[October and November 2006]

I was lucky to get an assignment for Ericsson again. This turned out to be very difficult, probably the most difficult one I have ever had during my career. All in all,during two trips, I spent eight days shooting a Stemme, a super hightech glider from a Cessna and a helicopter. What made it so difficult, was that I had to shoot it in specific angles against very specific backgrounds, which our AD had found on Google Earth. What he didn´t count on, was, that San Diego has five big airports which all have individual restricted airspaces. The first day shooting, I lost a lens from the Cessna at 3300 feet. Luckily it didn´t hit any one and I managed to buy a new one the same day. The biggest problem was communication between the two pilots and myself. Standing on the landing skid of the helicopter I could just forget using the intercom. It was to windy to keep it on my head so I had to use handsigns and shouts to make myself understood to the pilot. It took us a few days to work this out before the shooting went smooth. Working two two-hour shifts a day was real tough and by the end of each shift we were totally wasted. Standing on the skids in speeds of 80 - 100 m/h wears you out quickly.