Capturing the Magic of Small Planes with Chamira Young

By Chamira Young

This past birthday, my husband chartered a small plane and took me on a celebratory ride around our city of Port Huron, Michigan. What a cool experience! I’d personally never been on a small plane before, so when we arrived at the small local airport, I was nearly giddy with excitement.

Not having to spend hours navigating an enormous airport or spend mind-numbing minutes being herded through a security line was refreshing, to say the least. After parking, we had a few moments to spare, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to grab some shots of our plane before take off with my Platypod Max. After kindly asking our pilot for permission (he graciously said yes), I went for it.

Below is my setup, which was pretty much as simple as you can get. I set my Platypod on the ground for a great perspective looking up at the plane, moving it around as necessary.

And the resulting shot:

From there, I decided to start moving around the plane a bit more in order to get a couple more angles. With only a few minutes to spare before take off, I had to be quick!

And almost as an afterthought, I decided to set my Platypod Max just on the edge of line of grass in order to capture some interesting texture in the foreground. Of course, it turned out to be my favorite image. Just as I snapped this final image, it was time to pile into the plane. What a fun day!