Imagine Trying to Photograph this Wingsuit Pilot Without Flinching

Photography Tips

Flying through the air at speeds exceeding 155 mph (250 km/h) in nothing more than a wingsuit is scary enough for most of us. But let’s take a minute and consider the photographers who are tasked with standing in the target area, as this human bird, Alexander Polli, flies straight toward them like a heat-seeking missile! Take a look at Polli’s jaw-dropping feat and listen for the photographers:

At 0:55 seconds into the video and you can hear the shutters of Alexander Weibel and Manel Gonzalez exploding. The photographers set their cameras to burst mode to capture many photographs per second with their focus settings likely on AI Servo for continuous focus as this is a VERY fast moving subject. Or they could have pre-focused on the pole and then switched to manual focus to make sure their autofocus didn’t latch onto the wrong subject.

With such a fast moving subject, it is very important to consider your settings carefully so you don’t miss the photo opportunity; it’s only there for a split second.

Too close for comfort, one photographer dives out of the way to save his life, the other captures a burst of photos

One of the resulting photographs

As you can see in the second photo above, Polli’s trajectory path brought him dangerously close to the photography crew. To avoid being clipped by Polli, one photographer had to dive to the ground (possibly saving his life along with Polli’s as a collision at that speed would have likely been fatal for both), while another stuck it out to get the shot–a perfect example of the bravery shown by Polli and his entire photography and film crew.