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.

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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.

360 Degree Cameras on Vacation /  by Aanarav Sareen

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I've been a camera geek for as long as I can remember. I love how each camera is able to play on its strengths to create beautiful images and videos.

In the last few years, there has been an increase in advanced camera technology – iPhone's portrait mode all the way up to 360 degree cameras.

Last year, I purchased a GoPro Fusion camera to experiment with and so far, it has accompanies me on every major trip.

For our end of the year vacation in Thailand, I left it running in a few different places, edited the videos when I got home and simply published it on YouTube. The result is embedded below:

For the first time ever, a technology is able to truly capture the surroundings without disruption.

As I continue to research this technology, I'll definitely be posting a lot more videos on my YouTube channel.

Time Off to Ring in 2019 /  by Aanarav Sareen

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Happy New Year from somewhere over the Pacific!

For the first time in almost 3 years, I took time off by not responding to non-emergency emails, texts and phone-calls. And it was invigorating.

2018 has been a year of considerable change and as always, as an entrepreneur, it takes a significant toll.

For this year, we had 3 distinct itineraries for the end of the year: a wedding in India, a trip to Vietnam and diving in Thailand. And despite the 8 flights it took us to wrap up the year - it was absolutely worth it.

We live in such a connected world that in Vietnam and Thailand had incredible data connectivity nearly everywhere we visited including the shuttle bus from the hotel to the boat and even the incredibly affordable spas that we visited. India on the other hand was significantly worse and quite the opposite.

Despite being connected nearly 24/7, avoiding the temptation to constantly work paid off in dividends. I’ve never felt more relaxed and I’m looking forward to 2019 with a fresh pair of eyes and a clear head.