Aerial Photography in Corfu.
I like taking pictures of sceneries. It is one of my many ever wanting hobbies I have tried taking pictures of my own village in north west Corfu from different points of view and locations , from my boat in to the sea , from the top of ladder and anything that could change the behavior of the photograph’s artistic result.
One day I was very lucky to meet a “friend’s friend” Mr Georgos Pantlios ! A professional pilot working for a major flight company and member of the “Corfu Aviation club” (Αερολέσχη Κερκύρας) and arranged my very first flight over Corfu.
The airplane was a PIPER SUPER CUB , ideal for aerial photography as the wings are over the cabin and you can practically open the window and stick you lens or even your head out allowing you to shoot clear images. The same plane is normally used for pilot training for advanced studying pilots.
The journey I indicated was from Corfu airport to Arillas flying over Roppavaley, village of , paleocastritsa , aggelokastro then Afionas , Arillas and San Stefanos in north west .
We had two rounds over Arillas which is my home where I shooted most of the pictures.
My aim was to fly at an average height where I would be able to take one picture which covers my resort's whole area . For this case I had to use my Tokina 12-24 F4DX wide-angle lens. I had calculated that with this kind of lence I wanted to cover an area of 3kilometres I need to be flying at 1500m. And So We Did! After many attempts I managed to take the wanted picture in which I was going t o create an online map of Arillas that will be used in the resort’s website.
The date was 13 October 2007 a clear sky with slight North West wind. It was a couple of days after a few autumn rainfalls and the sky could be as clear as possible. The takeoff time had to be 11:00 in the morning as at that time the atmosphere is still clear from the usual humidity.
That was my first flight with this kind of plane! It was a great experience which I will never forget . I have been living in Corfu since I was born and I have seen most of the island’s beauties, but the view I had from that plane could not be captured enough from my camera! soon I will be flying again…
Dimitris Kourkoulos
Arillas Corfu Greece