Olivier and JF flew from Noumea to Baie du Prony in Olivier's helicopter. I had told JF I really would like to take some sphere images of the lagoon from a Helicopter and was delighted when he called to say he and his friend would be flying down so I could give it a try.

Both JF and Olivier are dentists in Noumea and enjoy flying (and lots of other action sports) when not helping their patients. These would be my first helicopter aerial sphere images so it was all theory for me. We flew off the top of the small mountain bordering the anchorage and took this sphere image - my very first - and then went off for a joy ride taking sphere images of the anchorages and the lagoon. I really love helicopters - they make me feel like Peter Pan every time I fly in one.

When we found just the right place to take a sphere image Olivier (who is an excellent pilot) hovered the helicopter while I lowered a telescoping monopod with my Canon 7D, mounted on a Nodal Ninja pano head, down below the helicopter's skids. I used a wireless remote to trigger the camera as I turned it around 360degrees, twice, taking more images than I needed just to be on the safe side. All this worked OK and I learned a few things so I can get even better images next time. We had to fly pretty high for safety and to avoid turbulence around the hills and valleys so the 8-mm sigma fisheye lens I used just did not have enough resolution to get sharp images. Next time I'll use a longer focal length lens and take more images for each sphere.