Aerial photography and Typography

The first alphabet of Google Earth satellite images of natural features and buildings, featuring all 26 letters, has been created by Rhett Dashwood, a graphic designer from Australia.

http://rhettdashwood.com.au/16575

92 and 196 megapixels aerial photography cameras?

That's right!


Read the stories:


http://on10.net/blogs/larry/Microsofts-92-Megapixel-Camera/


http://www.microsoft.com/ultracam/default.mspx


http://www.microsoft.com/ultracam/ultracam/default.mspx

How to make your own website using xara web designer

Well... no aerial photography involved but a few weeks ago something changed on how we create a great looking website in minutes, with no HTML skills and I AM TOTALLY IMPRESSED!


Traditional web authoring tools are just HTML editors, designed to create text layout, providing few graphical capabilities.

And yet the vast majority of modern websites are of a graphical nature, just till now there was no easy way to have complete freedom to include text, graphics, photos anywhere on the page, using just one tool.

The Xara Web Designer approach is simple: Pick the design from templates; customize it with complete freedom; publish with absolutely no HTML or Javascript skills!

Using drag & drop you can literally place anything, anywhere on the page.
Things which are normally difficult to achieve in HTML are a snap in Xara Web Designer, for example text with curved edges, text or graphics at an angle, text flowing around objects.

Whether you customize one of the bundled templates or create your own graphics or animations, the software is genuinely What You See Is What You Get.

Web Designer's templates were created by top professional designers. You can customize the color, text, images, size etc to create your own personal look with full quality.

The software also includes some clever tricks:

Liquid text flow around objects;
mouseover, thumbnail and pop-up creation;
automatic adjustment of photos to the correct resolution;
oneclick change of site theme colors & shades;
automatic color matching of imported objects;
buttons and text panels that automatically stretch as you change the text.

Working with industry standards:
Web Designer sites are W3C compliant and cross browser compatible (IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome) as they are XHTML and CSS standards based.

Just check it! You can download a 30 day trial.

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DIY pole photography (pan & tilt)

Here's an experienced Aussie, with technical background, making a pan & tilt system for his pole aerial photography business.

A very interesting story at:

http://vincedestefano.com/blog/?p=39

A valuable blog post for aerial photography newbies.

Maria Langer is a freelance writer and commercial helicopter pilot.

She's the author of 70+ books and hundreds of articles about using computers. (You can learn about her books and read articles on Maria's Guides).

She's also a commercial helicopter pilot and the owner and chief pilot of Flying M Air, LLC, an Arizona-based helicopter tour and charter company.

She wrote an interesting blog post and I suggest you read it http://www.marialanger.com/2009/03/08/on-aerial-photography/

It has lots of useful info, especially for newbies...

Hitchhiker's guide to aerial photography!

...When you're starting out, building a portfolio from the air is inherently problematic.
You can't get jobs without an aerial portfolio, and you can't get a portfolio without getting up in a helicopter or airplane...


Read the rest of the story by Greg Hren:

http://greghren.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/weekend-tip-for-location-photography-2-hitch-hiking-is-ok/


You should also read all the "aerial photography" posts in his blog: http://greghren.wordpress.com/category/aerial-photography/

Aviation photographer crashes

A Remos light sport aviation aircraft crashed last week at the Sebring Regional Airport, killing an aviation photographer from Peterborough, UK and injuring the pilot.

The plane went down shortly after takeoff.

The photographer Steven Fletcher, a very popular aviation photographer, maintained the Web site www.av8images.com


Read the story here: part 1, part 2

Budget Aerial Shots

...at least for those of you living in California.

Here's the story (6' video)

www.budgetlifer.com/2009/01/19/budget-aerial-shots/

along with a link to the company's website

www.corporatehelicopters.com

Creating white backgrounds

A few methods for isolating objects on white backgrounds, in case your post processing needs it.

http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/abt54133.html

Oldest Surviving Aerial Photo

We've covered the World's first aerial photos in this post (History of aerial photography).

Unfortunately these photos were lost.

So the earliest surviving aerial photo, shown here, is that of Boston in 1860, taken by James Wallace Black, using a balloon.

Aerial photo of a B-2

No preview here for this amazing photo, you've got to see it to believe it!
Well done Mark!

Read the article: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/allthingstrojan/2009/01/the-rose-bowl-f.html

Visit the page at pilot's site: http://www.photopilot.com/clients/bowlgame/

WW2 aerial photos

For you guys searching for Second World War ( WWII ) aerial pictures, here's an interesting link in a related forum.

Enjoy!


http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/nw-europe/17002-aerial-photo-pegasus-bridge.html

Amazing aerial photos

Aerial photography can produce unique shots that look different than any other ground shot you have ever taken...

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/21/75-eye-catching-examples-of-aerial-photography/

Helicopter aerial photography video.

A video tutorial that takes you on board a helicopter with a professional photographer on assignment;
includes information on composition, distance, horizons, pilot orders.

Have a look on youtube.com Total video time 7 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjSnrl8KzbA

Aerial Photographer joke

A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take pictures of a great forest fire.
He was advised that a small plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire.

The photographer arrived at the airstrip, just an hour before sundown.

A small two-seat airplane was waiting.

He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, “Let’s go!”

The tense man sitting in the pilot’s seat swung the plane into the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying erratically.

“Fly over the north side of the fire,” said the photographer, “and make several low-level passes.”

“Why?” asked the nervous pilot.

“Because I’m going to take pictures!” yelled the photographer.

“I’m a photographer, and photographers take pictures.”

The pilot replied, “You mean you’re not the flight instructor?”

Removing dark spots from the sky or the sea.

One of the techniques you can use is "The History Brush Technique".

The Photoshop History Brush Tool technique allows you to clean up large areas of dirt quickly when the area to be cleaned contains very little detail e.g. the sky or other background area.

Go to Filter / Noise / Dust & Scratches... and choose a radius large enough to remove all the blemishes. The whole image will be blurred, but it's ok.

Select the History Brush and in the History Palette, click on the small square box on the left of the Dust & Scratches history. This sets the origin for the History Brush.

Now click in the previous History state, the larger rectangular box immediately above and to the right. This returns us to the unblurred image.

With the Mode set to "Lighten" paint over the dirt with the History Brush.

All traces of dirt will vanish.

Aerial Photography tips for beginners

Here are the basics of aerial photography.

Prices are in US$, everything else applies worldwide.

Aerial Photography tips

Do it Yourself Remote Shutter.

Here is something that could be useful in Pole Aerial Photography.

How to make a remote shutter release for your canon digital camera using a hands free.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Remote-shutter-trigger-for-Canon-Cameras

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Early specialist in Aerial Photography dies at 91

Don Ultang, an early specialist in aerial photography died on Sept. 18 in Iowa, where he lived. He was 91.

In 1952, Ultang and fellow photographer John Robinson were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for a series of images showing a violent on-field assault against an African-American player during an American college football game. The event came to be known as the Johnny Bright Incident.

Donald Theodore Ultang graduated from the University of Iowa in 1939 with a degree in economics. As he was interested in photography, he was hired by an Iowa newspaper and shortly thereafter decided to learn to fly, signing up for a government-financed civilian pilot program.

Ultang joined the Navy during World War II and served as a flight instructor.

On his return, he persuaded the Iowa newspaper to buy a Beechcraft Bonanza plane for editorial use, like aerial photography.

He flew the airplane and took pictures while flying. He let go of the controls for about 5 seconds to shoot with a heavy Speed Graphix camera, before circling around for another take, often just a few hundred feet above the ground, keeping about 20 miles per hour extra air speed.

Many of his pictures were collected in "Holding the Moment: Mid-America at Mid-Century" (Iowa State Press, 1991).

The perfect aerial photography vehicle...

...is the "powered parachute" according to photographer Maxwell Mackenzie.

Read his story here: The flying photographer by Marianne Combs, Minnesota Public Radio.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/15/flyingphotographer/