Custer State Park sights

Us reflected - we're waving!

Helicopter Crop Duster

When I posted the photo of the Helicopter Crop Duster the other day I wasn't able to share all the images I wanted to so I decided to do another post. They amaze me! Before you ask, this is the morning I just grabbed one of my cameras (as is) as a just in case I saw something. I happened to grab the Canon 50D - my favorite for moving subjects, it's a sports camera. It happened to have the 70-200mm lens on, as I had been photographing my flying squirrel the previous evening. Now, if I had known what I was going to be shooting I would have grabbed the 100-400mm, but as it is this fellow kept zipping right above our heads.

I wonder what he has in his cooler. See it at his feet?

There he goes again.

He would cross over the road we were on and turn it above the trees next to us. Amazingly close!

I have a photo exactly like this showing the copter in focus but I wanted to include this one because I laugh at the chance that I focused on the power lines! If I had tried to focus on the lines it would have been hard, but I was trying to focus on any part of this quickly moving copter and it just so happened this one shot I got the line, lol. Can you tell that he's very close to those lines?

Here he comes again! Directly under the power lines sits a sprinkler, that's what you see in the foreground here, now watch this. . .

He barely cleared it each time! Amazing flying!

I did post about a helicopter crop duster 2 years ago, not sure if it's the same one.  And like that one, this one did land on a truck to refill, and once again, I missed that shot. :(  He was on the other side of those trees you see in the background when he did it.

Happenstance

As we left the house this morning to get a coffee I debated about bringing the camera - the plan was to run for coffee and come right back home, would I really need it? I opted to grab it anyway. Two blocks after picking up the coffee, suddenly, out of nowhere, it became clear that the correct answer had won. A helicopter crop duster swooped narrowly above us, turned and went back to the field. My husband quickly pulled the car over and I grabbed the camera.

It was amazing to watch the pilot fly barely over power lines, cross the road and turn that baby nearly brushing the tops of trees!  I snapped about 50 photos of his antics, some so close you can see his face and just part of the helicopter.  I felt elated that I had the camera with me and something had happened!  The rush, the joy!  You never know where it will appear!c

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Helicopter Crop Duster

At one point the helicopter landed on the truck and refilled, but of course I missed getting the shot.