Advertising photography in Colorado or anywhere
is not always about planning in advance of the photo-shoot.
Sometimes a great commercial image appears in the lens of the photographer
even though the idea is only a few seconds away from being hatched.
.
When pilot Ben Porter of Colorado Heli-Opps landed the Robinson
R44 helicopter after a recent aviation photography flight near Denver Colorado,
I had a flash. I wanted a head-on shot of the pilot in his aircraft. And instead of the
airport that was surrounding us, I wanted to see the vast Colorado landscapes through the bubble
glass of his chopper. Just seconds before, as we headed back to the airport, I captured scores of
aerial photographs with the same Nikon 10.5 super wide lens. And to complete my plan,
I’d have to fit one of those images around Ben.
The idea for this advertising photograph, Colorado Heli-Ops, came only a second before capture. Great commercial photographs aren't always planned before the photo-shoot.
The task of fitting together the two images was a little tough and a lot time
consuming.
My first mistake was to choose an aerial landscape that didn’t fit the pilot’s action.
The curvature just looked off. But the even bigger problem was the reflection in Ben’s
goggles. I didn’t want a reflection of the hangar in his eyewear not matter how subtle is was.
So this is the part of the photograph that’s not entirely satisfying. I’m sure sometime in the
future, I’ll discover a way to increase the curvature in the reflection.
