Ever since 2004, I’ve had a passionate love affair with photography. And come to discover that I have a fondness for photos that come with a story. Over the years, I have shot a few of them. Here’s the next installment in “The Story Behind an Image” series.
Part 10: The Space Needle
After my two epic helicopter flights over LAX, I was hooked and wanted to do one over Seattle. I had envisioned a shot of the Space Needle with the Seattle skyline in the background from high above. The flight was booked via Seattle helicopter tours and was what they called an “Instagram Photo flight”. Which was an hour-long sightseeing flight with my choice of subjects. I scheduled mine for 5pm so I could take advantage of the afternoon light. I arrived in Seattle at about 2pm, giving me plenty of time to get my rental car and do some sightseeing downtown.
I remember being excited about once again navigating through a city that I had never been to before. And I jumped right in, heading straight to Pike Place Market for some street photography, which I came to thoroughly enjoy. I then made my way to my hotel and had a late lunch before heading to Auburn Municipal Airport for my flight. It’s a good time to mention that I live in Michigan where we are 3 hours ahead. And after a long travel day, I could feel the fatigue slowly creeping in.
I arrived 30 minutes early to meet up with Craig, the pilot of my flight. After a safety briefing and a brief description of our flight path, we started our photo flight in a Robison R22 with the doors off for better visibility. Our flight was to take us north to Seattle to orbit the major landmarks, including the T-Mobile Park, the headquarters of Starbucks, and the Space Needle. Then we were to head over to Union Lake and Gas Work Park, Husky stadium followed by Snoqualmie Falls then back to Auburn Municipal Airport to complete the flight.
As we made our way to Seattle, we flew over Blue Origin headquarters and Boeing field which was littered with various brand-new aircraft. As we got closer to the downtown area, we were informed that a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) was about to go into effect over the downtown area due to a Mariners baseball game. Meaning, that once the TFR goes into effect, we cannot enter the affected area which includes the T-Mobile Park and the Space Needle. Fortunately for us, we were allowed to enter the area before the TFR took effect, but we were told to hurry up though. With little time over the downtown area, my priority was to try to capture the envisioned shot that sparked this whole photo mission, the Space Needle with the Seattle skyline. Not being a sports fan, I wasn’t really interested in seeing the stadium. But we did do one quick orbit of the stadium then hauled ass over to the Space Needle.
With the TFR about to start, we made it to the Space Needle just in time. We managed to do two super close and energetic orbits. To put into perspective how close we were, I was using my 18-135mm lens and at 18mm was just barely wide enough to show the whole needle from its base to the top. With the shutter blasting away at its maximum frame rate, I was caught up in the excitement of photographing from a helicopter with the doors off, the brisk pace of the orbits, along with being tired from the time difference, I felt that I had missed my shot I had envisioned. The rest of the flight was incredible but still felt unsure about my results and bummed about the rushed timing above the Space Needle. And I wasn’t going to review my photos in flight and miss any photo opportunities because I was chimping. Safely back at Auburn Municipal, Craig and I talked for a bit, thanking him for the photo flight before I left.
It wasn’t until I was back in my hotel looking at my photos, that I did indeed capture the shot I was after. I was so intensely focused on the Space Needle and trying to squeeze it into the frame that I never saw the Seattle skyline in the background. Man, talk about target fixation!
Gear used:
Canon 90D
EF-S 18-135mm F/3.5-5.6 IS ST
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< The Story behind an Image part 9
