Rangefinder Magazine
Features - June 2001

Richard Eller's Aerial Images by PJ Heller
He Dumbped the Strobes and Studio and Now His Business is Soaring

Ever since Richard Eller dumped the strobes, got rid of the studio and trimmed his overhead, his photography business has soared.

Because you are shooting through thousands of feet of atmosphere, aerial photography requires air as clean as possible. Los Angeles, CA.

It all began about 16 years ago when Eller, who had previously worked as a photographer for a company producing major audio-visual presentations, took up the suggestion of a friend, a pilot, that he consider aerial photography.

Since then, his Eller’s Aerial Images business based in Boulder Creek, CA, has taken flight. His clients include real estate companies, maritime shipping firms, bank corporations and advertising agencies.

Along the way, he started and still maintains an e-mail list for aerial photographers, has written a book Secrets of Successful Aerial Photography and has developed a successful stock photography business marketing his work through the Pictor Agency as well as selling his work on his own.

Most importantly, he’s always loved what he does.

“Perhaps most important is to always try to enjoy your time aloft,” he says in his book. “When working professionally, it’s easy to become focused in the objective of the flight to the exclusion of everything else. Client pressures and deadline demands can dull anybody’s day.
“However, if you are like most people, it was the opportunity to fly that first attracted you to aerial photography,” he said. “I know of few professions today that combine such a wonderful commute with so enjoyable a workday.”

	Salt Ponds: As moisture evaporates, the temperature of the remaining water rises. This results in a colorful display as the various bacterial colonies flourish. When the pond turns red the salt is ready for harvest.

Eller admits that he learned aerial photography mostly through on-the-job training.

“They (clients) would just say, ‘Here’s your shot list,’” he recalled.

To attract those clients, Eller put together a marketing plan.

“The first thing I did was figure out who would buy a lot of aerial photography,” he said.

Once he had that list of mostly real estate companies, architects and developers, he began to market from the top down. Those efforts consisted of making cold calls, refining his mailing list and sending out promos.

“It was pretty much like you develop any photo business,” he said, “except it was targeted toward people who use aerials.”

Eller initially began business with a partner who was a pilot but later bought out his side of the business.
“It was more feasible for me to rent a plane and a pilot whenever I needed rather than to keep a plane and pilot based in one location and then have to always fly out of that location,” he explained.

Usually occurring during late summer, the famous San Francisco fog is a somewhat predictable weather condition. Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA.

Although his clients are based worldwide, most of his aerial work is shot on the West Coast, primarily in the San Francisco and L.A. areas. Given the choice, Eller said he prefers shooting from a helicopter rather than an airplane, even though a plane is less expensive to rent. In some instances, such as in congested air space or when having to shoot below 1000 feet, a helicopter is a necessity.

“A helicopter allows you to get closer to the subject because of flight restrictions and allows you to position yourself faster,” he explained. “When you shoot from a plane, it’s like trying to shoot something as you’re driving down the freeway.”

Being at the mercy of the weather in order to complete an assignment is both a “blessing and a curse,” he noted.
“The weather determines how good the shot is going to be,” he said. “The weather has to be a certain quality.”

“In aerial photography, atmospheric conditions and scene characteristics are the two most important factors to consider when making film and equipment choices,” he points out in his book. “Ultimately, they can determine the outcome of your endeavors.”

Poor weather, however, can sometimes be to the advantage of the aerial photographer, allowing time to gang assignments in a particular area to maximize profit.

	Salt Harvest: Traveling across the crystallizing ponds, a harvester removes exactly five and a half inches of salt from the evaporation pools.

The time of day and time of year also play a part in getting the picture. Unlike photographers on the ground who prefer to shoot during the early morning and late afternoon “golden hours,” aerial photography is best done between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., Eller said.

Eller shoots with a Pentax 6x7, which he says is a popular camera for most aerial photographers. His film of choice is Kodak Ektachrome E100S or, if he needs to warm the scene up a little bit, E100SW. He acknowledges that shooting color negative film is easier because of its vast exposure latitude.

“Most of what I shoot is transparencies because a lot of my work is used in brochures or I’m shooting for stock, which is what all stock agents want,” he said.

Typically, he will shoot ISO 100 film at 1/1000 at f/5.6 based on the “Sunny 16 rule” (1/ISO at f/16 in bright sunlight).
“You really don’t have to use an exposure meter for 99 percent of your work,” Eller said. “The ‘sunny f16’ rule, that’s what you shoot at most of the time. It has to do with the fact that you’re usually shooting in an area where what you’re concerned about is the average scene brightness. You’re usually shooting under clear, sunny haze-free skies. It almost always works out.

“Exposure and depth-of-field is also not a problem, as long as the lens is stopped down one or two stops from the maximum aperture,” he said. “You’re so far away from the subject that depth-of-field is irrelevant,” he said.

The uniqueness of the aerial perspective is the basis for this abstraction of nature.

“As a standard practice before I get in a plane, I set the exposure on the camera and tape it down,” he added. “Then I tape all my lenses to infinity and set the f-stop and tape that down, too. That way, I can change lenses and bounce around in the airplane and not have to worry about focus or if I bumped the camera. I can just concentrate on what I do.”

While digital photography has made major inroads on the ground, it is still not quite ready for prime time aerial usage, Eller said.

“Digital is ‘almost’ there,” he said. “There’s an awful lot of talk of whether digital is there for aerial work. That’s a hot topic right now.”

Most photographers, he said, aren’t ready to make the switch to digital from conventional silver-halide. “One of the reasons is because aerial photography requires a lot of detail in the shot,” he said. “It’s not unusual to have prints 30, 40, 50 inches blown up from a negative. Digital just doesn’t cut it.”

	Certain subjects may require special permission to operate in their airspace. San Francisco International Airport

That’s not to say that digital hasn’t made major inroads in the aerial market. Photoshop is one program used by some photographers “all the time” to add elements to an image, he said.

“It’s not so much for color correction as it is for adding elements to the photograph itself,” he said of Photoshop usage. “A lot of time you’ll shoot a site (from the air) before a building goes in. Now with Photoshop, you can just drop in a building and people can see what it’s going to look like when it’s built.”

Having been shooting professionally for 26 years now, Eller said these days he is trying to concentrate more on stock and self-generated work. Most of his aerial assignments come from referrals and “interesting” clients, he said.
Eller advises aspiring aerial photographers that “the techniques and procedures are straightforward and easily mastered.

Although careful planning can increase the odds of success certain photographs result from being in the right place at the right time. Honolulu, HI.

“In truth, there is only one essential requirement: you must love to fly.”

(Richard Eller’s book, Secrets of Successful Aerial Photography is available in bookstores, or on-line at amazon.com or directly from the author. To order directly, or to sign on to his e-mail list, contact him at aerialpro@aerialimages.com. Eller’s web site is www.aerialimages.com).

P.J. Heller operates Dateline:, a free-lance photojournalism service based in Santa Barbara, Calif. He can be reached via e-mail at [pjheller@west.net].