Aerial photography - a whole new perspective

With the availability of consumer camera drones aerial photography is becoming ever more popular. Becoming airborne is providing a whole new perspective.

Same as shooting in exotic places, aerial photography is providing images telling some special stories.

On one of my last trips to remote islands in Indonesia I was carrying a drone with me. It was quite an adventure to start, fly and shoot with a drone in uncharted areas and under inexperienced conditions.

DJI Mavic Pro - Togean Islands, Tomini Bay, Indonesia

Photography from the air is one of the best ways to capture landscapes and landmarks. It provides unique opportunity to showcase the space and dimensions of a certain geographical area. It provides a total different perception of texture and patterns, of light, of lines and shapes - be it in nature or in urban areas.

DJI Mavic Pro - Spring landscape, Fricktal, Switzerland

While it is difficult to simultaneously fly a drone, control the camera capture, and frame the shot, todays drones offer a cheap possibility for aerial photography. Camera quality is excellent, technology in terms of image stabilisation and ease to operate is unmatched. The opportunities are endless.

Nikon D800, f2.8 70-200mm, pictures taken from ultralight plane (https://microlightcambodia.net) - Kampong Phluk, Siem Reap, Cambodia

On one of our trips to South East Asia we took the opportunity to hire a ultralight plane from (https://microlightcambodia.net). So far this was one of my most exciting aerial photography experiences. Eddie the pilot - an American living in the area of Siem Reap for almost 20 years and running his ultralight planes mainly for research purpose in understanding the hydrology of the Tonle Sap lake is an excellent aerial guide. While he knows a lot about the area, nature, people, society, culture, and all the historical details about the temples of Angkor, he was giving me plenty of photography tips. Tips which allowed me to take decent shots during this 90 minutes flight around the Tonle Sap and Angkor archeological sites. - That was an experience which I will never forget. And the item to go back and take the opportunity to enrich my portfolio with pictures from more flights with Eddie remains quite high on my bucket list.

As a side note. The country of Cambodia offers many other opportunities for life changing experiences and amazing photography. We took a private 10 day tour with Kambocello (http://kambocello.com) a small private Swiss-Cambodian business that brings you in places you would probably not pass by when travelling individually or with other operators. If you are interested, check out my travel photography galleries from Cambodia (www.andreasrmueller.com)

Nikon D700, f2.8 24-70mm, pictures taken from a sightseeing flight around Bernese Alps, Switzerland

The most expensive aerial photography experience I took so far was hiring a little plane for a sightseeing flight around the Swiss Alps. Advantages of hiring a plane is that it brings you in heights and can reach distances which none of the other options can compete. Clear disadvantage is that you have to shoot through the windows of a plane which is a true challenge in terms of reflections and other unwanted optical effects.

Check out our aerial photography portfolio at Alamy: https://www.alamy.de/portfolio/andreasrmueller/aerial.html

Black and White - Drone Photography

The Light Below - Fred Gramoso (500px)

The tree - Michael B. Rasmussen (500px)

black vs white - Marat Alihmanov (500px)

Look Down Below - Laurie Rubin (500px)

Black wave.05 - Takahiro Taguchi (500px)

Aerial Photography - Shooting using drones

Aerial photography is an interesting field of photography. Becoming airborne and shooting the landscape, cityscapes, or sceneries from perspectives we usually are not used to. This gives images a special and unique touch mainly by means of perspective but also by means of color contrast and composition.

There are several possibilities to get into these arial perspectives such as tall buildings, a flight in a plane, or a flight in a helicopter, or in recent times using drones and camera remote control.

Using drones:

Since not every photographer can afford hiring a helicopter or a plane for shooting arial pictures or when topography does not allow to fly with a large vehicle drones become more and more popular in photography.
The image below shows a beautiful panorama of the Raja Ampat archipelago shot from a drone (I guess).

Kri Island, Raja Ampat, Indonesia - Nu Parnupong (facebook)

Have a look at the 3dr blog: GoPro Dorne Aerial Photography: Beginner's Guide

Aerial Photography - Shooting from a helicopter

Aerial photography is an interesting field of photography. Becoming airborne and shooting the landscape, cityscapes, or sceneries from perspectives we usually are not used to. This gives images a special and unique touch mainly by means of perspective but also by means of color contrast and composition.

There are several possibilities to get into these arial perspectives such as tall buildings, a flight in a plane, or a flight in a helicopter, or in recent times using drones and camera remote control.

From a helicopter:


My only experience in a helicopter so far was a flight from Las Vegas across the Mojave desert to the Grand Canyon and back.


Since this was a standard touristic flight the conditions were not optimal.

The flight was in the late afternoon which is a good time of the day. The low sun gives rise to good contrast and puts emphasise on the texture of the topography

Since it was a touristic flight doors of the helicopter were closed. Even tough I was privileged to sit in the very front I got a lot of reflections from the windows.

For the first time in a helicopter it was also difficult to choose the right lens. I ended up to shoot mainly the Nikon 14 - 24 mm f2.8 lens. The wide angle lens yields images with enormous depth and clear features of the topography.

 Some other images I shot with the Nikon 24 - 70 mm f2.4 lens. Which was especially good to crop interesting landmarks. Such as the deserted city of Mead View on the right.
Only an airborne view makes visible the geometrical construction of this city which was advertised with beautiful view onto the Lake Mead not taking into account a mountain rim in between.

Another interesting wide angle shot on the left when approaching the airbase again.
The airstrips embedded into the landscape give interesting lines and structure to this image.









Photographer Jared Polin recently released a video on arial photography from a helicopter. He describes in a very interesting way his experience shooting out of a helicopter with open doors the city of Las Vegas.

Aerial Photography - Shooting from a plane

Aerial photography is an interesting field of photography. Becoming airborne and shooting the landscape, cityscapes, or sceneries from perspectives we usually are not used to. This gives images a special and unique touch mainly by means of perspective but also by means of color contrast and composition.

There are several possibilities to get into these arial perspectives such as tall buildings, a flight in a plane, or a flight in a helicopter, or in recent times using drones and camera remote control.

From a plane:

Becoming airborne is probably the most spectacular and only true way to do arial photography. A couple of years ago I hired a little plane and made a sight seeing flight around the most scenic parts of the central Swiss alps.

Working good together with the pilot it is possible to get very special shots from viewpoints which are usually not accessible.

Such images are special not only by means of composition, color, and perspective, but also unique. Since compared to other images of comparable landmarks most of the time no second image has been shot from the same point of view.

The two images here showcase the highest mountains of the central Swiss alps from different perspective.

On the right hand image there is a top view of the village of Bellwald. A very traditional and picturesque village which is worth visiting for a photography trip also on ground.

The difficult thing in planes and helicopters are reflections of the windows. Hence, to capture really good and valuable images one needs to keep doors open which needs extra equipment for securing photographers and equipment and which depending on the air-vehicle is not always possible.

Aerial Photography - Shooting from tall buildings

Aerial photography is an interesting field of photography. Becoming airborne and shooting the landscape, cityscapes, or sceneries from perspectives we usually are not used to. This gives images a special and unique touch mainly by means of perspective but also by means of color contrast and composition.

There are several possibilities to get into these arial perspectives such as tall buildings, a flight in a plane, or a flight in a helicopter, or in recent times using drones and camera remote control.

Paris, la Défense

Tall buildings:

The easiest and cheapest possibility is probably by just climbing a high building and shooting from the top.
I did this on several occasions. For example from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The image on the on the right exhibits a lot of interesting features. Almost central symmetry of the architecture and the park in the foreground. The modern city of la Défense in the background, and the interesting texture of the buildings in between.

The image on the left was taken in Shanghai from the top of Shanghai Tower.
The image gives an impression of the endless cityscape of Shanghai as well as of the gigantic size of skyscrapers in the commercial city center of Shanghai.

Taking such images in black and white gives a very nice texture to these photographs. There are a lot of overlying patterns in arial images of cities which lead to interesting texture.










A similar picture is the image on the right of lower Manhattan in New York taken from the top of Empire State Building.

An interesting aspect of this image are the clear lines of the streets. With the Flatiron Building breaking the perfect rectangular symmetry in this texture.

Interesting perspective is also to look straight down a building. As in the image on the left.
This picture was taken in Dubai from the visitors platform of the Burj Kalifa, the tallest building in the world.

Vehicles on the road look like toys, and the roads seem artificial.

Not only roads and vehicles look like little toys, but also very tall sky scrapers when viewed from a height of more than 800 meters.

Interesting shots can be achieved when including reflections on glass walls of the skyscraper into the framing.
The image on the left exhibits true and reflected Dubai city scape along the Persian Gulf coast line.