Or maybe I should say planes, helicopters, jet boats, atvs and dog sleds. In the middle of assignment work in Alaska this summer, always love going back to where we used to live and work with great clients. These shoots get really crazy. The sun sets after midnight in June, and the night never really gets dark. I had some great weather, so here is a breakdown of a normal day shooting on assignment.
12PM/midnight: clear skies, shoot Denali from overlook, set up tent and climb in sleeping bag.
1:30AM grizzly bear running across road by camp, I’m the only person in a tent…hhmmm.
3:30AM up to shoot early morning light on denali, already plenty light out .
5AM drive to next shooting location.
6:30AM shoot Denali from a new location
8AM board float plane for aerial shooting
10AM drive to next shoot, Musk Ox farm
12Noon lunch
1pm drive to next shoot
3pm board helicopter for aerial shooting/dog sledding
4pm jump on snow machine to chase dog sledders across glacier
6pm dinner
8pm shoot nice light on mountains
10pm bed
I had some great shooting from helicopters and planes this assignment. The trick with shooting from planes is getting enough shutter speed to reduce blurry shots, and put your lens right against the window if you have a window (some pilots will take doors off for shooting). I like to shoot 1/500 or faster with my VR on. This improves my odds for tack sharp images, but shoot a lot since you don’t get these opportunities a lot.
I also use a Singh-ray LB color polarizer for many of my landscape aerials. This filter really punches up the color and contrast.
