These photographers turned their plane into a flying camera

It’s not easy to operate a camera from a light aircraft, but Alaskans Joe McAneney and Andrew Esola have combined their passions for flying and photography to bring Alaska’s wilderness to life from above. Operating a single-engine Cessna, Joe and Andrew capture remote, rugged landscapes from over 11,000 feet, transforming their aircraft into a flying camera.

Their aerial photography project has been featured in Episode 3 of outdoor brand KÜHL’s “The Road Less Traveled” series. In the episode, the duo shares their journey and the unique challenges of documenting Alaska’s iconic peaks and untamed terrain from above, it’s worth a watch. Inspired by legendary aerial pioneers, Joe and Andrew’s story highlights a legacy of adventure, skill, and artistry in Alaska’s skies. DIYP asked Joe and Andrew more about their aerial photography and Alaskan adventures.

DIYP: How does the Alaskan landscape impact your work?

Joe & Andrew: The Alaskan landscape is our work. It’s what drew us to move here and it’s what draws tourists from around the world to come and see the landscape on a K2 flight, which provides both of us our jobs that we love. It provides the recreation that we enjoy and provides a constant humbling challenge to always be on your toes. The landscape is also very vast and is always providing endless opportunities to create and capture different ways of interacting with it and viewing it.

DIYP: Don Sheldon and Bradford Washburn were the inspiration behind this project, have you been following the same routes they took and emulating their photos? Or using them as the spark of an idea and following on from there?

Joe & Andrew: They were not necessarily the inspiration for this project, but they do inspire our flying and photography in many ways. They were doing exactly what we are doing with less sophisticated equipment that took much more work to produce the images that look much better than ours. They flew all over the Alaska Range and developed some of the popular routes that include various passes that are the safest and easiest ways to access different regions. We probably often do fly some of the same exact routes without even knowing it, but we are very familiar with Washburn’s famous photos of different peaks and glaciers and find ourselves setting up similar compositions. The Alaska Range is a giant 3D masterpiece that is always beckoning to be captured in many different lighting and cloud formations.

DIYP: What has been the most challenging aspect of this project?

Joe & Andrew: The project itself wasn’t challenging at all. Flying in the backcountry of Alaska presents its own standard challenges, such as weather, visibility, lighting, etc., when trying to document the process. The air-to-air photo/video shoot was probably the most challenging task that we did on the project. We had to coordinate with our friend Ryan, who was flying his float plane with the back door off and was flying the film crew that was chasing our plane. The airplanes fly at very different speeds, and setting up those shots while flying in the mountains was a challenge.

DIYP: Do you have any tips for shooting from a plane? What makes aerial photography special (as opposed to drone photography?)

Joe & Andrew: Bring gloves if you’re planning to open the window to get a clearer shot. Make sure the windscreen and windows are clean and free of mosquitos. If you’re shooting from a high-wing aircraft, it’s easy to find yourself stuck with limited angles, trying not to have the wing in your shot, but sometimes the wing can provide a nice composition that gives the photos a sense of scale and perspective. Having a pilot who is on the same page as the photographer makes all the difference when trying to capture specific shots. Sometimes, it can take 20 passes at a feature or animal before you get the exact composition you were looking for. Shooting with a longer lens makes it easier to punch past the aeroplane being in the frame and compresses the images but also adds challenges to holding the camera still, especially when there is some wind or turbulence.

The main difference between shooting from a plane and using a drone is the limitations of range. Drone shots are limited to where you can actually be standing on the ground and launch the drone, and then you are still limited to the drone’s range both horizontally and vertically. A drone’s battery does not last nearly as long as a full tank of gas either, limiting your ability to utilize changing light. Shooting from a plane also allows you to bring more camera gear and multiple lenses versus a drone being limited to whatever it is equipped with.

DIYP: Can you tell us about the equipment you use?

Joe & Andrew: As far as the airplanes go, we prefer to shoot from a high winged airplane that preferably has larger windows for shooting in multiple directions. The camera equipment that we use is primarily a Sony A7iii and a Sony RX100markVII. We also have a collection of lenses ranging from ultra-wide to telephoto and have utilized many different configurations for our aerial photography. The combination of a good pilot and a decent camera is all you need to create amazing images from the air when you have a landscape such as the Alaska Range. It’s not the clubs, it’s the golfer.

DIYP: What has been the most enjoyable aspect of this project?

Joe & Andrew: The most enjoyable aspect has been making new life long friends in the production crew from KÜHL that we were fortunate enough to host and share a week of our lives and normal routine with. It was awesome to work with some professionals and create a really beautiful piece that does a great job at documenting our backyard that we can now share with family and friends who don’t quite understand exactly what we do or why we live in Talkeetna, Alaska.

DIYP: What’s next? Any new areas you plan to explore?

Joe & Andrew: We could spend our entire lives exploring the Alaska Range and find new features and compositions. Andrew is working on obtaining his commercial pilot license and we plan to both have airplanes in the near future, which would allow us to both be pilot and photographer on any given day. We both love backcountry skiing and plan to access new terrain by airplane and document those adventures as well.

You can see more of Joe and Andrew‘s epic adventures on Instagram or watch the film here.

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