Brian, Once upon a time this kind of aerial photography was one of my frequent duties. I was a photographer for our state's Soil Conservation Service, and whenever a storm or flood caused damage to agricultural land, there I was.
Small Cessnas were our aeroplane of choice. The Cessna 210 you mentioned is good because it doesn't have a diagonal wing-brace like some of the older models, so you'll get a very uncluttered field of view below the wing. Some Cessnas have top-hinged opening windows. They hang loosely when the plane's on the ground, but when aloft the windows will stand out in the airstream and give a nice glassless field of view. BUT,if you can open the window.... DON'T open the window without the pilot's foreknowledge and approval, which he may not give anyway. He needs to slow down to under 90 knots and trim the plane for the slight imbalance that it'll cause. DON'T have loose stuff around you or in unzippered shirt or jacket pockets. DO have your restraints fastened. DO have a neckstrap on the camera and DO use it. DON'T use a rubber lenshood, they fold up in the airstream. For that matter a clip-on hood may be risky. DON'T brace your arm or body against the plane's structure or you'll transmit vibrations straight to the camera. Sit completely in the padding of the seat, let your belts support you, and hold your arms slightly away from your body so that your hands float a little. Imagine yourself as a human steadicam. We always preferred getting below 1,000 feet for photography, preferably down to 500 feet (but that was slightly illegal so keep it to yourself). Above 1,000 feet haze would degrade the picture colour and contrast severely. The best times were the first and last two hours of daylight. The flatter the terrain, the closer to sunrise/sunset you'd need to fly to get decent modelling to the landscape. I imagine that Lake Ayre near the middle of the day could have very flat lighting quality. And if you are allowed to open a window, check the weather report. I once photographed in Cowra on a beautiful early spring day, it was slightly warm at ground level. The weather forecast was for snow above 1,200m. Cowra is at about 1,000m. That meant the air only 200m above us was freezing. So I arrived at the airport with a ski-parka over my arm, at which the lightly dressed soil conservationist looked askance. I just said, "wait 'til I open the window up there. See how warm you are then!" regards, Anthony "Of what use is lens and light to those who lack in mind and sight" (Anon) On 8 July 2011 08:45, Brian Walters <[email protected]> wrote: > G'day all > > In a few weeks my wife and I will be heading off to Central Australia. > On the way we plan to take a flight over Lake Eyre* in a light aircraft. > > I've never photographed from a plane before so I'm wondering is there > any special "gotchas" I should be aware of. Lens choices, shutter > speeds, filters, etc.... > > Any advice will be gratefully received. > > > > Cheers > > Brian > > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > Brian Walters > Western Sydney Australia > http://lyons-ryan.org/southernlight/ > > > * For those unfamiliar with Lake Eyre, it's a huge salt lake near the > centre of Australia. At 15 metres below sea level, it's also the lowest > point in Australia. It has a large catchment extending into western > Queensland but water rarely reaches the lake because of evaporation and > being soaked up in channels and creeks along the way. Occasionally > there is so much rain in the catchment that the lake partly or fully > fills. That's happened for the past couple of seasons. Seeing Lake > Eyre filled is a 'bucket list' item for many Australians so I don't want > to bugger this up. > > http://www.lakeeyrebasin.org.au/ > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
