These are the highlights for me from my college career. For the most part, these are just grouped by topic and aren’t in any sort of order. With graduation coming up in a little less than a month, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at some of the most memorable things I’ve done and photographed. Hopefully I’ll be able to continue my documentary-style photography with my future career. Until then, here are my favorite moments from university!
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I grew up around police work. Part of transferring to UNF was focusing on getting into the job. While working on school and the physical side of it, I had the opportunity to ride along with the aviation unit a few times. This and the next few posts will be focused primarily on the helicopters and what they do.
The top picture was taken during National Night Out, an event that lets the community come and check out all of the toys the department has and interact with officers. This event in particular was being held at the St John’s Town Center Target parking lot. They had an area roped off for the helicopter to land in before people were allowed to come in; I got to be positioned right in front of where the pilots were going to set it down. It was a cloudy day in August which, with the leaves blowing up from the rotorwash, made for a really cool image.
Later that same day, they took back off to go on a call. Before they can leave, however, the helo has to be warmed up. Meanwhile, one of the pilots stands outside to make sure no one approaches; the huge buzz saw you can’t see spinning in the back will ruin your day real fast.
And then, liftoff. Helicopter take-offs are weird in that you have to go up a little, start moving forward until you get enough airspeed for the rotor disk to act like a wing, then you can begin a steeper climb. At least, that’s the kosher way of doing it. This was with the 18-105mm at 18mm zoom (all the way out). To get the blades blurred, the shutter was up around 1/160s. Having the helicopter fly right over top was awesome, loud, and windy. 10/10, would do again.
The next few are from SWAT training. Today’s mission was to show the new SWAT guys how to shoot from a helicopter; what better way to do that than load up on the skids and go to the range? This 4-bladed helo, a Bell 407, has tons of power compared to the 206 in the first three pictures. Here, the pilots are taking off with two SWAT guys in the back to go on a target run. Their target is the orange guy just under the back part of the skid. This is practice for both the pilots and the gunners. The pilots have to maintain a very stable platform and keep their speed down so the shooters can be on target. Meanwhile, the officers in the back have to get used to leading the target, feeling the helicopter bump around, the deafening noise, and howling wind.
You can see the two officers better in this photo. The aircraft would fly by in one direction, low and slow, to give one officer a shot at the target, then swing by the other direction for the second officer’s turn. Land, a new pair jumps onboard, and the cycle continues. If you look closely, forward of the left skid between the step and fuselage, is a freshly-fired shell casing from an AR-15.
I had the chance to fly in a few formations as well; this wasn’t one of them. I can’t remember what this one was for, it might’ve been for a Jaguars game. The 407 here is to the 206 like a Ferrari is to an old Ford pickup. It’s loud, fast, and, when piloted well, graceful. In this shot, the flight of four has landed in the sod between the runway and the taxiway. From here, they reposition to the pads on the ramp one at a time. Since the 407 is the lead ship in the flight, he does everything first.
And this is the shot that I made for my homepage. You can see another ship from the formation in the background. Getting the blades in just the right position was pure luck. To get just a hint of blur, the 407 was to be shot with a faster shutter; this was a 1/800 whereas the 206 is closer to 1/200. Watching the four-man flight come in is a site to behold. The engineering that goes into making a helicopter fly is already bonkers, but to have four flying right next together is awesome.
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