This week’s picture of the week comes from – A HELICOPTER MISSING A DOOR WITH MY CAMERA STICKING OUT OF IT!

Ok that’s a dramatic retelling of it.  I went up last night with my buddies at Epic Helicopters over the city of Fort Worth, Texas.  I’ve long wanted to try some aerial photography around sunset and last night was just about perfect.  I went on two 25-minute rides and learned a ton about aerial photography: 1) telephoto isn’t always best since the helicopter can fly right up to whatever building you’re wanting to see and 2) probably time to go ahead and get the wide-angle 16-35mm lens I’ve been thinking about.

Also: flying in a helicopter taking pictures rocks.  During the summers all tours are flown without doors on the passenger side of the aircraft but they were able to remove the door for me yesterday since it was unseasonably warm in DFW yesterday.

Anyway, here’s a shot of the iconic Tarrant County Courthouse, one of my favorite shots of the night.

a city with a large building and a large street

Tarrant County Courthouse, by Andy Luten

For the photographers: I shot this with my 55mm f1.8 Zeiss lens on my Sony a7.  As dusk fell I had to crank up the ISO and throw the aperture wide open in order to get the shutter speed fast enough to counteract the shake of the helicopter.  Last night was about the most perfect weather for heli-flying ever, since it was so calm outside, but it was still a little bumpy.  Shutter speed ended up being 1/250 (probably the slowest speed I could get usable shots at with the ambient light being what it was) and ISO 1600.

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