New York from Above

“Ok Derek, you can unbuckle your seatbelt now.”

I went up in a helicopter on Sunday. You’d think for my first time I’d take a nice leisurely cruise down the river. Nope, helicopters don’t need doors and I wanted to dangle my feet over the Brooklyn Bridge.

What ensued was the fastest 12 minutes of my life:

First up, Midtown. I love you, but I’m saving your closeup for the next flight.

One WTC? Meh, full throttle Christi, we’re on a mission. Currently traveling at close to 150 MPH, btw.

“We usually fly out and circle the Statue of Liberty.”

Pfft… I can see it from here. Get me to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Hello gorgeous.

Photo notes:

I was joined on this flight by two wonderful New York photographers, J.N. Silva and Steve Sweatpants. Silva advised that anything above a shutter speed of 200 should be fine. I would add that if you’re shooting aperture priority to set a minimum shutter speed of 200 and let the ISO creep up a little. You don’t want to be messing around with photo settings too much while in the air and a couple of my shots into the shadows dipped below 200 and resulted in slightly blurry images.