Advice on Aerial Photography
 

I have been asked by a local land development company (residential) to take some aerial photos of some of their work in progress projects. We're going up by helicopter and I get to hang out the open door and shoot away.

I'll be shooting all digital and I am considering renting a some gear as I would like to supplement my lens selection. Do I need something wider than an 28-80. or should I go longer (I also have a 200mm)?

I don't know if I will be able to tell the pilot to change altitude very much, but if I can what should I tell him? I would guess that we'll be at 3000-5000 feet. Since we'll be shooting pretty large tracts of land (5-6 acres) I want to capture the sites all-in-one.

The end result I am looking for is something along these lines (random GIS): http://www.blenheimgrange.com/images/aerial_july07.jpg

Any advice, examples or resources would be appreciated.

While working for my local conservation service years ago, I was set to go up and shoot aerial shots for new aerial maps for the county. Funding fell through and it didn't happen. I would suggest that you start there. Contact your conversation service, or whoever takes the aerial photographs for your stabilization and conservation service. They should be able to help you out.

I took some photos from an aircraft a few months ago. We were 3500 feet up. I used my 18-200mm. Even at that altitude, I think I could have done a bit better with a longer lens.

Your example is similar to what I got at 200mm.

Oh... and you might want to consider a stabilized lens.

Contact an archaeologist, the national park service, or your local historical preservation office. They should be able to point you in the right direction - aerial photography is used excessively in midwestern archaeology to find earthworks. Some of the archaeologists I worked with got some of their photos from the department of transportation.

I do this for land developers all the time. I shoot with a nikon 200 and use two lenses. 1. 70-330 2. 1-70. Both work great for this. The helicopter can fly only as low as 500 ft, but the lower the better. I have gotton the bests shots from 500ft and having the pilot move back so that i can get everything in the shot. I also use google earth to set up my shot prior, then give the pilot the gps cords.

Because of the price of the helicopter I have also used a kite check out some of these. Kite Aerial Photography - KAP. This was a hobby that turned into a money maker for me.

hope this helps.