Flying with Tom Stiles of Sky Shots

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Last week, I was 1,000 feet above Rocketts Landing and about to lose my lunch.

“Alright go ahead and bank the plane at 45 degrees so that I can get a better shot,” Tom said to the pilot as he was leaning out the back seat window. “That’s it . . . a little more . . . perfect!”

He lifted the camera closer to his eye and snapped a few pictures as we circled out over the James River.

In the front seat of the Cessna 172 dubbed 28 November, I was gripping my armrest with white knuckles. The wind was blowing at about 15 knots and shaking the plane’s cabin with a dizzying force.

“How are you doing up there, Ben?” Tom shouted at me, looking up for a moment from his camera.

“Great,” I said.

But as we pulled out of the turn, I could feel my stomach sink and then rise into my throat.  I tried my hardest not to throw-up.

Tom, on the other hand, was constantly moving around and looking for a better camera angle, seemingly unaffected by the turbulence.  He founded Sky Shots, an aerial photography company based out of Hanover County Airport, in 1999 and has been snapping photos of the Rocketts Landing development project since construction began.

Having flown in a small plane twice before, I jumped at the invitation to join him on a photo shoot. I prefer to be on the ground or out on the water but still enjoy the thrill of flying. I also wanted to see Rocketts Landing from a bird’s-eye-view.

When I met Tom at the airport, he greeted me with a big smile and had a giant camera bag slung over his shoulder.  We toured around the airfield, and he showed me some of his latest work which hangs on the walls in the airport lobby.

In one flight, Tom usually tries to fit in as many different sites as he can, and on this particular afternoon, in addition to Rocketts Landing, we were going to take pictures of two other places along the river.

“I always like to take pictures of Rocketts in the afternoon,” he said. “The timing makes for a better shot from out over the James when you’re looking at the front of the development. The sun is in the west, and the shadows of all the buildings are pointing away from the water to the east.”

 A part from the blustering wind, we couldn’t have asked for a better day to fly. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the temperature was somewhere in the mid-seventies.  Despite my nausea, I can easily say the trip was worth it.

 Along the way to Rocketts Landing, we passed over the Richmond International Raceway, the Richmond Braves’ old baseball stadium and Monument Ave.

As we approached Rocketts Landing, we began to slow down and fly in a giant circle. A blast of fresh air rushed into cabin just as Tom opened the window to take pictures.

From the airplane Rocketts Landing looked spectacular. One of the location’s most noticeable characteristics was how much it stands out amidst all the old industrial buildings and parks surrounding Richmond. This is something you can’t really get a feel for on a diagram or Google maps.

For the first time, I could truly see all the ways the development project could expand along the James River. About six or seven boats dotted the waterway, and the empty but almost complete Rocketts Landing docks looked like open arms ready to take them in.

 Probably the most distinguishable building was The Boathouse Restaurant currently under construction. The tinted windows of the dining-area reflected the light from the river bank and contrasted heavily with the surrounding buildings and weathered smokestack leftover from the old power plant.

As we circled around once more, Tom took a few more pictures before we veered off.

“That’s great. Let’s go on to the next site,” he said.

photo / dpicreativeservices.com