Snapshot
October 26, 2009
Swedish aerial photographer Claes Axstal has pioneered the use of powerful airborne flash photography in recent years, making unique photos of aircraft in flight with the sun still up, usually at sunset. This photo of a Saab Viggen (red) on one of its last flights, and the more modern Gripen, was taken on March 28, 2001, and marks the first aerial flash photo ever taken with his method. He used a Fujica GW690 camera and a flash unit tested at Ericsson Microwave, the first ever approved by the Swedish Defence Administration to be fired from inside the cockpit of the Saab 105/SK60 of the Swedish Display team 60. While other photographers have used aerial flash at night in total darkness, Axstal is the first to shoot with a very high powered flash/strobe into the sun to eliminate silhouette. More recently, Axstal switched to a digital Canon camera and a Horseman film camera with a Leaf digital back. He's shown here holding his Canon EOS-1 with a Kenyon Gyro image stabilizer bolted beneath the camera, with colleague Wilson Myers in the background. "The Canon has a stabilizer system, but I need the gyro when it's really bumpy," says Axstal. The black boxes hold his flash generators, containing electronics and lead batteries. It's all self-contained—none of his power comes from the C-47, "Spooky," he was flying in that day. Here's a shot of another colleague, Magnus Bengtson, holding twin strobes connected with eight shielded cables to eight flash generators, all weighing about 500 pounds. "The actual power of the equipment is a secret, sorry," says Axstal. See his web site for more information, including details about his book, Airborne Flash Photography.
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