Copyright (C) Claes Axstål - All rights reserved
So many photographers (even pros) do the same photo again and again, forgetting that they could use their own ingenuity to build their own pictures. Claes Axstål made a giant move when he decided to use Flash to do aerial photography. This made his photographs distinctly different. Nothing technically impossible, just a LOT of work to be sure to maintain flash-based technology in a large scale. Suddenly, those planes, boats and helicopters get a different treatment and Claes gets to shoot and shoot and shoot again.
Claes made his own airborne Flash (a BIG flash: 250kg of equipment, sometimes more) which can be brought into a plane or an helicopter to make photos that we don’t usually see. In the photography above, he was actually shooting from the air traffic tower.
As he says: “I use my own made flash I call Airborne Flash Photography due to I usually operate it from another aircraft air to air. In this case I have one guy aiming the flash and another guy measure the distances to the object with a laser. I am trigging the flash with a PocketWizard so I can move freely. The helicopter then just fly by the tower (like in the movie Top Gun 😉 or hover as in this case.”
Web: Carpe Momentum Photography
Book: Airborne Flash Photography
Facebook: CMP