Scott Dickerson

Tag: Air-to-air

  • Aerial photography from a powered paraglider

    After a long journey I have arrived. The ideal tool for my style of aerial photography – The powered paraglider. At least for now.

    For those unfamiliar with eccentric forms of flight Wikipedia does a really nice job of explaining what this contraption is:

    Powered paragliding, also known as paramotoring, is a form of ultralight aviation where the pilot wears a motor on his or her back (a paramotor) which provides enough thrust to take off using a paraglider wing. It can be launched in still air, and on level ground, by the pilot alone — no assistance is required.

    After pursuing my passion for aerial photography in a wide range of situations from Coast Guard C-130s, helicopters, bush planes and airplanes owned by friends to piloting my own ultralight I was still searching for something more – or less, depending on how you look at it.  Each aerial platform has its own set of benefits and limitations and it really comes down to finding the right balance that matches my style and priorities.

    Scott Dickerson flying a paramotor while photographing over Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

    The benefits of the paramotor system are many but I’ll list a few of the stand-out ones: It  is very portable and can be transported by car, boat, or bush plane (especially important in Alaska). The cost of operation is very low. As the pilot it’s just up to me and the weather, no more trying to convince a pilot to wake up at 4:30am to catch the best light. The paramotor is a very slow and safe form of flight. There are no wing struts, helicopter blades, floats or tires to get in the way. In fact the only thing that I have to work to keep out of my composition is my own legs.

    After happily flying an ultralight for a couple years I began looking for an even more ideal self piloting solution. shortly after starting to consider the paramotor as a viable option I stumbled across an interview with George Steinmetz that really confirmed my suspicion.  The paramotor would work, and not only that, George had already ready been used it with great success. Before long I was in Salt Lake City, Utah to get flying instruction and help with gear selection. I’m a learn-it-yourself kind of guy and it was hard to convince myself to actually go for the professional instruction, but since my focus is more on photography and I don’t want the piloting to be a hindrace I decided to treat it like business and invest in my abilities and safety. Turned out to be a great move.  Chris Santacroce from SuperFly is an excellent instructor and I left Utah with all the equipment and knowledge needed to start putting this idea to work.

    It has now been about 18 months since I first imagined what you see in these photos and I’m thrilled to report that after flying for the last 8 months it has proved to be everything hoped for. I have photos to share and a few stories to tell but they’ll wait for another post. Now that I have introduced the paramotor to the blog you can expect  more soon.

    Jake Schmutzler of Five Foot Fotos has worked with me to capture the images in this post –  Thanks Jake!

    Aerial photography from a powered paraglider. Here I am with the Kenai Mountains.
    Paramotoring over the Homer Spit in Homer, Alaska.

  • Air to air photos of MD 530 helicopter

    air to air aerial photo of MD 530 helicopter in flight

    I remember walking out of the post office and looking up to catch just a glimpse of the small yellow helicopter zipping by overhead. For the months since, anytime I’ve heard the beating of helicopter rotors I jump up and scurry to the windows with binoculars. This little fixation started before the MD 530 came to town, and it’s not just limited to helicopters. I love flying, and not surprisingly, some of this passion for flight splashed onto the machines that make it possible. I think it’s well understood that I’m always very excited by the opportunity to create aerial photographs. This particular shoot was a real treat being able to watch and photograph this incredible helicopter in flight. Special thanks to George and Charlie Mandes for working with me to make this a reality.  As an aerial photographer I’m very dependent on the pilots to help bring all the pieces together into a photograph.  As you can see, they both did a great job.

    Ingredient list for a big smile and some exciting aerial photos:

    • One fan of flight
    • One passionate photographer
    • Two skilled pilots with good communication
    • One beautiful winter sunset with mountains and alpenglow
    • Two cameras
    • One aircraft with opening windows (Husky A-1B)
    • One aircraft to model (MD 530F)

    Toss the ingredients for approximately 45 minutes. More results displayed below.

    air to air aerial photo of MD 530 helicopter in flight

    air to air aerial photo of MD 530 helicopter in flight

    air to air aerial photo of MD 530 helicopter in flight

  • Air to air photos of 1933 Stinson JR. SR

    Air to air aerial photo of 1933 Stinson Jr. Sr floatplane flying through Kenai Mountains, Alaska.

    Air to air photography is a favorite subject of mine and this was a great photo shoot of Mike McCann flying his classic 1933 Stinson JR. SR through the Kenai Mountains, Alaska in mid October. Thanks to Mark Munro and Mike Neese for making this photo shoot possible. Below area few more images of the Stinson from this flight.

    Air to air aerial photo of 1933 Stinson SR JR seaplane flying over Grewingk Lake and river, Alaska.

    Air to air aerial photo of 1933 Stinson JR SR on floats flying over Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

    Air to air aerial photo of 1933 Stinson JR. SR floatplane flying by Grewingk Glacier and the Kenai Mountains, Alaska.

  • Air to air aerial photos of Homer Air

    aerial photographer - air to air photo of airplane in Alaska

    A local air service, Homer Air, recently had one of their Cessna 206 airplanes repainted- a great reason to get up and make some new aerial photos to show off the sharp new look. The photo above shows the plane flying over Kachemak Bay with the Homer Spit and the town of Homer, Alaska in the background. The blue ocean is a nice contrast for the white plane which turned out to be a challenge to photograph against the snow covered mountains this time of year. I’m looking forward to another aerial photo shoot with this plane when the mountains turn green and black later this spring.

    Tech notes: For this aerial shoot I was using the Canon 1DmIII digital slr with a canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS lens and a circular polarizing filter. The exposure was 1/2500 at f/4, nice and sharp. The two lenses I use most when shooting aerials are the canon 24-70 2.8 and the lens used here, the 70-200 2.8. Occasionally I also use a Ken-Labs gyro stabilizer, but on a bright sunny day like this it’s not needed.

  • Super Cub and the Kenai Mtns

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    Aerial photos of a legendary Alaskan Bush plane, the Piper Super Cub, in a classic Alaskan setting.

    Last week I was treated to an aerial photo shoot by two pilot friends. We flew across Kachemak Bay from our hometown of Homer to spend thirty minutes flying amongst the dramatic mountain peaks and ice fields making up the Kenai Mountain Range. I’m always shocked by the majestic beauty of this mountain range that is just a ten minute flight from my house.

    The weather conditions were ideal allowing us to make the most of the few short hours of sunlight we get this time of year, and topping it off was the company of a rising moon.

    Aerial and air-to-air photos are certainly some of my favorite images to make. Something about the challenges of the quickly changing subject matter, the feverish search for the next fleeting moment of divine composition, the cold wind in my face, the entirely different perspective, the technical challenges of making a good photograph in these conditions. . . this is the kind of landscape photography that an outdoor adventure photographer can appreciate.

    Some technical details for those of you that are interested – all the shots in the slideshow above were taken with a Canon 1D mark II digital SLR using a Canon 70-200 2.8L IS zoom lens. I typically shoot in manual exposure mode, occasionally aperture priority to give me the fastest shutter speed possible with my chosen ISO speed and aperture. I usually have the aperture at its smallest number in an effort to get the fastest shutter I can without pushing the ISO up too high. This day we had bright sunshine and a white plane on snow, this allowed for comfortable shutter speeds at ISO 250 and even allowed me to keep a slightly smaller aperture (5.6-6.3) giving me a little better depth of field. Looking over the EXIF data for a few of the shots I see I was shooting between 1/1,250th of a second to 1/5,000th.