On one of my photo tours to Namibia I hired a small plane and flew over the Namib Desert to photograph the beautiful contours of the seemingly endless dunes. I hate small planes, especially when there is turbulence, but I do what I have to do for dramatic pictures. The pilot removed the door of the plane so I could shoot unobstructed by a poor quality glass or plastic window. I had two seat belts across my lap, but I still felt like this was a death-defying experience. At first we flew over areas with a lot of desert scrub, and I yelled to the pilot over the sound of the plane, 'No vegetation.' I knew that would give me much cleaner and more successful images. Depth of field was irrelevant because I was far enough away from the dunes that everything would be sharp at any lens aperture. Therefore, I shot wide open so my shutter would be fast. The vibration of the plane plus the turbulent air necessitated a super fast speed to guarantee tack sharp pictures. I used a 24-105mm lens, and my settings were 1/5000, f/4, and 200 ISO.
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