Our viewers' aerial pictures

This aerial image was sent in by Chris Alvesteffer of Pentwater, MI, who wrote: "Wonder if you could post this in your aerial shot section. This was from a $20, 7 minute helicopter ride over Pentwater, MI. I had 12 exposures left, and they all turned out super. Shot with a Nikon N65 on Kodak Supra 400. Negative scanned with Minolta Dimage Dual 2. I've already sold 6 large prints of this shot without trying. Thank you!"

Michael DePalma is the photographer who captured this fine photograph over San Francisco. Michael wrote: "For aerial photography shots of aircraft in flight use a small aperture setting of f/11 or f/16. This will give you some separation between the aircraft and the background, but it will also compensate for any movement of the aircraft towards or away from the camera during focusing. This f/-stop should yield a sharp aircraft no matter how much movement there is by either the subject aircraft or the platform aircraft. Also, if photographing propeller-driven aircraft in flight, use a slower shutter speed. 1/60 sec to 1/80 sec will suffice. Anything faster and you will freeze the propeller in mid spin, creating an 'uncomfortable-feeling' photograph - not only for the viewer, but also for the pilot of the aircraft."

You can see more of Michael's photography on his M.A.D Photographic website.