How to Capture Inspiring Aerial Images on Location

This time last year I was in New Zealand in search of unique aerial images. I was on a road trip with my partner, armed with a drone and a desire to fly over the Southern Alps in a small plane. We had rented a spaceship—a self-contained campervan—giving us the flexibility to be completely impulsive, checking into caravan parks at night and making meals on the run. We picked up the campervan on the North Island, having flown into Auckland with the flexibility to return it in Christchurch on the South Island. The fact we didn’t need to double back on our travels was a bonus.

The spaceships are mostly rented by twenty somethings and not ideal for more mature travelers like us! While I like to believe my adventurous self is still alive, I might rent something more comfortable next time. A few gymnastics were required to get into bed, but the van was well insulated with plenty of storage space for our packs and camera gear!

The best thing about life in a campervan is the spontaneity and freedom. You can decide if you leave or stay based on the resonance of the place you are at. We had purchased a Top10 Holiday Park pass, so that’s where we mostly camped, enjoying the discounted camping and the cleanliness. We found the WikiCamps and CamperMate Apps useful in finding other campsite and the MetService App good for keeping track of the weather. The AirShare App let us know where it was safe to fly the drone. Before setting out on a road trip, do some research to find the camping and weather apps that apply in your area.

My primary goal in coming to New Zealand was to capture images of braided rivers. Braided rivers flow through very flat landscapes and form a network of many branches within a wide channel. They are found in mountainous, glacial areas that deposit a lot of sediment onto the flat plains below. New Zealand and Iceland are both well known for their braided rivers. Viewed from above, these rivers are stunning, and I was excited to have the chance to photograph them for the first time.

We started our journey in the North Island because we were keen to visit places like Rotorua and Taupo, to learn about Maori culture and to enjoy the geothermal hot springs. But if aerial photography is your main game, I would recommend limiting your travels to the South Island.

As we travelled south, I searched for areas where the highway crossed major rivers so we could peel off and explore. It was slow travel but so worth it. Some of the rivers I found interesting included the Waiau, Waimakariri and the Rakaia River. Besides the braided rivers there are other options in the South Island, including spectacular Ward Beach and Salt Works close to the ferry crossing.

One of my favorite locations for braided rivers was on the drive from Glenorchy to Kinloch. I was in ‘aerial heaven’ while driving along the Dart River and capturing this landscape with my drone. But sadly, disaster struck when I was on my third battery and almost ready to call it a day. Suddenly and with no warning, my drone fell into the river. I lost all three sets of images from my aerial shoots as well as the video that my partner had shot. We instantly lost all contact with the drone so retrieving it was not an option.

Thankfully, on coming back to Sydney and downloading the flight record, DJI replaced my drone. Sadly, there was no recourse for recovering all the incredible images I had shot. Everyone who has used a drone for a while has a story to tell. But what would I do differently next time?

I always download and backup my images at the end of the day. But losing my drone highlighted for me that I should be using a new SD card each time I changed my battery. If the drone fell out of the sky again, at least I would not be losing 3 batteries worth of images. Carrying a couple of external drives and backing up all images at the end of the day, is a must. I also do a random check of the images in Lightroom, to make sure there are no glaring mistakes during capture. For an almost foolproof method of making sure your images make it home safely avoid formatting your SD cards till you get home and have double checked all images are downloaded and backed up.

Thankfully, we had also decided to do an aerial flight while at Lake Tekapo, so I did come home with a lovely selection of aerial images. There are many locations from which aerial flights can be taken in New Zealand and many choices to make in terms of duration and type of flight.

Capturing the vastness of the New Zealand landscape is both challenging and exhilarating. Taking a one-hour flight over this immense landscape is an incredible way to cover a large area, giving you a good selection of images captured in similar lighting conditions that could work well in a portfolio.

On this trip, I chose the Grand Traverse, a 50-minute flight out of Lake Tekapo. The flight took us over Aoraki Mount Cook, the Tasman Glacier, turquoise glacial valleys and the braided river systems of the Godley River. We flew over remote high country sheep stations, National Parks, the West Coast rainforest and the magnificent Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. Air Safaris operate a fleet of piston and turbo prop single and twin-engine aircraft that can carry from 5 to 15 passengers. Each aircraft is configured so every passenger has their own window.

Depending on your budget, other options include a doors-off helicopter flight or chartering your own small plane. The tourist airplane flights are the best value for money and cover the most ground giving you a wider selection of landscapes to shoot. With a charter plane you can often have input into where to go. This was not an option for me. While a flight in a doors-open helicopter might have given me better quality images, such a flight would have been more limited in scope. Helicopters are also prone to vibrations which can affect the sharpness of your images although you can usually hover over an area for longer to fine-tune your composition. There are pros and cons with all options, so consider them carefully before making a choice.

The biggest challenge I faced on this flight was that I was shooting through plexiglass, requiring careful processing of my RAW images to get a high-quality result. There were many images that were discarded because they had internal reflections from the cabin. Keeping the camera as close to the window as possible is one way to avoid reflections. But we were also asked to not place the lens on the window to prevent damage to it, so I was mindful of this. The window can also transmit vibrations from the plane—another reason to keep clear of it. Using a lens skirt is one way to avoid the reflections but this was not a part of my kit on this trip. Wearing dark clothing is a good tip to also help with those reflections.

There were weight and space restrictions on what we could bring on board with us, so deciding which lenses to take was important. I took my Canon R6 camera and my RF 24-105mm f/4 and RF 70-200mm f/2.8 lenses, although I only used the RF 24-105mm on this flight. There was literally no time to waste changing lenses, and I did not have a second mirrorless body to keep both options handy. As I was shooting in RAW, I had enough pixels to play with if I needed to crop the image in post-production to refine my composition. While some professional aerial photographers use prime lenses, I find zoom lenses more versatile for changing compositions, especially on flights where you are not able to instruct the pilot to change elevation! Remember that if you pick a lens too wide, you might be dealing with distractions like struts and wheels in your image. Using too much zoom—say greater than 150mm—might result in you struggling to hold it steady.

I choose to leave my filters and polarizers behind when shooting aerials to ensure maximum light transmission and sharpness of my images. While a polarizing filter might be useful to cut down glare and reflections from water and snow, they can often introduce a color cast. I always pack spare batteries and camera cards for any shooting expedition!   

Movement and weather conditions will be one of the many challenges you contend with on an aerial shoot. The wind factor can make your plane-ride even bumpier than usual so choosing the right shutter speed is paramount. I shoot on manual settings with a fixed shutter speed of 1/2000 sec. I usually choose an aperture between f/4 and f/5.6 and an expanded auto focus area given we are in constant movement. On an aerial shoot, we are far away from our subject, so depth of field is never a worry. I generally shoot on Auto Focus, remembering to focus each time, as I constantly change my focal length and composition. If the camera is struggling to focus on flat terrain, then you may need to switch to manual focus.

I set my ISO on Auto but restricted it to a range between 100 and 3200 to avoid excessive noise. We were fortunate that the light was wonderful on the day. However, if you find your ISO is getting too high and conditions allow, then adjusting your shutter speed might be an option. My metering was set at evaluative so the camera would average exposure for the entire scene. As for White Balance, you can either choose a preset such as ‘daylight’ or ‘cloudy’, choose a Kelvin value or use Auto White Balance if you are shooting in rapidly changing lighting conditions. I turn on lens stabilization and choose single shot frame advance as there isn’t a need to spray and pray in aerial photography!

I find it useful to setup my camera and save the settings as a custom function so I can easily recall them when I am up in the air.

Each time I come back from an aerial shoot, I realize how much I love this genre. There is no comparison for the unique perspective that aerial photography gives you. Despite my desire to shoot continuously, I also made sure that I took time to enjoy this incredible landscape, breathing in its stunning beauty. This one-hour flight gave me a wonderful portfolio of connected images that I could tailor for several competitions requiring a series of images. One of the highlights this year was to be a finalist in the Siena Drone Awards Series Category for which I entered 9 images from this shoot.

With an aerial shoot from a plane, there is often no chance to go back if you make a mistake, so taking a moment to review the images you are capturing, making sure they are sharp, or that you have not accidently bumped a setting is a good habit to develop. While colors, textures, form and shapes are central to composition in aerial photography, many photographers are keen to also find meaning and metaphors especially in abstract aerial photography. The New Zealand aerial images from the airplane are more realistic landscapes, but I do love focusing on the detail especially when flying my drone, creating abstract imagery.

Of course, the best part of an aerial shoot is sitting down to review and edit your best images. Remember that shooting from great heights means that your images will have to be corrected for atmospheric haze and color casts. Shooting in RAW will give you the ability to correct for color cast and adjust your contrast and saturation, bringing out the best in the images you have captured.