AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - September 2020 - 52

THE ELUSIVE MIKE FIZER began his aviation

photography career as a teenager-but he
detests appearing in photos. Here, he's
strapped into the front seat of an
AirCam (with pilot Robert Meyer) for
an air-to-air shoot in Florida. David
Tulis shot the RV-8 (center) at an
altitude of about 9,000 feet in
order to use a stratus cloud
layer as a background. Chris
Rose made the image of a Waco
YMF-5 over coastal Maine at
about 1,000 feet to capture the
autumn colors and dramatic
landscape.

T

52 | AOPA PILOT September 2020

Along the way, they've
become masters at
creating memorable
images of airplanes in
flight (see "A Moment
in Time," p. 60). They've
also had to endure some
terrifying moments in
which pilots involved in
photo flights have lost sight of
each other, blundered into bad
weather, overstated their own qualifications or aircraft capabilities, or shown
off with improvisational maneuvers. AOPA's
approach to photo flights is meant to keep
such errors from ever happening again.
THE MISSION

Every photo flight begins with an assignment-typically a magazine story that
requires aerial photos. The assignment
itself often determines the location where
the flight will take place. Then the AOPA
writer/editor who dreamed up the story
and the photographer assigned to it come up
with a plan for photos and video and assemble a team to get that done.
At its simplest, an aerial photography flight requires a photo airplane, photo
pilot, and photographer, as well as a subject

airplane and subject pilot. A safety pilot is
preferred for each airplane, too.
More complex photo shoots involve
multiple and sometimes dissimilar airplanes with various speed ranges. We also
occasionally produce "Fly-Offs"-head-tohead performance contests between rival
airplanes that are especially intricate. But
the roles and responsibilities of each participant in AOPA photo flights are the same.
Photographer. The photographer/videographer is an artist-and their objective is
to get the best possible images. They direct

TOP: DAVE HIRSCHMAN; BOTTOM: DAVID TULIS

he most interesting,
rewarding, and demanding flights AOPA staff members get to do are
the photo/video flights that produce images
for AOPA Pilot and Flight Training magazines, AOPA.org, and AOPA Live.
Most general aviation flying emphasizes
the pilot in command's independence and
autonomy-but photo flights are different.
They're a team sport. Each participant has a
unique role and responsibility, and the team
succeeds or fails together.
Weather, airplanes, photo and video gear,
people, and schedules present countless
variables that all must align for a photo flight
to produce the desired result. And considering all of the things that can prevent photo
flights from happening, it's remarkable how
often they do work. AOPA Pilot has published more than 700 magazine issues in the
last 62 years, and that adds up to lots of cover
shots, spreads, portraits, and detail photos.
Throw in hundreds more issues of Flight
Training and weekly editions of AOPA Live
and you begin to understand our insatiable
appetite for more and better aviation images.
AOPA Senior Photographers Mike Fizer
and Chris Rose, as well as editors Mike
Collins and David Tulis who are photojournalists, have logged as much time aloft with
their cameras over the decades as many professional pilots have at their flight controls.
http://www.AOPA.org
AOPA Turbine Pilot Magazine - September 2020

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