On Flying And Photographing

Had a chance to charter a float plane from which to photograph. It was a mixed experience and in the end probably not worth the expence - I'd do things a little differently in the future - keep in mind this is after photographing from a balloon in the past with a fair amount of success.

I decded beforehand that I'd use the 70-200 2.8 IS lens. They offered to remove the door for me or alternatively I could open the window (hinges at top and the wind holds it open). I opted for the latter because the float blocked my view downwards so having the door off didn't seem worth the trouble to me - probably a good decision though it does raise the limitations of using a float plane at all as I couldn't shoot straight down - I guess I could have had the pilot loop round again and bank steeply at the appropriate moment but I couldn't even see straight down never mind shoot so one would have to anticpate something worth shooting - I'm not that clever.

For the kind of work I do - patterns, shapes, lines, shooting down was sorely missed - shooting into the distance meant the images didn't have that graphic look I like to achieve.

After takeoff I popped open the window, stuck out my camera and found out I could not keep the lens hood on - catches the wind too much - this turned out to be a bit of a problem since half the time we seemed to be flying into the sun (the joys of spending the other half flying the other direction and wanting to get home again) (going 90 degrees wasn't an option since that would have taken us out over the ocean).

Though I haven't had a chance to look at the images - just checking with the LCD on the camera and max. magnify seems to indicate the images are sharp enough - actually very impressive considering the hand holding, low ei (I chose 200 as a compromise between shadow noise on my 1Ds2 and adequate shutter speed).

I had the camera on program mode exposure and somehow managed several times to change the exposure compensation - I thought changes were made deliberately hard to make on the 1Ds2 - anyway something to watch for in the future. No time to check historgrams when you are flying.

At one point I actually had the lens fall off the camera - fortunately I was able to hold onto it - but a bit of a scare - seems I was gripping the lens close to the camera body and had accidentally pressed the lens release buttton on the body with the palm of my hand - never done that before and hardly the time to start doing it.

Focal length selection on the 70-200 was just about ideal for flying. The one really cool thing to see (flying over a glacier) happened just as I filled my first CF card and had to reach back to the camera bag for the next one - which then had to be formatted - right next time have the next card preformatted and in a handy but safe pocket. This might be the one time that a really large CF card makes sense (I was using 2 GB cards - not wanting all my eggs in one basket normally).

Fortunately the pilot obligingly went round again for me and I might have a good image.

The flight was an hour long, cost me $500 and was of the right length. The strut coming up from the body of the plane to the wing overhead cut into my view a little but wasn't in fact as much trouble as I had anticipated beforehand as it's in front of the door.

Looking through the images, there are no obvious winners and a few that might make something worth while - probably not a good investment in hind sight. It would have been better if there had been a specific shot I wanted that I knew would work if only I could capture it - as it was it was 'a fishing expedition' all be it in the air - we simply flew over the scenic points - mountains, shore line, islands, surf - and hoped for a worthwhile image. As this was what I'd done ballooning I had similar hopes here and came away a bit disappointed - perhaps i was luckier ballooning than I had realized - can't tell since have only done it once.

I remember taking the harbour tour by boat in Vancouver knowing as I went ashore that I had two really good images - no such luck this time.