I had the oppor­tu­nity to take a ride on a heli­copter over Col­orado Springs. This was a great time to get out the cam­era and shot the local sites. We took off from the Col­orado Springs air­port and headed west over to the Broad­moor Hotel then to the Cheyenne Moun­tain Zoo, the Will Rogers shrine of the sun. The final rest­ing place of Spenser Pen­rose the Devel­oper of the Broad­moor hotel. from there to Seven Falls, Cheyenne Canyon, Helen Hunt Falls and then off to Gar­den of the Gods with Pikes Peak in the back­ground. On the return trip to the air­port we flew over Down­town Col­orado Springs and Prospect lake. The heli­copter oper­a­tor is Col­orado Ver­ti­cal. This is a 4 seat heli­copter 3 pas­sen­gers. I Can highly rec­om­mend Col­orado Ver­ti­cal with a smooth ride and a great pho­to­graphic opportunity.

Cam­era set­tings For Heli­copter Flight

Set the cam­era to shut­ter pri­or­ity (S). Set your shut­ter speed to at least 1/1000 of a sec­ond. Adjusted your ISO set­ting to ISO 400 or 800 so that you can achieve 1/1000 of a sec­ond . Just remem­ber not to adjust the ISO two high as to inject noise into your image. Turn on your image sta­bi­lizer on your cam­era or lens if so equipped. If you will be shoot­ing thru a glass or plas­tic  win­dows use man­ual focus. If you will be shoot­ing with­out a win­dows use auto focus. Use a wide to medium tele­photo lens like the Nikon 16–85 mm lens. the best time to pho­to­graph will be within a cou­ple of hours after sun­rise or within a cou­ple of hours before sunset.

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