Peak Aerials

A surreal sight that I hope I never get to see again.

Last month we had the (rare) opportunity to do a couple quick flybys of the parked aircraft at YYC. Thanks to the fine folks in ATC!

Beautiful afternoon sunlight over Mount Assiniboine and Lake Magog, Mount Assiniboine Provincial Park.

When the stars (and shadows) line up at Calgary YYC ... Outtake from last evening's photo flight. Kudos to the ground crew for arranging to have the shadows of Westjet's "Spirit of Canada" Dreamliner so perfectly lined up. Its one thing to do a perfect parking job, but arranging for the sun to be exactly placed just when we were overhead is way beyond the call of duty!... Also, a special shout out to the ATC folks who must have choked when we submitted our photo flight map with projects in all quadrants of the city including four that completely surrounded the airport. Everything worked like clockwork. Mission accomplished. Thank you!

A few shots from our last photo flight of 2018 (December 23). Wishing you a healthy and happy 2019!

Some out-takes from yesterday's photo flight. It was a busy day around the city, especially the airport and the shopping centres. Thanks to Stuart Brandon at M...ountain View Helicopters who was kind to fly me on his day off in order for me to get my end of year projects completed ... after being postponed due to weather. See more

Lancaster bomber flyby over Toronto on Canada Day

Sometimes working on a holiday weekend has it's benefits. With short notice, we put together a very busy slate for two days of aerial projects in the Toronto r...egion to take advantage of the nice weather. Every project went off without a hitch, which is reward in itself. Even more special was receiving an unexpected and very rare Canada Day present. While we transited over the downtown core, a Lancaster bomber that was doing flybys over downtown Toronto curved towards us and past just underneath in a simulated bombing run. Luckily I am a quick draw with my camera and managed to fire off ten shots of this rather unique opportunity that only lasted a few moments. Enjoy. Happy Canada Day!

New Walterdale Bridge Edmonton Photo flight October 6 2018

Canada Winter Games underway at Winsport in Calgary

Air Canada Air Race While on a photo flight about 15:30 MDT yesterday NW of YYC, it was quite the sight to see two Air Canada flights arriving simultaneously t...o the parallel runways. Here is a sequence of photos of Flight AC845 787-9 Dreamliner C-FVNB arriving from Frankfurt and Flight AC1049 Airbus A320-211 C-FFWM arriving from Palm Springs. With the compression of a zoom lens (and some major cropping) the Dreamliner appears closer to me than the A320, when in fact the opposite was true. Enjoy ...

Start of a Perfect Day The magnificence of Mount Garabaldi is framed in the background by the rugged Tantalus Range lit up with alpenglow, and in the foreground with the deep blues of frozen Garabald Lakei. It was well worth the early start to get in the air to watch the sunrise from above. Fueled by coffee and aviation gas, we had a most memorable day of aerial photography.

A few outtakes from our recent fall flight in Toronto.

A good day for flying

Where's Waldo? A photo from today's photo flight in Calgary of the new Telus Sky Building as it twists its way to completion. I love the new architecture, definitely outside of the box ... kind of. More photos to come!

A change was in the air. We managed to squeeze in a midday photo flight today in Calgary before the weather changed rather drastically. We enjoyed a beautiful sunny day for most of the flight but dodged some angry storm clouds and even a bit of soft hail as we scurried back to our heliport in Springbank. Thanks to Stu at Mountain View Helicopters for a great flight and to the ATC folks who once again worked with us on a busy day at YYC. ... The airport seems to be a magnet for our clients. Today, we had projects at the south, north and east edges of the airport. Last week we flew projects at the west, south and east edges.

18-07-25 Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photography Candy The iconic "Big O" (owe) - Olympic Stadium, Montreal, QC

Out-takes from today's photo flight Flying from Springbank, it is always a treat to get vectored over the tower to cross over the airport to our projects on the east side of the city. Even better is to get the same treatment on the way back!

18-05-30 - Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Here is an unusual sight for Calgarians ... huge expanses of dry lake bottom that cover practically all of the west side of the reservoir. The traditional draw down this time of year for the Glenmore Reservoir combined with work on the dam means that the water level is likely the lowest it has ever been since the dam was constructed on the Elbow River back in 1932.

18-05-23 - Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Play Ball - Rogers Centre, Toronto The venue, opened in 1989, was noted for being the first stadium to have a fully retractable motorized roof, as well as for the 348-room hotel attached to it, with 70 rooms overlooking the field.

18-05-09 - Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Fairmont Royal York Hotel, Downtown Toronto, Ontario Even though the Royal York was once the tallest building in the British Empire, it is now hidden between the massive skyscrapers of downtown Toronto. It took a bit of planning to select the date and time of day to be able to capture this magnificent hotel in full sunlight.... Wikipedia: The Fairmont Royal York, formerly the Royal York, is a large historic hotel in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at 100 Front Street West. Opened on June 11, 1929, the Royal York was designed by Ross and Macdonald (with Sproatt and Rolph) and built by the Canadian Pacific Railway across the street from Toronto Union Station. With 28 floors, the Château-style building was the tallest building in Toronto at that time, and the tallest building in the British Empire until the construction of Canadian Bank of Commerce tower on King Street the following year.

18-05-02 - Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Mount Assiniboine in the Canadian Rockies taking centre stage

Hidden Architecture Out-take from today`s photo flight in Calgary We see many interesting things from the air that nobody, other that seagulls, hawks and pigeons, ever get to see. With Mountain View Helicopters

18-04-25 - Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photo Candy We have seen the Wind

18-04-18 - Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Tank Farm - Strathcona County, Alberta

As much as the word "amazing" is overused, this collection of aerial images of China deserves the accolade. https://www.theatlantic.com//china-viewed-from-ab/557789/

18-04-11 - Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photo Candy The Molson Brewery on the banks of the St. Lawrence River in Montreal Quebec is a reminder that the summer (beer) season is on its way. It is the oldest brewery in North America and has operated continually for 232 years since 1786, 81 years before there even was a Canada! Cheers!

18-04-04 - Hump Wednesday - Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Winter Patterns V Flying in the Coastal Mountains of British Columbia is a treat anytime. Add in some fresh snow, white fluffy clouds and dramatic lighting and the experience becomes surreal.... Thanks as always to the great mountain pilots of Glacier Air in Squamish. If you are in the Vancouver area, taking a scenic flight comes highly recommended. www.glacierair.com

18-03-28 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Fencescape Out-take from this week's "winter" photo flight. Coming in for a landing at Springbank, just west of Calgary.

18-03-21 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Midway at the Calgary Stampede - Yahoo!

Summer in the Prairies Grain elevator at Noibe, near Innisfail, Alberta. Photographed from one of our drones

18-03-14 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Summer in the Prairies Grain elevator at Noibe, near Innisfail, Alberta. Photographed from one of our drones by Dan

18-03-07 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Jewel on the Bow - Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Air Canada Dreamliner - All Shiny and Bright Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Canada

8-02-28 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Blue Hour Photo and Video project for a new luxury condo project on the Toronto waterfront last September. Taking aerial photos and video in low light conditions pushes the envelope of even the latest technologies. We were blessed with perfect light, no wind, a skilled pilot, a steady finger on the shutter and just a little luck. Mission accomplished.

18-02-21 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Air Canada Dreamliner - All Shiny and Bright Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Canada

First Cut We love the unique opportunities that our clients challenge us to photograph with both technical excellence and a creative flair. Not many projects are as unique as this agriculture shoot in southern Alberta of the corn silage harvest operations at one of the largest farms in Canada. Our client, a seed company based in Germany, arranged for us to meet with the farm owners who went all out for us to have amazing access to their operations. This full day of aerial and ground photography and the opportunity to meet some great folks was a gig that we will always cherish.

18-02-14 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo - First Cut We love the unique opportunities that our clients challenge us to photograph with both technical excellence and a creative flair. Not many projects are as unique as this agriculture shoot in southern Alberta of the corn silage harvest operations at one of the largest farms in Canada. Our client, a seed company based in Germany, arranged for us to meet with the farm owners who went all out for us to have amazing access to their operations. This full day of aerial and ground photography and the opportunity to meet some great folks was a gig that we will always cherish.

Ever wonder why it is such a challenge to drop off your rental car at Toronto Pearson Airport? Now you know!

18-02-07 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Ever wonder why it is such a challenge to drop off your rental car at Toronto Pearson Airport? Now you know!

Vancouver, British Columbia Arguably the most beautiful skyline on the planet.

18-01-31 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Vancouver, British Columbia Arguably the most beautiful skyline on the planet.

View from our office window

8-01-24 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy View from our office window Enjoy!

Country Church near Tottenham, Ontario

8-01-17 - Hump Wednesday Weekly Aerial Photo Candy Country Church near Tottenham, Ontario Enjoy!

Proud to be part of this major addition to Calgary's transit system. We took the base aerial photos of the entire alignment that were used for this video. The final alignment and details are still to be determined.

18-01-10 - Hump Wednesday - Peak Aerials Once-a-Week Aerial Photo Candy Container Ship Yuehe Approaching the Fairview Container Terminal in Prince Rupert, British Columbia *Hump Wednesday: We shoot a lot of aerial photos every year and each week we will be sharing one of our favourite Aerial "Photo Candies" with you. Guaranteed to have zero calories... so Enjoy!

17-12-18 - Photo Flight Out-takes, Calgary We were fortunate to have had perfect conditions over Calgary yesterday to wrap up our busiest aerial photography season ever. Thanks so much to our clients, many whom we have enjoyed doing business with since 1999, others that are new to our services in 2017. We got to see some of your amazing projects, many in places that we had never flown before. Also thanks to the great folks at Mountain View Helicopters who flew us safely to ...all of our Calgary destinations. Here is some "eye candy" from yesterday's flight to enjoy over the holidays. Our photos are guaranteed to have zero calories and no artificial preservatives. Hopefully side effects will be limited to putting a smile on your face!

Shark Week at YYC From Monday's photo flight in Calgary ... the low solstice sun this time of year creates some intriguingly shaped shadows. Something fishy going on ...

Pulling G's - Vertical view of a Tank Farm Great flight this morning in Edmonton. I am always amazed how an experienced pilot can get a small plane to fly tight orbits at such a vertical angle. For me it is a surreal experience to see the world circle around a single point in my viewfinder. Lots of other great photo ops ... just need some time to catch up on editing.

Great view of Crowsnest Mountain with a fresh blanket of snow. #MVHeli #PeakAerials #HeliTours

KLM Dream (liner) Sometimes the stars just line up. This series was taken last Friday on a photo flight transit over the airport between projects in downtown and East Village to the Nexen reclamation of the old Balzac Gas Plant (Twin Stacks). It was a beautiful sight to see a textbook landing from above. Even the shadows were perfectly aligned with the runway. Thanks to the ATC folks who always work with us to get our aerial work done safely and efficiently.

Autumn Islands - Kananaskis Lakes, Alberta

Air-to-air photo shoot over Mount Serratus, British Columbia

Flying in Paradise Revisiting a late September air-to-air shoot with Glacier Air from a few years ago. This is one of my favourites from a great day of flying and photography. It took a few passes to get everyone lined up in the dramatic light splashing across the glaciers on Mount Serratus near Squamish, British Columbia.

Power to the People - Solar farms are starting to sprout across the country.

Harvest Time on the Prairies Seeing huge agricultural operations from the air puts the scope of the effort, technology and money that goes into putting high quality, inexpensive food on our plates into perspective. The precision of the gps controlled machinery creates some of the most perfect aerial "art" forms ... that we are honoured to view and appreciate.

Out-takes of Regina, Saskatchewan from a recent photo flight for Dream, one of Canada's largest real estate companies. We also photographed some of their developments in Calgary and Edmonton. Corny, but it's great to have a Dream client! Visit www.stockaerialphotos.com to find similar photos of cities across Canada. (Regina photos to be uploaded soon).

On our way to a frigidly cold winter evening photo flight in Toronto, we were lucky to be directed right over Pearson International just as the sun was setting. Even luckier, was to have this Hainan Airlines Dreamliner take off just beneath us!

The new East Hills shopping centre in Calgary's Southeast along 17 Avenue SE and the Stoney Trail Ring Road. #Calgary #YYC #EastHills

A few of our favourite aerial photos from the past month during our flights across Canada. Let us know what you think!