There are a few challenges when shooting from a helicopter. A few tricks The Doc has used:

• he fitted a 24-70mm lense or Sony 24-105mm on the FE mount. 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. You could have 2 cameras, but that becomes hard to handle – The Doc tried and gave up after the first session. Later he tried again and can now use 2 cameras, but it is  not easy;
• focus one third down the frame. So The Doc moved the focus point to the bottom of the frame for many, but not all his photos;
• be conscious of the horizon. In a helicopter it is changed all the time, tilting left, then 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;
• compose the image 5-10% bigger than you need. So you can straighten the horizon and crop without losing the image you want;
• take several shots, you have fewer keepers when flying. 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 subject 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 Cape York Trip.
• there is harsh light around Cape York, 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. This will not always be the case.