Flying from Duncan to the West Coast

Bamfield Airport - As rustic as it gets. Vancouver Island, British Columbia

I had the opportunity to fly with a great fellow to the west coast Vancouver Island town of Bamfield yesterday. It was purely a flight for enjoyment but I also used the journey as an “aerial photography test” to see whether photographing from small airplanes with windows actually works. I know many have been doing this for years but I have always used helicopters and ultralights for photography and we have always taken the doors off the aircraft. Being the beginning of winter up here with temperatures just a little above freezing the idea of popping the doors off doesn’t sound too appealing. I’m tough but do have my limits and certainly comfort has to work into the equation at some point? So, what happened you might ask?

Well, I cleaned the windows as well as possible before we took off and hoped for the best. The weather certainly wasn’t perfect for shooting brochure images but it was very calm and in many ways perfect flying weather. We proceeded up the Cowichan Valley to Cowichan Lake and then followed Nitinat Lake to the beautiful west coast of the island. This is the area of the Carmanah Valley and West Coast Trail and truly must be one of the most spectacular areas on the planet.

We landed at Bamfield Airport, a really funky strip that would likely bring goose bumps to people that don’t fly in small aircraft very often. What a fun spot, the quintessential small airport in the middle of nowhere. Leaving the airport we headed south at tree level over the Pacific Ocean and enjoyed the unspoiled forest and beautiful beaches of the area. The sky was gorgeous and made for some interesting images, just not the brochure variety but that’s OK.

For the photography technical folks out there, I ended up shooting at about ISO 800 due to low light and the slightly tinted windows of the airplane. Most of the images were shot at around 1/500 at f5. This isn’t exactly the sharpest area of the particular lens (Nikkor 17-55 f2.8)but I had to weigh in the fact that the plexi windows were a little scratched and didn’t want too much depth of field. The slight tinting of the windows threw the colour off a little but working with the RAW files I seem to be able to control this somewhat. Reflections were an issue; I would try using a black cone over the lens or something similar next time. Overall, the images are useable but definitely not as sharp as flying without a door. I’ll wait for the weather to warm up a little before we do that.

Looking south towards the Juan de Fuca Strait and Washington State

Nitinat Lake looking out towards the Pacific Ocean

Aerial view of the Pachena Point Lightstation, British Columbia

Bamfield Airport, British Columbia