posted December 1, 2011 in About, Photographer Resources 14 Comments

Flight over Smoky Mtn NP, homemade softbox, & lightpainting a helicopter

Sometimes we work for money. Othertimes, money works us. Lately, my life looks like this:

Appalchia is a beautiful place, despite poverty, low wages, high substance abuse, and Bojangles (Paula Deene’s kitchen ain’t that bad).

However, today was one of those hards days I felt grateful to treat myself to a delight: I took a ride in a helicopter. Yes, a real ride in a helicopter for fun, just me, the pilot, and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I splurged. There, I said it. And I felt like a million bucks seeing this heavenly view:

And I’d do it all over again!!!

I love to fly. And perhaps in my another life if my non-Lasik eyes were 20-20, I’d be a pilot, taking in a bird-eye views of Mount Lacunt (6593 ft) in Tennessee and Clingman’s Dome (6643 ft).

Wrapping up from teaching a workshop in Cherokee, NC, I saw a little sign offering “Scenic helicopter rides starting at $20.” I wanted to do a U-turn (read: You-eee), but needed some food at the grocery store. As I returned past the sign, I pulled right in a met pilot Adam Williams, fresh from school with 2.5 years flight experience. We hit it off and away we went in his a Bell 206b3 Jet Ranger helicopter. We took off at 5:05 and NAILED the golden light despite the 35 degree temperature in the unheated cockpit. It was a clear day with snow made for a beautiful scenic flight. The environmentalist in me didn’t like that we used about 10 gallons of fuel in 20 minutes at $7.00/gallon. That what I spend in two months in fuel for Liesel the Diesel.

$10 per minute never felt so good. However, it was a SUPER AWESOME experience!!!

I took about 400 images on that 20 minute flight, and figured that amounted to about 50 cents a shot, cheaper than film if I was standing on the ground. Yeah, I’d rather shoot digital in the air than film on the ground using those metrics.
Wrapping up a hard day’s work with my Nikon D700 and 70-200 f/2.8 VR II savoring the view of the Cherokee Indian Reservation, adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Sunset over the Smoky Mountains at 4,500 feet flying 110mph with little trace of human activity below: It snowed in North Carolina yesterday, dusting the trees at higher elevations. I saw this on the horizon, and pointed Adam straight there. We flwer there at 110 mph at 4,500 feet. Very happy. The view from the cockpit looking down as amazing… even better than a glass bottom boat!!! After our flight, I asked Adam what he liked about our trip. Adam observed after flying about 600-700 hours per year, today was a great reminder why he is so passionate about flying. In peak summer, he’ll fly upwards of 11 hours per day. This was his only flight today.Confession: I didn’t tell my Mom until I was safe on the ground. Mom, I made it back safe!!!I wanted to create an editorial-style portrait of my helicopter pilot, Adam. So a few seconds later, I got low, used a speedlight, underexposed ambient, and played around. He really likes silhouttes, so I made sure I got those trees in the background and then tipped him with half moon above his head. Knowing my flash and camera settings by heart made for this 20 second portrait session a snap, thanks to my SB-700 camera left at +1 TTL and my on-camera flash (which also served as the infrared trigger), set at -1 TTL to act as a natural on-axis fill light … a technique a $5000 Nikon D3X can’t do. My first lightpainting of a real helicopter, in motion (Yes, I like to get away with stuff like this). We actually strapped a LED headlight with a red gel and another blinking LED flashlight and hand-spun the rotor blades during this 30-second exposure at f/9.5, ISO 1600. Crazy cool fun.And for all you loyal photo techies, we scrounged to find something to help soften the light from my small speedlight on the helicopter. We fabricated this from a neighbor’s trash, which included an old wine box, a white plastic grocery sack (looks dark in the photo), and tape:

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Posted by R. J. on December 1, 2011
Tags: helicopter flight smokey mountains, how to make a softbox, lightpaint a helicopter