I think one of the things to know is that to be able to offer your clients something really special like a tool, like I am an experienced aerial photographer. I know the types of crafts, I know what we could shoot. I could bring X, Y, or Z to the table. That's a really powerful thing. If you are a photographer, that's creating fine art images and you want to create a new spin on Hawaii or on a location that's been really meaningful to you, getting in the air is one of the easiest ways to create something different, right? Working on creating a book or sort of a cohesive body of work. If you have a real passion for Yosemite National Park and you want to fly above the restrictions of the valley floor in a plane and get something different, that could really round out that book project or this kind of photo essay that you're hoping to create. So I think there are a number of ways, but ultimately, it comes down to two things, it brings joy and fulfillment and it could hopefully generate more income. For me, my body of work, what I've really tried to do is is three things. I've tried to do it cause I love it, 'cause I'm fascinated with the idea of flying. I've been trying to get my pilot's license for years, but sadly I keep sticking the camera out of the plane instead of holding onto the controls. The secondary thing is that I really enjoy the idea of offering to my clients or people that buy my artwork, a unique perspective of the world. Everywhere I go, Switzerland, Iceland, Alaska, Montana, I want to get in the air. I wanna see this place from the air. And being able to kind of round out these portfolios of places I love, like the Lofoten Islands in Norway with an aerial selection, really feels like I've done a comprehensive job of documenting this place. The other thing is kind of working on this from a commercial standpoint, I've been able to shoot aerial photographs for a number of brands for computer backgrounds to a whole bunch of other kind of fine art, billboard style prints, things of that nature and also books, right? I just was able to complete my latest book which is called "At Glacier's End" which is a seven year documentation of Iceland's glacial rivers. And that book now stands as a testament to kind of protect these river systems as well as a piece of commerce that I can sell and further my own business. So these are kind of some of the reasons of why we would do it. Other than the fact that it's just pure fun and it's challenging. And I think that the more we feel challenged as a photographer, the more we're learning, right? There's nothing greater than seeing somebody who's really talented and kind of has it all figured out, go up in the air and be like, "Holy cow, I'm so humbled right now." And there's something new to learn and it's an exciting feeling. Now I wanna jump into some of the tools and safety equipment that you might use flying in any type of craft. Now, what I'm gonna really try to do, is I'm gonna try to break down my preferred camera equipment that I would take but also some other options for budget constraints or if you just simply don't have enough space. We're also gonna be talking about kind of some more technical equipment like harnesses and carabiners and stuff like that that you might want to consider or bring on your first flight. All of this is basically just the world according to Chris. So of course consult with your pilot. Never simply take this as the only way to do it. But if anything, I can share with you that from my experience, some of these tools can not only be life saving but can also make for an incredibly enjoyable flight experience.