Aerial photography from both helicopters and drone. While I always prefer to use helicopters for aerial photography, drones are far more useful in certain spaces and are much better for low altitude, more detailed work. But if you want get high and wide, with higher quality digital files shot through beautiful Nikon lenses, you have to use a helicopter. Many clients don’t realize how cheap they are, hourly rates start at about $250 for a R22 out of Seattle’s Boeing Field, just a minute's flying time from downtown Seattle.

I’ve shot numerous aerial assignments, including for my regular shipbuilding clients Vigor Industrial, Pacific Ship & Austal USA. Other clients include photographing Microsoft’s sprawling Redmond campus against the Cascade Mountains, local landscape architects and photo shoots of US Navy destroyers undergoing sea trials far out to sea.

So if you need aerials, go for the big picture. Plus, you can take your kids (or client) to work in a helicopter (right).