Tofino is a coastal town on the edge of the Pacific. It's Canada's capital of surfing. I'm not a surfer but I headed here after I walked the northern half of the West Coast Trail in Sept 2016. The choice was based on a previous trip to Vancouver Island in 2014. Surfers may love the waves but Tofino also has plenty to offer a landscape photographer. Long stretches of golden sands, peaked mountains, and jagged groups of islands bobbing in the deep blue of the Pacific Ocean. It's also an enviable location for Pacific sunsets
Tofino with Chesterman Beach in the foreground
Another point in it's favour for me was that Tofino seemed relatively close to the end of the West Coast Trail. At least it looked close on a map. However getting from Bamfield to Tofino could well be worthy of it's own travelogue. In reality it took an entire day of my holiday, (but it could easily have taken longer).
I camped on the edge of Long Beach, halfway through the afternoon of my first day the overcast skies of my WCT were replaced by a vault of clear cobalt blue. My kit and clothes dried out and for the next two days I was able to explore with aid of sun screen and 'jandels'. (Japanese sandals, aka flip flops)
Combers Beach, Long beach, Schooner Beach and Chesterman beaches virtually run from one to another along the coast.
I was particularly attracted to Combers Beach which was populated by a jumble of huge bleached tree trunks, stranded along the high tide mark. Even so I found myself returning to Schooner Beach as it offered more varied terrain.
My three nights camping were quite easy going as I also rented a car. Yes, I did stalk the shoreline with a camera, but I also found time for a lot of recaffenation in the local coffee shops and wrote a lot of postcards.
In fact it was the postcards that gave me the idea of having another go at aerial photography. Something I've wanted to do for a long time. I have tried taking aerial photographs before, notably in Vancouver from the float planes. But that didn't prove very productive. Partly because the wings obstructed the view, and partly because the pilot was doing a timed circuit of the harbour. So there was no lingering in good spots.
Anyway I digress, from a map Tofino seemed to offer a tempting prospect for an aerial view to get it all in one shot. So I gave it a whirl and chartered a helicopter. That sounds very grand but helicopters and floatplanes are a common sight in British Columbia and the float planes dock close to the centre of town. Still to charter my own flight was a heck of an expense, even if the flight time was only going to be 6mins. Yes you heard right SIX minutes. Which meant that to get the picture I wanted I needed to be organised.
To start with, my main decision was when to book the flight for. I could chose almost any time of day, but I needed to book the flight 24hrs in advance. I couldn't just go up on a whim when the weather / light looked just right. So I pored over weather reports for an hour before booking,drinking more coffee than is healthy and agonising over the decision. Happily the weather report was fair on the website I most trusted, but the big wrinkle in the plan was this area is well known for it's sea fog and mist. Which often obscures the entire coastline. (I'm told the locals sometimes refer to August and September as Fogust / Fogtember). Fog / mist can lend an extra dimension to photography but it wan't what I wanted on this occasion, so a late afternoon flight was the safest bet to allow the atmospherics to burn off.
On the day there was a thick fog in the morning, but as predicted by the ground officer the fog was burned off by 2pm. At the airport I learned about aircraft safety but also had a couple of mins to brief the pilot about what I wanted. To be utterly fair Dane (the pilot) does sightseeing trips for a living and whilst there is lots to see thereabouts, he was well versed in getting the best for his passengers. We discussed the best views and what height to see them from. Armed with my dlsr and a pair of prime lens (35mm and 18mm) I was strapped into the middle seat (of three) whilst I leaned over to the open right hand window. The seatbelt was mandatory safety requirement and the window was only a few inches wide. Still I had the camera strap safety around my neck.
Happily the headsets made communication a doddle and the pilot was able to hover when I asked. Overall I was pleased with the result.
My top tip for aerial photography is to put your very fastest memory card in the camera. I had a slower card which meant the camera choked whilst writing the data. Missing the opportunity for some other photographs.
By the way Tofino is also a famed location for winter storm watching. Just saying.