The last few days I have been in Italy - touring vineyards north of Venice, tasting fresh and creamy Prosecco, eating a selection of deliciously good food and being enraptured by the stunning countryside. The highlight of the trip was a helicopter ride over the vineyards put on by one of the top producers of the Prosecco region Bisol.
Plenty of exclusive photographic opportunities you would have thought; and you wouldn't be wrong. Here are a few tips though. Firstly make sure you have a spare Compact Flash card so half way through the flight you don't run out of space. Secondly check the white balance is set for the conditions and don't assume the setting you have is overridden by the auto settings of the camera. Helicopters are noisy beasts and you have to have headphones clasped around your noggin to hear directions and commentary. This means of course that you can't hear the click of the camera or the whirl of the auto focus.
You are excited of course and clicking away like some possessed mad man (well I might never have another go at this so make the most of it!) and forget all these simple and obvious tips.. and end up deleting half the shots you took as they are blurred or suffer from burn out. Half the pictures you managed to take before the 'card full' message flashes on the screen....
Luckily many I did take turned out fine.
1. PLENTY more things to remember as an airborne photographer, here are a few:- (1) Don't forget your autofocus is likely to prefer the perspex window than your more distant subject (2) Have your kit bag organised and not cluttered, so if you need anything inflight, you can find it easily, as space in an aircraft is at a premium. (3) Make sure the bag is secure in flight, just wedging it between your heels is not good enough if they have removed the door of the helicopter to facilitate clear photo access (4) unless you are just being a happy snapper, plan your shots ahead and then have a planning session on the ground with the pilot - while you can communciate in the air, it's much easier planned first on the ground. (5) think in terms of sun angle, as shadows are less easily hidden in aerial shots - or could be used as a feature of the photo (6) if flying in a helicopter, as opposed to a plane, make sure your camera is angled down - it gets very annoying reviewing your shots after the flight to find 75% of them featuring a helicopter blade tip... (7) a polarizer is always worth taking along - you would be surprised how much mist there is at 1,000 ft even on a clear day that could lose the sharpness of even the best photos. (8) have fun!
Posted at 4:08AM on Jun 8th 2006 by JeremyP