What’s the ideal aircraft for aerial photography? “An A-Star [helicopter], which is heavy and can easily hover around a site of interest,” says Diane Tuft, who recently released an aerial photography book, “Entropy” (Monacelli, A Phaidon Company). For the book, she documented aerial views of coastal regions throughout the world that have been significantly impacted by rising sea levels, conveying both the beauty and the fragility of nature.
“If possible, I fly with the door removed and am secured by a harness so that I am free to immerse myself in the imagery,” Tuft says of her process, though that’s not always possible in every region. For example, no helicopters were available when she photographed the remote island of Kirabati in the central Pacific Ocean, and the Marshall Islands between Hawaii and Papua New Guinea. Instead, she used a drone.
“Conversely, my aerial photos of the Great Salt Lake were obtained from a Robinson helicopter,” she says, a lightweight machine that lacks the hovering ability of the A-Star. Without the stability of a stationary hover, Tuft had to make quick image captures as the helicopter flew above the landscape.
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While she prefers her Hasselblad H5D-50c medium-format camera, Tuft opted for her Sony Alpha 7R II when she needed a faster shutter speed, like when she flew in the Robinson helicopter. “I compose all of my photographs in camera, looking for both long vistas and closeups,” she says. “The closeups are captured when I am directly on top of an area of interest. The absence of door constraints allows me the freedom to maneuver myself to compose the best image.”
Amanda Arnold is a senior editor.
