Aerial photography – now there’s an area of commercial photography that I would like to do more of!

I’ve always loved flying in small aircraft so when A2B Heli Charters asked me to take photos of their new helicopter G-SKLR aka “Skyler”, I was more than happy to oblige.

I got even more excited when I was told that they would like me to take photos of Skyler in flight, me shooting from another helicopter, and that they will take the door off the other chopper so that I can get better shots. That one being G-ERKN aka “Gherkin”.

(I got curious about the names/codes and found out that the G prefix denotes a civil aircraft registered in the United Kingdom.)

But my excitement for the door-less part was thwarted by it being the coldest morning of the year. It was far too cold to be taking photos in who knows how many minus degrees Celsius with the windchill factor. So unfortunately this time I had to take most of the photos through the plexiglass of the helicopter which slightly distorted the images in some shots, and colours in most, which made editing the photos to have natural colours quite tricky.

We followed the route of the ‘Brighton Buzz’ tour along the coastline from Shoreham to the lovely town of Brighton and Hove by the sea. That way I could take photos that show what people will see when they take this fun flight.

By the way if you think helicopter flights are terribly expensive you’ll be glad to hear that seeing Shoreham and Brighton from the air with A2B Heli Charters starts from as little as £39 per person, and you get to experience this exciting flight for only £72 per person (price correct in March 2019) when you share the flight with friends.

We didn’t have a clear blue sky on the day of the shoot, but it was January after all. If you’re not local, don’t worry – we have many, many clear blue sky days the rest of the year by the gorgeous Brighton seafront, if that is your preference.

Saying that – as all photographers know, clouds usually make for a more dramatic, interesting scenery!

It was fun looking down at the Hove seafront promenade, beach huts and other buildings.

This was definitely one of my most enjoyable commercial photography shoots for a while. I have taken aerial photos from a small aircraft before but never from helicopter with proper, big cameras. (When I flew over New York in a helicopter I only had a pocket camera with me.)

After Brighton we headed for another flight to London but I will tell you about that route next time!