Mountain rescue

[David Paterson]

The local M.R. team did a long helicopter exercise last Sunday in the field next to our house. It was pretty noisy but I got a couple of decent images.

[Randy Stout]

David:

Quite dramatic!  Strong pop from the red chopper,  hanging person, exhaust blurred foliage, eye contact with the pilot.  Like the framing and comp. as well.  Slow enough shutter speed to give some rotor blur adds to the effect.

A frame or two with shallower depth of field might have been interesting.

What were you shooting with?

Randy

[David Paterson]

Randy - thanks for commenting. Ideally I would have shot one shutter-speed slower to get a bit more rotor blur but it was a very windy day - there was quite a bit of sway on the helicopter and I didn't want that kind of movement to show at all. This was shot at 1/320 at f9. The other thing I was concerned about was to have good DoF at least from the tip of the nose to the door-crew when focussed on the pilot. So there was some compromising all round.

The equipment used was the D600 with the 70-200/4 at 140mm (I was quite close to that li'l mother ).

[armando_m]

interesting action , very nice image !

[Fons Baerken]

Excellent shot me thunk

[John Geerts]

Great shot, David.  The lights under the helicopter and the 'turbulence' are fascinating, and adding to the drama.

[David Paterson]

Thank you, Armando, Fons and John for the kind comments.

[Anthony]

A good capture of some of the skills involved in mountain rescue.  I would love to hang from a helicopter like that.  The straight on view is very powerful.

[tommiejeep]

David, super cool image.  Really Pops.  Maybe a touch less shutter speed but you did get a touch of blur .  I bet they would love to have a copy for their wall at the Base.
Thanks for posting
Tom

[elsa hoffmann]

Really great shot. I love it as is - strong image indeed and nicely executed

[David Paterson]

Thank you very much, Anthony, Tom and Elsa.

Tom - I have done this in the past and the prints were very popular. A different outfit is now supplying the choppers so I will probably do this again.

[MFloyd]

Good shot; nice picture. I would highlight a bit the shadows in order to give more detail to the crew member being towed. 👍🏻 And as a side remark, the PIC sits in the right seat (there are exceptions) contrary to a fixed aircraft.

[Akira]

I would echo Randy and John.  The image makes me feel as if I'm there!

Tom - I have done this in the past and the prints were very popular. A different outfit is now supplying the choppers so I will probably do this again.

I suspect that is why they did the exercise again there and "posed" for you. 

[Anirban Halder]

Agree with all the comments above. Very captivating shot in so many ways.

[David Paterson]

Thank you, Floyd, Akira and Anirban. I've  always liked shooting machines and vehicles - I get regular helicopter opportunities, as the M.R. refuelling station is close to our house. They fly in once a month to check things over, plus there are exercises, actual refuelling, and even real rescues.