VN #056: Aerial Adventure ~ Part II
Posted December 29, 2024
Aerial Photographic Adventure ~ Part II
In the spring of 2012, at a local party, I met a wonderful gentleman named Brian Allen who was visiting from Whistler. When I mentioned ‘that’s quite a distance to come for a party’, he said, “not for me, I have a Robinson 44 helicopter; it’s only an hour from here!”
Later in conversation, I told him I was just completing an aerial book of the region and it was due to be published in few months. When I mentioned I still didn’t have a book cover image, he offered to help if he could.
Almost immediately, I had a plan. We would fly from Whistler over the Coast Mountains to Chilko Lake where I would photograph him flying his helicopter over the iconic viewscape of the entire region; Chilko Lake in the foothills of the Coast Mountains.
On May 2, 2012 we took off from his own garden.
Southern end of Chilko Lake with Snow White Mountain in the distance.
The flight was a thrill. I didn’t know how small a Robinson 44 helicopter was. I felt like a bumble bee!
We flew north, but I was stationed on the wrong side of the plane to get my previsualized image.
Brian Allen flying over Chilko Lake with the Coast Mountains beyond.
Now flying south with the Coast Mountains on my right, I knew this was the image I wanted. My only problem was photographing directly into the sun. Pushing my body and 14mm lens as far back against my door as I possibly could, I composed my image with the rib of the windshield covering the sun, and fired. I then realized there was one more challenge. I wanted Allen’s face and the dials on the dashboard to be illuminated and with the severe backlighting and deep shadows, they were almost back. I opted for a 3-image, high shutter-speed HDR image. After a few trials, each with improvements in composition, I made my cover image.
Rita and Brian approaching the Bridge River Glacier
Later that year, I made arrangements with Brian to fly to the Bridge River Glacier where Rita and I could camp for a few days. I wanted to explore the glacial landscape for a future book in the planning.
While approaching the glacier’s terminal moraine, I chose our camping spot and we landed.
The Lillooet Icecap is part of the largest glacial complex in Earth’s temperate latitudes. It lies among the volcanoes of the South Chilcotin, about 100 Kilometres northwest of Whistler. Six major rivers radiate out from it in a wheel. The eastern spoke of the wheel is the Bridge Glacier, which melts into the Bridge River, and flows east to join the Fraser River in a deep narrow gorge 10 kilometres above Lillooet. Its name comes from a bridge the St’at’imc people built across the Fraser before history began.
In our next four narratives, I’ll take you on our visual adventures as we explore the glacier and its calving icebergs.
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