New York

New York City: An Aerial View /  by Aanarav Sareen

This Sunday, I had an opportunity to take some photos above New York City, thanks to repetitive retargeting ads from FlyNYON. I'd heard good reviews and after booking my sunset flight, I only had an hour to prep my gear and head to New Jersey.

The waiting process was fairly long and largely unproductive. However, after the brief safety video and the harness training, we were ready to head to the heliport.

NYCAerial-13.jpg

With the temperature in the low 20s on the ground and extremely freezing in an open-door helicopter traveling 100mph and 2000ft above ground, it was brutally cold.

I had brought a 2 lens setup for my A7RIIIs: a wide-angle(16-35mm) and a telephoto(70-200mm).

While I managed to get a few decent photos, I'd love to do it again with the following learnings:

  1. The telephoto lens was almost useless when you're in a fast moving helicopter that you aren't controlling. Wide-angle zooms are the way to go.

  2. The light at sunset goes away VERY quickly.

  3. The faster the lens - the better the quality.