As an adventure photographer, there are times I find myself in places that make me question whether or not this is real life...
I was on assignment photographing the Islands of Tahiti with French Polynesia Tourism. We set off to the one-of-a-kind island known as Bora Bora. I thought to myself; how amazing would it be to photograph this magical place from the sky? I convinced the tourism board to send me up for a "doors off" helicopter ride. I reached the heliport, met the pilot, harnessed up, and we flew into the sky. The harness enabled me to extend my whole body out of the door as we soared above the ocean. I told the pilot to fly away from the island and ascend as high as possible. The pilot told me that most flights stay closer to the island but I had a vision and insisted that we flew away.
From this angle, Bora Bora looked like an open world CGI map from a video game. As I was capturing images I was lost in thought and imagining myself dropping out of the chopper with the squad to snag some loot and have a battle royal. I was completely enveloped in one of my childhood fantasies.
I snapped back to reality and realized that my entire body was hanging out of the helicopter, wind was whipping through my hair and I was thousands of feet above the water. I looked at this tiny video game island and focused. I held my breath, ignored the chaos of the extreme conditions I was in, harnessed my adrenaline rush, clicked the shutter on my camera, and captured the most unique photograph I have ever made in my entire career.
