Years ago (2003-2005) I shot quite a bit of aerials with a homemade lens based on Mark Tucker’s plungercam concept. Another photographer, who started shooting aerials around 2004, launched his career with the concept of using tilt/shift lenses. Olivo Barbieri, an Italian fine art photographer is generally recognized as the first person to shoot t/s lenses in the air. He created several striking bodies of work that moved past the shallow-focus eye-candy trap. Getting past the O-wow response is enough of a challenge for any photographer. Barbieri did it and his works stands far above (IMO) of any other shooter shooting t/s lenses from the air. Why do I say this? Because there is theme and continuity to his work.

I decided to not shoot any t/s aerials after the spring of 2005. Primarily because I felt that aerials in themselves when presented properly did not need any additional changes. My images are graphic and the abstract nature of many of the photographs is enough of a challenge for most viewers.

A couple of weeks ago, I was shooting an aerial gig in New York and New Jersey. Just for grins, I took my rarely used D300s camera and mounted my 45 PC-E Nikkor to it. I shot a few frames of subdivisions in fall color and this marsh with a foot bridge.

It was fun to shoot that way again and the image is now in the Corbis collection. I think the appeal is limited and don’t plan to shoot many images this way. Sometimes you just have to say yes to a target of opportunity.

Last week, I had an all-day aerial gig with significant amount of flight time between our targets. As I always do, I am shooting as we fly – I call them targets of opportunity. Something catches my eye and I’ll have a second or two to react, shoot and then go on. We left the field at sunrise and flew over the Shenandoah Valley and into West Virginia. This ridge line caught my attention and I shot a few frames as we passed over the mountain. I like how the cliff face caught the sun and how the western reach of the mountain was in shade.

It has been a crazy two months – I’ve been pretty much on a non-stop travel binge and have not had the time to update the blog. A few weeks ago, I shot two projects in California. First was a story for Vanity Fair in Los Angeles that will hit the VF web site later this week. That shoot included portraits, landscapes and aerials.

After I finished the VF shoot I headed down to San Diego to oversee the set-up of a Cineflex HD on the left skid of an A-Star for a video I directed and also shot stills for my client, CH Thompson. The shoot involved following a train across the California desert from Barstow to Needles. The train was made up of 40 container cars featuring the new CH THompson shipping containers that were painted bright blue. Lots of pre-production and permitting required on this shoot. Fantastic crew and support from Ron and his team in Charlotte with the Cineflex with Mark flying in from Hawaii and the good folks at Corporate in San Diego pulling it all together on short notice.

Mark securing the Cineflex to the A-Star.

Here are a few frames of behind the scenes images shot with my trusty GF-1 camera. Equipment used for this shoot included an A-Star B2, Cineflex HD with a ProRes deck, Nikon D3X with primes and 24-70 (fantastic lens), H2 Hassy with Leaf Aptus 75 and the wonderful Ken-Lab KS-8 gyroscope. Mark from Hawaii Five-0 was my incredible camera operator and Tony was the pilot. Tony is an interesting guy – Marine Corps Reserves Colonel (Ret) who flew C-46 (Phrogs) in the Corps but also 19 years of MD 500 and A-Star time flying for the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. These two guys were the perfect team for the low and slow tracking shots as we hop-skipped over the train.

Test video in flight of the A-Star belly and skids.

Tony piloting the A-Star B2 over the desert.

The wooden hangars of the Barstow Airport.

Me with the Cineflex.

A frame from the shoot showing the train in the early morning light.

We positioned to Barstow from San Diego the afternoon before the shoot. The train left Los Angeles in the middle of the night and we caught up with it west of Barstow just after sunrise and followed it to Needles where we broke off and refueled for our flight home to San Diego.

A wee bit of rotor bend in my friend Steve’s MD 500. Shot yesterday morning when we took a break during a five hour aerial shoot in West Virginia. Glorious day for aerials – severe clear with light winds. Rotor Bend is caused from the iPhone shutter.

Flying from Needles, Arizona to Barstow, California in an A-Star. We had just finished up an amazing aerial shoot of a special train crossing the desert. I directed CineflexHD video plus shot stills. Amazing camera operator plus a former Marine Colonel Pilot who flew Phrogs (C-46)in the Corps as a reservist plus 19 years of A-Star and MD 500 experience as a Sheriff Pilot in Southern California.