Helicopter Flight Above Los Angeles

A few weeks ago I received a text from a friend, Erwin. I met Erwin through Instagram and have been following his work for quite awhile. He's a god when it comes to aerial photography and has some, if not, the best aerial photography shots I have came across and considering that he's an awesome humble dude he probably wouldn't admit that. Anyway, Erwin sent me a text asking if I was up for a helicopter flight that same day around sunset and of course, like anyone else I was pretty dang stoked and said I was up for it. Who wouldn't be? I also forgot to mention it would be my first helicopter flight, its never to late for anything new. I went on my first airplane last year at the age of 20. A lot of people I knew have been going on planes since they were babies.

Moving forward to a few hours from when I received Erwins text—I finally arrived to the airport and while parking i hear someone yelling "ironlaks?" trying to wave me down. Guess who? It was Erwin, I finally got to meet the legend after following him on Instagram for such a long time. He then introduced me to another legend, Esteban. I've came across Esteban so many times on social media and it was rad to meet him. A little bit about Esteban, he is the owner of Copterpilot which is a helicopter platform for aerial cinematographers and people looking for tours throughout Los Angeles. Esteban flies some of the best photographers in Los Angeles and even people that visit LA. Did I mention he also flies celebrities? Pretty cool right? It was good meeting Erwin and Esteban briefly but we had to hurry and hop on the helicopter, so we did just that.

Flying above Los Angeles is an incredible feeling—something I will never forget. Such a surreal experience and I hope that everyone, at least once, gets to try it. So many different perspectives rather than being on the ground—the sound of the wind pressure and the feeling of being above everything is insane. Oh, the best part—no traffic whatsoever, you can't beat that. We landed after about 20 minutes which felt like a quick 5 minutes, why does everything go by so quick when you're enjoying it?

Unfortunately I didn't fly with Erwin or Esteban but I flew alongside Esteban's son, Esteban which is also a very talented guy. The pilot, i forget his name but he did an awesome job making sure we got the shots we wanted. This was the rad part—I was flying with 3 people; Esteban, the Pilot, and Andrew. After the flight was over Erwin asked if we all knew each other and so then we introduced ourselves—Andrew said, his name was Andrew and it sort of rang a bell considering that I follow a guy named Andrew thats from Vancouver but was in town for a few days. What kind of made me guess that it was him were his Jordan 1's. Of course I asked him his Instagram name and he said it and then I went on to say, oh, whats up its ironlaks. It was pretty cool to meet someone like that. We've been also following each other for as long as I can remember.

The kind person that Esteban is; took us for a second flight above Long Beach. Nonetheless, once again, it was an experience I will never forget. Huge thank you goes out to Erwin and Copterpilot for the incredible, unforgettable opportunity and I hope to fly with them again, soon. Below I would kindly like to share some of my favorite shots from the flight. Also, I'm in the process of editing a video that I shot during the flight which I will update everyone on my Instagram once it is complete!