In June of 04 I wrote a piece for Sportsshooter.com on aerial safety for photographers who were shooting their first aerial assignment.

Thought I would share it with the non-sportsshooter.com readers a few years after the initial publication.

There is one editing error regarding the designation of a CFII instructor otherwise everything stands as it is:

http://www.sportsshooter.com/news/1214

You’re excited! You have your first aerial assignment. You’ve always wanted to get up in the air. You’re thinking: Cool! This will be fun, I’ll take my girlfriend/boyfriend, my wife/husband or my best bud. We can go cruising over the city and shoot a few pics for myself or maybe a few as stock.

Slow down for a second. Let’s talk. Let me offer some insights from twenty-five years of aerial photography experience around the world. Done correctly, aerial photography can be fun, exciting, and rewarding. Done incorrectly, it can be deadly. I’ve lost two photographer friends in aerial photography accidents.

I’ve known and flown with some amazing pilots. Pilots that not only astonished me with their precision flying in stiff winds, but continued to place me in the perfect spot, time and time again. Then there are the ones who scared the hell out of me in the first ten minutes of flight. Yes, I’ve had my fair share of scary flights and hope that I have learned to trust my instincts enough to never allow myself to fly with someone who does not “feel right.” Hopefully, my experiences will allow you to choose the right pilot for your assignment and make it an enjoyable and memorable flight. To read the rest of this piece….