Chance CravenDocumentary Photographer
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Field Notes · Stories

Miami · February 2023

My first time in a helicopter with the doors off.

A black MD500, the doors off and boats running wide open below. It took four years to get here.

The flight

Black MD500. Doors off.

In 2019 my bucket-list flight fell through. The only helicopter available was an R22, so I gave my seat to the team. In 2023, at the Miami Boat Show for Freeman Boatworks, it finally happened.

  • Helicopter: black MD500, N369PB
  • Pilot: Paul Barth, connected through Austin Weiss of Grind Hard Ammo
  • Doors: off
  • Subject: Freeman boats running wide open
Head-on view of the MD500 on the tarmac, rotor blades drooping over the nose
Close look at N369PB's open cabin, no doors, the seat and the sky
Pilot Paul Barth in his helmet checking his phone in the cockpit before takeoff
Paul at the controls, the open door frame and the airport beyond him
Looking straight down a Miami highway from the open door at golden hour
The door frame on one side and the whole city spread out under the sunset on the other
Leaning out the open door over two Freeman boats running across the bay
Doors off

Nothing between you and the shot

  • No glass, no glare, no frame in the way
  • You lean out and trust your gear
  • You trust the person flying. Paul put me exactly where I needed to be.
A Freeman center console throwing white spray in the low gold light
Freeman boat carving a turn on open ocean under a big Atlantic sky
Looking down on the triple outboards as the boat digs into a hard turn
Looking out the open door past the instrument panel toward the Miami skyline over the water
The helicopter skid in the frame with a Freeman running right underneath
A Freeman spinning a full circle of white water in the dark green ocean
Paid to fly in a helicopter, doors off, shooting boats in Miami? Absolutely.
Freeman crew running across water lit silver by the afternoon sun
A lone boat running under the setting sun, the sea glowing around it
Freeman boat running toward the Miami skyline with a full wake behind it
Two Freeman boats side by side, twin wakes heading for the horizon
Miami from above: the marina, the sailboats and the downtown skyline

Need it from the air?

I hire helicopter pilots I trust and shoot from the open door.

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