Mike Lewis
Staff Member
My next couple posts will feature images from my doors off helicopter experience flying over the West Maui Mountains just after sunrise. It was really the photographic highlight of the trip, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The morning ride was not bumpy at all, and the little helicopter was expertly piloted by Nick of GoFlyMaui - I cannot recommend them highly enough if you are looking to do something similar. I did not want to chance swapping lenses so was constrained to one. I was really torn between using my 16-35 or my 24-105. With recommendations from the pilot Nick (a photographer himself) I settled on the 16-35. I initially was thinking it was not a good choice as I started out at 35 a lot, but as we circled around and then came in closer I realized it was the best lens choice. I did capture the rotor in some frames but I found that with a faster shutter speed (recommended to cancel out the motion anyway) I could snap off multiple shots of a scene with a very high probability that at least one or 2 would not have the rotor in them. For the rest, Photoshop content aware fill had an easy time to remove any portion of the rotor against the sky. I did keep my shutter speed at or above about 1/800th, with quite a few shots at 1/1250th or more. That seemed to totally freeze the motion and the higher ISO was no problem for the R5.
The flight was 45 minutes. We took off from Kahului and flew along the coast, then headed up to the mountains. This first set are my favorite images from the coast. Comments and critiques most welcome.
Right as we started along the coast we spied a very small rainbow which I was able to frame above the rugged coastline. Kahakuloa Head (the next image) approaches in the distance:
I wanted to make sure to get over to Kahakuloa Head, a big rock outcropping along the shore. I really liked the colors in the rock and how they contrasted with the jungle hills in the background in the morning light:
As we turned inland I was able to get a composition looking mostly down without the landing gear but including the scenic highway snaking along the shore in the early morning sun:
ML
The morning ride was not bumpy at all, and the little helicopter was expertly piloted by Nick of GoFlyMaui - I cannot recommend them highly enough if you are looking to do something similar. I did not want to chance swapping lenses so was constrained to one. I was really torn between using my 16-35 or my 24-105. With recommendations from the pilot Nick (a photographer himself) I settled on the 16-35. I initially was thinking it was not a good choice as I started out at 35 a lot, but as we circled around and then came in closer I realized it was the best lens choice. I did capture the rotor in some frames but I found that with a faster shutter speed (recommended to cancel out the motion anyway) I could snap off multiple shots of a scene with a very high probability that at least one or 2 would not have the rotor in them. For the rest, Photoshop content aware fill had an easy time to remove any portion of the rotor against the sky. I did keep my shutter speed at or above about 1/800th, with quite a few shots at 1/1250th or more. That seemed to totally freeze the motion and the higher ISO was no problem for the R5.
The flight was 45 minutes. We took off from Kahului and flew along the coast, then headed up to the mountains. This first set are my favorite images from the coast. Comments and critiques most welcome.
Right as we started along the coast we spied a very small rainbow which I was able to frame above the rugged coastline. Kahakuloa Head (the next image) approaches in the distance:
I wanted to make sure to get over to Kahakuloa Head, a big rock outcropping along the shore. I really liked the colors in the rock and how they contrasted with the jungle hills in the background in the morning light:
As we turned inland I was able to get a composition looking mostly down without the landing gear but including the scenic highway snaking along the shore in the early morning sun:
ML
