Our viewers' aerial pictures

and their tips and hints for better 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, seven-minute helicopter ride over Pentwater, MI."

Chris took twelve exposures with a Nikon N65 on Kodak Supra 400 film and said they all turned out super.

He said "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."