Aerial photography

 

Had a wonderful Saturday morning in Everglades National Park and Homestead (Fla).

We took off from Kendall-Tamiami (KTMB) in South Miami in a Piper Super Cub. This is a wonderful aircraft, low and slow. Cruises at 90mph which allows you to open doors and windows if you need, so no photographing through scratched glass.

Juan, the pilot, is a friend and also an aircraft and photo enthusiast. He owns this lovely old plane which he keeps in great condition.

We took off from Tamiami (KTMB) and flew to Homestead Executive Airport (X51), then to the tip of Florida, over Everglades National Park to Florida Bay. The flight was not bumpy at all. Low and slow and a lot of fun.

I normally shoot with a little longer lens, but this time I tried with a Nikon D700 and a small Nikon 50mm/1.8 lens. Had not used this lens in aerials before. This time I knew we would fly low and the small size of the lens makes it easier to handle in the slipstream (up to 90mph).

I shot with speeds from anywhere from 1/800 to 1/5000. I was trying to keep the aperture between f/6.3 and f/8 most times. When cloudy I had to bump to ISO 400 to attain it bust most of the shots (many still to be processed) are at ISO 200.

The weather was sunny but awful in the distance (as you can see). We did go through a shower.

This is me by the plane in the grass strip at X51. Admire the classy outfit <grin>

They have two paved runways but they use the grass strip for gliders. It was more fun to land there.

I took lots of shots, some from high as this one:

and some low (under 500ft):

Had a wonderful day flying, photographing, and enjoying the beauty of Florida.