2. Helicopter. A helicopter is that go-to solution for most photographers when they need aerial photos. The one downside of helicopter use for photography is the cost. Helicopters can easily cost $1000 for a 30 minute flight. Helicopters are clearly very convenient for aerial photography but the downside of the high cost often prohibits their use. Having said that, helicopters in my view are clearly the way to go for aerial photos.

3. Airplane. This is the option that I chose when I needed aerial photos of the pier located near my home. I needed the highest possible resolution photos, so a drone was out of the question. I didn't want to spend a lot of money for the photoshoot so that ruled out a helicopter. A friend of mine owns a small plane and I was able to go up in the plane with him to get the aerial photos that I needed. Even though an airplane is less expensive than a helicopter, it brings with it some serious drawbacks for aerial photography. The biggest drawback is the presence of the airplane's wing. No matter which direction I wanted to photograph in, it always seemed like the wing was in the way of the shot. The plane also did not have opening windows except for one very small opening in the window beside the pilot. This meant I wasn't able to take photos on the passenger side of the plane unless I was shooting through the plexiglas window. Although some of my photos taken this way worked out very well, many of them had nasty reflections that rendered the photos unusable.

One of the most important aspects of aerial photography is choosing the right shutter speed. You have to remember that you are moving at a speed of more than 100 miles per hour when you're in a small plane. I have a general rule of thumb or in scenarios were I as the photographer is moving. I will use a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second. So for this daylight flight I used a 1/500th of a second shutter speed which worked out well for most of the photos. Having said that, there were some photos that were not tack sharp and I should have used the faster shutter speed - probably 1/1000 second.

When you're standing on the ground it is easy to forget that small planes can be quite bumpy when they are up in the air. There were segments of our flight when the plane was bumping around constantly and it was very difficult to take photographs through the tiny window at that time. A 1/500th of a second shutter speed was definitely not fast enough when the camera was bouncing around through the small opening in the pilot's window.