Jason Hawkes Biography
Jason Hawkes Biography
Jason has specialized in aerial photography since 1991. He is based just outside London in the UK but can usually be found at about 800ft. He works globally.
Jason shoots projects varying from single days architectural visualisation concepts to multi-continent global brand campaigns. Shooting advertising for large agencies, annual reports for design companies, and even whole image libraries for branding agencies.
After studying photography in London and assisting in various still life studios it was a chance flight in a flex-winged microlight that got Jason hooked into shooting from the skies. Four weeks after his first flight and still aged just 21 Jason purchased a microlight aircraft and spent the next six months hanging out of the back of it shooting a portfolio of abstract aerial views around Southern Britain. After having an eight-page portfolio of his work published in “Photography” magazine Jason moved onto shooting solely from helicopters and his work was seen by an editor at Random House and his first book was commissioned two months later.
Jason now shoots 90% of his work from AS355 helicopter, harnessed onto a hard point in the helicopter and shooting both handheld stills during the day, and gyro stabilized stills at dusk and night all around the world.
His clients include brands such as BT, HP, Citi, Siemens, Nike, Coca Cola, Nokia, BT, HSBC, NatWest, Ford, American Airlines, Rolex, Toyota, Smirnoff, Mitsubishi, Samsung, National Geographic, O2 and BP.
He has produced over 50 aerial photographic books, his first being “London from the Air” with Random House published in 1992. Further books have included such publishers as the BBC, Random House, Dorling Kindersley and Harper Collins.
Below is a short interview with Jason as he flies over London with Nikon in 2012.
It's not often you get the chance to conduct an interview hovering 800ft above London's West End at dusk in a helicopter, while your subject leans out of the open back door with several thousand pounds' worth of Nikon D3S in his hands, firing away to make the most of the late evening glow over the lights of the city. It's all in a day's work for Jason Hawkes, one of the world's top aerial photographers.
Since he first took to the skies in 1991, Jason has clocked up thousands of hours in the air, covering landscapes to cityscapes, architecture to abstracts, people to nature, building up a huge library that forms a major part of his business, along with an equally impressive client roster, including Saatchi & Saatchi, the BBC, Random House, Nike, Rolex, NatWest, Mitsubishi and Smirnoff. He has also produced over 50 books – from his first, which came out in 1992 and established him as a professional aerial photographer, to his latest, Britain From Above Month By Month.
We have plenty of time to chat this evening before Jason starts shooting, as we are held hundreds of feet above Crystal Palace for nearly 20 minutes, unable to enter London airspace while air-traffic control try to make contact with another helicopter that is buzzing around the Gherkin in the City and not responding to their increasingly irate messages. This, says Jason, is an occupational hazard, but his frustration is palpable – the light is fading by the second and, of course, hundreds of pounds of flight fees are being racked up with no pictures to pay for them. At last the other helicopter moves off, we're given the all-clear and we head into the West End. Over the whirr of the rotor blades and a somewhat crackly two-way radio, we discuss how Jason got started in his unusual career.
AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY ISN'T REALLY SOMETHING YOU CAN LEARN AT COLLEGE, SO HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT?
I did a photography degree in London, worked as an assistant for a few months after graduating and intended to become a studio photographer. Then I happened to go flying one day in a microlight. I'm not even that fond of heights, and I only decided to go up at the last minute, but as soon as we landed I thought, 'I'm buying one of these!' I got together with some mates to buy one, and I used it for a year to build up a portfolio. When I finally started getting commissions I switched to helicopters, and I've used them ever since.
DO YOU EVER WORK ON SPEC OR IS IT ALL COMMISSIONED WORK?
I only fly on commission, because of the cost – helicopters are around £1100-1200 per hour, and some flights are more expensive than that. Today I've spent £3600 on flights – I was over London this afternoon as well, including the Olympic Park and the City. I'll probably take around 800 shots tonight. One of my favourite recent commissions was taking night photographs all over the UK – we did about 15 flights in London and then spent two weeks flying all over the country, staying in nice hotels. Probably 80% of my work is UK-based, and of that around 40% is advertising. Tonight's trip is for an architect, taking shots over central London to enable them to create an artist's impression of a new building. In London you're usually flying at between 750-1500ft – you can get special dispensation to go down to 400ft, but there are a lot of rules to consider, such as not flying over the tops of certain buildings at this height. Tonight we'll be at around 800ft.
ARE THERE ANY ISSUES SPECIFIC TO WORKING FROM A HELICOPTER?
I have to shoot via a cable release with the camera on a hand-held gyroscopic stabilising mount to damp down the vibrations from the helicopter rotors, and sometimes for night shoots I'll use a floor-fixed gyroscopic mount – it's a lot quicker to change lenses with this, and I definitely need it if I'm using a telephoto lens. I try to stay with pilots I know; although most are pretty good, you occasionally get one who can't understand what you want. I always sit in the back on the pilot's side, so when they bank we can both see the same thing – the pilot can see what you're after and you can see that he's got it. You have to plan your route, including the altitude of your flight, but it's fairly easy getting clearance to fly in most parts of the UK, except for places with military no-fly zones. You can fly pretty much where you like in London, apart from directly over the top of Buckingham Palace. Sometimes I'll fly four or five times a week, but it really depends on the weather. I don't often fly in windy conditions, as it's pretty horrible. In the winter I might not go flying for a whole month – apart from poor weather, it's too cold when you're working with the door open!
HAVE YOU HAD ANY CLOSE CALLS IN THE AIR?
My worst near-miss was in South Carolina. I was in a little helicopter coming into land, and another plane who I assume simply didn't know this airport was even there almost flew into us. They were so close I could see the colour of the pilot's hair. But that's such a rare occurrence – when you're flying over London at night, for instance, they give you three miles' clearance.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE DESTINATION?
New York is good fun to photograph – the rules are far more relaxed than in the UK. You're allowed to fly much lower and far closer to buildings. Here, for example, it's very difficult to fly over a big airport. I was asked to do an airport shot once for the BBC, and it took us three weeks to get permission for one minute of shooting. In New York, I asked about doing an airport shot while we were flying. It took one phone call and we were there shooting three minutes later, and they let us stay for 40 minutes with planes all around us – quite amazing.
The Olympics have also been good. I started photographing the Olympic Park from the minute they started to build; sadly I wasn't allowed to fly over to photograph it while the Olympics were on – we weren't allowed to fly over London at all during the Olympics. But one shot I'd taken earlier of the Olympic Park has just been used as the front cover of the August issue of National Geographic – I love this magazine, so this is about the most exciting thing that's ever happened in my career!
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Jason Hawkes Biography