Aerial Photography

Aerial photography, in my opinion, is a beautiful form of photography. This type of photography offers some amazing shots of the earth from a different perspective and is not the easiest thing to do in the world. There are multiple steps you should prepare before attempting to shoot aerial photography.

You will need to find yourself an airplane or a helicopter along with a pilot who is willing to fly you around. The price of this package drastically depends on where you are shooting at in the world, but expect at least $750 for an hour.

Taking photos from an airplane or helicopter is not the easiest thing to do in the world. The airplane and especially a helicopter will be vibrating to the point where image stabilization is a must! In a helicopter, you are able to have an open space where you can take your photo from and the bonus of shooting at many different angles; the only drawback is that helicopters are drastically more expensive than airplanes. In an airplane, you will be forced to shoot out of a small open window or even through glass, which can cause the image quality to decrease.

Tripods aren't involved in aerial photography simply due to the fact that there isn't enough room in the cabin. You will have to hold your camera and use a fast shutter speed to compensate for the hand held shooting and the vibrations from the aircraft.

Aerial photography takes a lot of work to produce a photograph, and that in itself is an art. Even more planning is involved with aerial photography to produce a shot, which adds to the level of work.

In the photograph above, I was flying over the Pacific ocean over an overcast cloud bank as the sun was just about to set under the clouds. I quickly grabbed my camera to take the photograph, but I was too focused on other things than the camera, leading to a not so great photograph.

Link: http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/photography-tips/how-to-take-aerial-photography.html