There are a few challenges spending 4 days shooting from a helicopter. A few tricks The Doc used:

• he fitted a 24-70mm lense. This gave enough range to take different landscape shots from the helicopter. This Canon lense is very sharp. Because you are further away from the subject in a helicopter you, can shoot at F8, rather than F11 or higher. However you cannot zoom close in, the reason why the helicopter got close to the first crocodile. You could have 2 cameras, but that becomes hard to handle – The Doc tried and gave up after the first session;
• focus one third down the frame. So The Doc moved the focus point to the bottom of the frame for many, but not all photos;
• be conscious of the horizon. In a helicopter it is changed all the time, tilting left, than right or up and down. Be conscious of the camera being level when shooting. Exceptions can be made, for example, when the horizon is not in the shot;
• take several shots, you have fewer keepers. Extra memory cards are much cheaper than hiring the helicopter again;
• constant autofocus was used, not one shot mode as the helicopter is moving most of the time;
• use the camera which has the best autofocus, one that can lock focus quickly;
• the closer your focus point is to the helicopter, the more likely the photo will be blurred. Pointing sharply downwards needs a higher shutter speed, than looking straight out the door. More blurry pictures resulted from this than all other causes added together on the Trip.
• There is harsh light around the Cape, so early on The Doc attached a Singh Ray Circular Polarising Filter (CPF), perhaps the best choice he made. The CPF reduced significantly, but did not eliminate, the harsh reflections. The CPF needs to be readjusted occasionally.