Weekend Tip for Location Photography: # 1

We tend to do a lot of aerial photography, and one of the resources we use in the preparation for a shoot is ATIS or Automatic Terminal Information Service.

ATIS is a continuous recorded broadcast of important information used by pilots to help operate their aircraft.  The most important bit of info that we need to know is the actual weather at the airfield.  Cloud ceiling, wind direction, and wind speed will all play a part on how are shoot goes.

Lots of airports these days have a telephone number you can call into in order to listen to the broadcast, and every morning before we fly, we call in and give a listen.

This gives us a heads up on the exact conditions at the airport where you will be operating from.  If you have not done a lot of flying, you may or may not realize that different airports may have drastically different weather.  Sometimes they can be very close together, but be totally different.

Cool video solutions

Last month I shot some aerial footage (video and stills) for a Boston client. The client was watching the budget but wanted to get some great footage of the area in order to use as “B” roll in some films we are doing for them.

This meant we couldn’t hire a larger helicopter like a Bell 206 or have a Tyler Mount (gyro.)

The weather that day was great for the pictures, however it was pretty windy. The long and the short is we ended up flying, but the footage was shaky due to the wind.

The following clip illustrates how we were able to mitigate the shake in post production.

Thanks BTW to our friends at Blue Hill Helicopters (as usual) for the flight support

Photo Flight

Back up in the air today, and boy was it frickin chilly!  No matter… helicopter work has to be one of the most exhilarating aspects of my business, and I am always game regardless of the air temp!

Today’s shoot was for a local Cambridge client.  We were primarily focusing on shooting video “B” roll of the Greater Boston area.  This footage will be used along with video interviews and lab “B” roll in order to give the feeling of their environment.

When I shoot here in Boston, I like to use my friend Stephen Boatwright’s outfit called Blue Hill Helicopter based out of Norwood, MA.  Blue Hill owns a couple of Schweizers, and today as we were going to be up in the air for a while, flew their C model.

prepping gear

The Schweizer 300C is not the perfect platform to shoot from.  It is small, slow, bumpy, cramped, and a bit scary… but its what makes it so damn appealing for a photographer is that it is very inexpensive to fly.  The biggest reason for this is that the 300C is a piston driven helicopter, where the Bell 206 Jet Ranger or Eurocopter AS350 is a turbine and are dramatically more sophisticated machines.  All three are single engine airplanes, however both the Bell 206 and the AS350 can carry much more load (4+ people vs/ the 2 in the 300C) fly farther, and are more stable.

Coast Guard Training

Last week we began to prepare for a shoot we are doing on Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers.

Richard getting excited around the Blackhawk

We will be shooting the swimmers over several days and covering them in all aspects of their work. In order for us to do the aerial component and work in the helicopters over the ocean, the Coast Guard is requiring us to complete some special training… and any time the military wants to give us some training, we are more than happy to oblige!

Discussing flight ops

Our day (as usual) began well before sunup. Richard and I met our friend Petty Officer Luke Pinneo from the Coast Guard public affairs office and headed south to Air Station Cape Cod located on the Mass Military Reservation at old Otis Air Force Base.  I have mentioned Luke before. Luke and I met when I taught down at DINFOS. Luke is talented photographer in his own right, and he has been great to work with on this project.