One of the best assignments in the photography business is a helicopter shoot. Even though I have flown dozens of times all over the world, it is always an fantastic experience. This extremely expensive point of view thrills with extreme vantage points, hair-raising angles and inspiring vistas. It is the ultimate camera platform, because you can ask the pilot to go up, left, a little higher, perfect, got it. Here in New York, I always work with the same pilot, Pete from Airmetro Helicopters, who has so much experience flying and filming that his input on angles and viewpoints is invaluable.
With an average cost of $1300 an hour, helicopters are costly, so time is precious…. The clients are often shipyards, shipping terminals or shipping lines with ships coming into New York Harbor, I often film or shoot them coming under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. P & O Nedlloyd had a ship brought to the Battery for me once, to shoot her steaming away from Manhattan, unfortunately, this shoot was late August 2001 and the footage was never used because of what happened two weeks later. I have posted a few shots of aerial shoots. 