Sorry for the lack of updates, swamped with work. In about 2 hours I will be leaving on a Toronto/Montreal/Ottawa trip with Macneil Bikes, and the night after returning from that I will be leaving again to attend meetings in LA for a couple days. Hopefully will have time to feed this blog though!

As for this blog post - these are photos from a shoot for Red Bull in Toronto. Every time someone asks how the trip went, my only response is “took photos of a plane from a helicopter” because I really can’t think of any other way to say it. Hopefully these photos will provide a visual explanation.

The pilots and crew. They were fantastic and made the experience so great. I cannot thank them enough.

Helicopter Pilot - Jürg Fleischmann

Airplane Pilot - Sergio Pla

Helicopter Camera Operator - Bas Vandenbranden

Mechanic - Nico Püschel

Mechanic - Sacha

This is the helicopter we shot from. That black object hanging off the front of this gorgeous machine is a Gyro-Stabilized Cineflex video camera. I was told there are only about a hundred of them in the world. They are utterly amazing.

And I’m sorry!! but I don’t really have any photos of us going up into the air on this flight, so with no transition you’ll have to pretend you’re not on the ground anymore.

I was editing this photo in a bar (I’m cool like that) when a girl came up to me and asked “is that plane real?” Looking at it now, she has a point. It was pretty unreal to see a small, agile plane swifting around the Toronto skyline with such ease.

Later that evening the team went up again primarily to shoot video and I snuck along and grabbed a couple of shots. Had a chance to see the video from the Cineflex after we landed. The footage is stunning.

The next day a few media personalities were invited to go up in the plane and get their dose of 6Gs via manauvers courtesy of Sergio.

Here’s Sean McCormick

Being interviewed is Canadian Pete McLeod who had his pilot’s lisence before his driver’s. He is the youngest pilot to ever compete in the Red Bull Air Race series.

The photos below were taken during McCormick’s flight. As seems to be the norm, the plane and helicopter were really close to each other at some points. Even closer than in the pictures below. Sergio and Jürg were always in total control - absolute masters of their crafts. It was amazing to see the plane and helicopter dance in the air.

Many thanks to the team and Sonia for such a great experience.

If you want to see these planes do their thing in real life, check out Red Bull Air Race when it takes place in Windsor, Ontario on June 13 and 14.

aaannddd last 2 fotos!

Up next: backstage and front(?)stage photos of glamrock band Fritz Helder & The Phantoms.