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Aerial Photography Advice

J

Jon

TS Member
Hi all. Sorry if this is in the wrong place, do move it as appropriate.

I'm going for a flight with a friend pretty soon and the planned route will bring us over Alton Towers. Having never flown in a small plane before or tried photography in any decent capacity, I was wondering if there were any here with more experience who could give me a few pointers as to how I'd get semi-decent results.
 
Welcome to the forum Jon! I'm not a professional photography, but I'd say you're going to need something with a decent zoom (a SLR with a decent lens) and something with decent stability - planes are full of vibrations, particularly smaller ones, so you'll be battling with that also :/

I'm sure we have more expert photographers around though.

Note - To any long term members who might think to abuse this opportunity, remember to think before you hit reply, we are watching! Thank you :p
 
Jon said:
Hi all. Sorry if this is in the wrong place, do move it as appropriate.

I'm going for a flight with a friend pretty soon and the planned route will bring us over Alton Towers. Having never flown in a small plane before or tried photography in any decent capacity, I was wondering if there were any here with more experience who could give me a few pointers as to how I'd get semi-decent results.
Click to expand...

Preferably take a DSLR (high megapixel if possible to allow for cropping), plus a minimum 200mm lens so as to be able to zoom in enough to see the site. I'm not sure how low the planes are allowed to go and so I'm only guessing, but I'd say 200mm would be enough. If you're taking pictures in the day then you'll be able to use a relatively high shutter speed (1/400 or above) and so the plane vibration won't be an issue.
 
I've been up over AT in a small plane for photos. I'd say a DSLR is key but the zoom doesn't have to be that huge. At the time I was using a 6 Megapixel DX Nikon, with an 18-70mm lens and the results were pretty decent. If you're interested in examples they're up on my website in my sig.

One piece of specific advice I will give you is that the plane will fly over a lot quicker than you expect. If you're flying straight over I imagine you'll have about 30 seconds to get what you want, so shoot quickly and practice on the way there!
 
I have flown a small plane (Not over AT, I did aerobatics) and will say you do fly a lot faster than you think.....

There really is that many mistakes in my posts?! Damn this Tapatalk milarky! :)
 
As a pilot I think it's worth mentioning the fact you'll be going at speed across the resort and as such will need to act fast. Can't say much on photography as when I'm not in my 737 and in a small plane I have to keep control at all times! No photos for me :-(
 
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