Shooting a helicopter from the ground - any tips?

[Martin Landsburg]

Got a job coming up this week shooting for a helicopter company, so the subject is the helicopter. I will be ground based, so must try to get nice shots of the chopper and try to match with the shots the other camera man on board the chopper gets. There is also a third camera man shooting from the ground as well.

Shooting with EX1 and EX3 with Nikon lens adapter (using Nikon 200mm).
Main thing is to get nice shots with tele lenses and not lose track of the chopper, get at high enough angles so we can shoot the top of the chopper as well, etc.
We have to go to many locations and have no time for retakes.
Anyone having experience with this, please share as personally I have never done this before!

Thanks in advance,
Martin

 

[clang]

You've mentioned high angles, so I presume you've got some nice high buildings/cliffs to shoot from.

For all shots, think about where the sun will be in the sky - ideally you want it behind you, otherwise you could end up with a lot of useless blown out shots of the sun - I've been hurt by this a few times

 

[Martin Landsburg]

Hi Thanks for the feedback.

Also we are deciding to shoot interlaced even though we all love the look of progressive...just to get a more continuous image and less smear...or am I wrong here?