Aerial Scotland

Frogwell

We've had some pretty good weather the past week but it's forecast to turn bad from now on so I thought I'd better get some flying done yesterday.

All these pictures were taken with my little kodak happy snapper, so they're a little pixilated. I've not taken my SLR up with me yet, although I think I might give it a try while we still have the smooth winter air. If there are any other pilots just members with experience in aerial photography any advice would be much appreciated. It does seem trickier than land based snapping as there is no foreground to work with. Well, there is if flying low enough, but then you're wanting to concentrate on not crashing and the like.

Loch Earn.


Killin village and Loch Tay.


Lochan na Lairige.


Loch Tay with Ben More in the background.


Glen Lochay.


Glen Dochart and Ben More.


Breadalbane mountains.


Loch Voil and the Braes of Balquhidder.


The Trossachs and Ben Lomond in the centre.


Loch Venacher and the Lake of Menteith.


Fog covering the Forth valley and reaching out to Dunblane.


Fog over the Forth valley with the Gargunnock hills and Campsie fells just visible through the haze.


Heading home over Strathallan.

OsirisPhoto

Fantastic Great to see the home landscape from a different perspective. Nos 2 and 3 are so detailed, lovely.

I'm near to Cumbernauld Airfield if you want to pop in for a coffee

Frogwell

Hyperbaric wrote:

Fantastic Great to see the home landscape from a different perspective. Nos 2 and 3 are so detailed, lovely.

I'm near to Cumbernauld Airfield if you want to pop in for a coffee

Did most of my training at Cumbernauld

swintonphoto

Wow! Wonderful images. Lovely.

zacker

awesome Images, Makes me want to move there.... Love the names too!

hobbes

Beautiful pics frogwell.

You asked for some tips and here's some of my experience. In a small plane I try and keep the shutter speed over 1/500 to eliminate vibration blur -you'll usually find that you need even faster if you're in a helicopter.

I use my 70-200 on one body and my 17-35 on another. I'm pretty tall and so I find that there isn't much room in the cockpit between the yoke, the pilot and the doors for me and a long lens. Besides you can always go lower if you need to get closer. I shoot alot when I'm up and take another pass by if I'm in doubt about the shot. And I find if we can get below 80knots that it's alot easier to put the lens out the window- one of the few times that I actually use my strap.

And judging by your pics I'd say that you already know to go at dawn/dusk time. Gotta love those long shadows.

davidweaver

Stunning. Thanks for sharing!

Moogle Pepper

I want to go soooo bad!

dannymiranda

Stunning
Wow, my compliments! Each one of these shots is absolutely stunning! Thanks for taking us there!

Danny

SaltWaterHippo

Thats an amazing view, I've never really seen Scotland like that before. I like the one with the fog coming in. Wish I could have seen it from up there.

Frogwell

Thanks for all the comments

Hobbes - thanks for the advice. How do you find using the 17-35 lense? I have an 18-70 and a 55-200. I like the idea of using the 18-70 so that I can get a nice large area, but I wonder if I'd have bits of wing or wheel spats in every shot shooting at 18mm. The longer lense might also be good as although less can be put in the frame, zooming in on building and the like might be quite good, although even with the vibration reduction I'm thinking pictures would come out blurry at anything over 100mm.

I have found that morning and evening flying do give the nice shadows and help give perspective the ground features. It's always a bit disappointing when a mountain looks looming and pointy with the eye, but a photo turns it into 2D and makes it look almost model like. Then again I like morning and evening flying anyway just for the smoothness of the air

Do you have a gallery or any aerial photos online?

Thanks,

Mark

NeilL

Lovely! Moody, lonely spaces! As an Australian, *space*, is blood!

jasonstone

Wow! Nice pics!
Used to live in Scotland and have "fond" memories of climbing Ben More - but from the hard side - why did I let my boss talk me into it!?

Still great adventure