2009 NHL Winter Classic Aerials

During the month of December, the Chicago media hyped the 2009 Winter Classic hockey game (held outdoors at Wrigley Field) to such a degree that one might have suspected that Jesus Christ Our Lord And Saviour was scheduled to make an appearance sometime during the third period. No joke! Every twenty seconds on some TV channel, there'd be a commercial for or relating to the event. Personally, the media hype didn't affect me. For one, I know Jesus has better things to do than book himself for T.V. face time at a hockey game. Secondly, I'm not a hockey fan at ALL. I've shot stills of ice hockey once and roller hockey a few times. Both experiences (save for the moment during the ice hockey game when these two dudes started fighting) left me drowsy and frustrated at the lack of compelling images to be had.

The players wear veritable space suits, complete with helmets that obstruct most of their facial expressions. The teams chase around a tiny puck which, from 50 feet away, shows up on your camera smaller than those blobs of sensor dust you haven't cleaned off in months. The lighting in these local arenas is usually better suited for cold seafood storage than an athletic event. Strobes or not, the darkness still makes it hard to focus (literally) on the action. On top of all that, both the indoor rinks I shot in smelled like a bath towel unwashed for a week, mixed with the smell from the inside of my year-old tennis shoes that I wear daily, times ten.

Needless to say, I'm somewhat of a hockey Scrooge. I think the only hockey images I've ever enjoyed were shot by Sportsshooter member Robert J. Meyer, and that's because Meyer focuses a lot on things that happen off the rink, the "in-betweens", if you will, of the sport. These images actually make you care about the guys wearing the space suits and firefighter air masks out on the ice.

One of the only memorable moments from my first and only time shooting ice hockey in Dyer, Ind., on April 5, 2008. Please murder me slowly.

Two days before the Winter Classic, on the morning of my 27th birthday, the little light bulb that goes off in my mind when I have an idea glowed a little brighter than usual. I realized that the story with the Winter Classic wasn't the hockey game at all, but rather, the fact that it was the first hockey game to be held at Wrigley Field in the stadium's history. Because I usually excel at features shots at major sporting events, I decided to call a few of the outlets I've shot for in the past and see if I could get a credential to the game for just this purpose. Basically, I was told that everybody and they mamma wanted to shoot the game, and that the already scarce credentials were gone.

The idea light bulb flickered just as I felt a sharp pain in my backside. Something was poking me from my office chair! What's this? Ahh yes! It was all the Christmas and birthday money I'd been sitting on! And, with that, the idea light bulb lit up once again. WIth everybody and they mamma shooting on the ground, where's the one place I could get a unique shot without a credential? You guessed it, from the air! I decided a photo flight would be a wise investment, since I'd own images from a historic Chicago event from a unique angle.

I immediately called Sun Aero Helicopters, the same company I flew with when I shot my September 2008 Northwest Indiana flood aerials. I requested a Robinson R22 once again, which is the cheapest helicopter available at $285 per hour. The man on the phone quickly tried to pitch a $800+ per hour Jet Ranger helicopter to me, because the R22 is unheated and would be very uncomfortable during the 20 minute flight up to Wrigley with the door removed. I informed the clerk that I was crazy, and that I didn't mind braving the cold for the twenty minute flight from Lansing, Ill., to Wrigleyville.

Flying in a helicopter where the doors cannot be removed, or where the windows cannot slide open, is 100% unacceptable for a photo flight, in my opinion. The windows in most aircraft, like cars, have a very slight color cast to them which will greatly affect the color in your images. And, if you plan on shooting with any long glass, the aircraft windows will actually distort the sharpness of your images, much like looking at fish in an aquarium.

Sun Aero's Jet Ranger, along with pilot Rick Bruner. Note how the windows of the helicopter actually appear to be very light blue. Imagine having to shoot photos through these! I sat in the back seat on this side of the ship, and shot through the vent window which slid open.

As my luck would have it, there were no R22 pilots available for New Year's Day. However, Sun Aero made a great counter-offer to me. A previously-scheduled photo flight was headed up to the Winter Classic in the fancy, heated Jet-Ranger, complete with sliding windows. I was offered the extra seat in this ship for the price of the R22 for one hour, since that's all I initially requested. I quickly accepted, and after they made sure it was OK with the other photographer, my time was officially booked.

Fellow photographer Warren near his large, roll-down window opposite from my side of the aircraft. Warren's large window would actually work out to my advantage later in the flight.

I arrived at the airport at 11 a.m. on New Years Day and met Warren, the other photographer who'd be flying and shooting with me, as well as our pilot Rick Bruner. Bruner is retired from many years of police aviation, and now flies for private clients and large events across the country. We headed into the hangar to have a look at the Jet Ranger. Since Warren had booked the flight first, he'd sit in the back seat on the side of the ship that had a large, roll-down window, just like a car. I took the opposite back seat, which had a vent window that slid open just wide enough for me to get my lens and camera body through.

Approaching downtown Chicago over the Dan Ryan Expressway. I was struck with how muted and gray the color pallette is from the air during wintertime in Chicago.

We took off just before noon and headed for downtown Chicago. I shot a lot of stock photos of seemingly average things on the way there. With nearly $5.00 per minute of my personal money flying by, I wasn't about to waste any opportunity to shoot aerial stock for myself. When we made it over downtown, I had around twenty additional minutes to do just this. We had to hold to the South of Wrigley Field to allow an F-18 flyover at the start of the game to clear the area, which took forever (gotta love television). I had a chance to shoot the skyline from many angles, as well as the annual Polar Bear plunge, where crazies take a swim in the cold lake water.

Crazies swim in Lake Michigan at North Avenue Beach in Chicago during the annual Polar Bear Plunge.

Empty boat slips and ice dot the water in Burnham Harbor in Chicago. The delay caused by the F-18 flyover allowed me to shoot some interesting, abstract stuff.

When we were finally OK to enter the airspace over Wrigley, the 20-knot wind gusts we'd been flying in became much more pronounced, with the helicopter twisting and dipping quite a bit. While mildly unnerving, I never felt queazy or ill during the twisty ride, which I'm grateful for since I enjoy aerial photography so much. I should also briefly mention that our ability to fly directly over Wrigley Field while a game was in progress was very unique. Normally, for Major League Baseball games, a temporary flight restriction, or TFR, is put in place, meaning aircraft cannot come within three nautical miles of the stadium without prior (and I mean far, far prior) permission from the venue and Homeland Security. Because this event was sponsored by the NHL, which usually plays indoors, no TFR was in effect.

Directly overhead, sans TFR.

Once over Wrigley, pilot Rick skillfully put the ship in place to allow Warren and myself to accomplish the shots we'd planned out at the FBO before our flight. My shots included an overall of the stadium with the skyline in the background, a direct tight overhead of just the rink itself, as well as any general shots of the stadium and surrounding neighborhood.

I made it a point to juxtapose the familiar features of Wrigley Field, such as the decorative iron work on the lights and the famous scoreboard, with the hockey rink setup whenever I could.

Pilot Rick circled around the stadium in a steep bank, allowing us to shoot straight down out of our open windows. He'd circle a few times on Warren's side, then turn around and circle a few times on my side. Warren's large window worked out well because, when circling on his side, I was able to shoot over his shoulder out of the open window with my 70-200, whereas he couldn't do the same on my side because my open window was much smaller. So, in the end, I really ended up in the best seat in the ship and got to accomplish all the images I had in mind.

This was the main angle I had in mind when I set out on this photo flight, only I was banking on sunlight skirting across the rink as there'd been in previous days during team practices. This would have created very long, abstract shadows all over the place, which would have looked great from this angle. Unfortunately, I haven't mastered weather control yet, so with overcast skies in place, I had to settle for this.

Another overhead angle, this time a bit further away to incorporate the red Wrigley Field sign.

In addition to the stadium features, I tried to fit as much of the crowd in with the rink as I could. Composing this was difficult, since much of the "field" around the rink was composed of dead white space from snow which was created for the event.

Hurry! The pilot says it's time to head back! Think of a different way to compose the same thing you've already shot ten times!

Directly overhead, this time flipped around looking towards "home plate."

After circling Wrigley a few more times, we headed back to Lansing Airport where I immediately filed several images. Hopefully a few publications will be interested in these, but really, sales would be the icing on the cake for what ended up being a very fun self-birthday-present of a day.

A gloomy January Chicago skyline on the way back to Lansing Airport.

Pilot Rick, also a huge Blackhawks fan, really enjoyed this mission.