Childrens Hospital Oakland is a regional pediatric trauma center and as such receives frequent landings by these medical rescue helicoptors on the adjoining helipad.
I took this out the passenger-side window while driving to work ... there was no time or place to stop, and it would have been gone by the time I found parking anyway.
Cropped, almost no tone adjustment, two passes with USM at 66%, 0.6dia, TH=5.
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Paul, why take a photo out of your car's window? I suggest putting more thought into your composition :)
Good luck...
Because I was driving to work, in the left-most of three lanes of merging traffic, and the helicopter was only going to be there for a moment. Believe me, if I could have set up traffic cones and my tripod I would have radioed the pilot to circle around and come in again from a better angle ... :)
This is an opportunistic, photojournalistic-type shot (more suitable for this week!) and is obviously not "composed" in the usual sense. In retrospect, I agree with the people who suggested tighter cropping to eliminate clutter and put more emphasis on what part of the helicopter is visible. Still, this is one of the types of photography I do ... sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes I think it can be a decent photo, but not necessarily "Art" for the living room wall.
Interesting shot. Probably hard to capture this one since you just have to wait for the chopper, but I'd like to see more of it in the frame. Also stronger focus and DOF would be nice. Cool angle...
The helicopter is cut off, I think including more of it in the frame would have been better. Also, the view here doesn't help show the helicopter. The composition is somewhat busy and distracting, thats because of where you were standing. My advice is to find a better view and put some thought into your composition before taking the photo.
unlucky on the timing front - did you just miss it landing? the majoy problem i have with this is that the helicopter is not prominent or even obvious enough in the image - it's far too hidden and the eyes are drawn to the steel posts supporting the helipad. i would have possibly cropped out the fence at the bottom and the tree on the left (these are distracting, more so as they're the only bits not in focus). the sky, a nice blue, is good and should fill the image more... it has promise - if only you arrived a few minutes earlier...
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