A lot of people ask me how scary it is to hang out of an open door helicopter over New York City. On the scaredy cat scale from 1-10, it's a 1.5. You're so focused on the incredible views and experience that you forget what you're actually doing. In most cases, when it's your first time, you're so focused on snapping away with your camera or phone that you don't appreciate the views as much as you should. It took me a few flights to actually stop and take a minute to look around and soak it all in.
My personal favorite types of aerial photos are the ones that put everything into perspective. When you're in the air, you're so focused on what's around you that you forget to look straight down sometimes. These are my feet overlooking downtown Manhattan. It's a truly unique perspective and my favorite way to see NYC. I feel like a photo like this is what I'll show my grandkids to let them know how I lived life and hope they do something in their lives that everyone will think they're crazy for doing.
This one's for all the scaredy cats out there:
Sony A7SII, Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L II @ 16mm (iso200, f/4, 1/3200s)