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