Chris Sweetapple

01/05/2026

3:30am wake up, in a helicopter by 5:00am, chasing warplanes around all before the sun came up.

What ISO you might ask. All of it.

14/04/2026

Nice glass & heavy diffusion 🤙

03/04/2026

Buckle up 🚁

25/03/2026

Where the river meets the sea.

19/03/2026

Almost stayed home. Glad we didn't.
Some moods only happen in the rain.

13/03/2026

A heavy week for Bundy. Spent the start of this week watching the flood peak across the road from our house, sandbagging the garage and wondering if this was the year our number was up.

We were lucky this time, but seeing the scale of it from the air on Wednesday was a sobering reminder of what this town has been through three times in fifteen years. It’s hard to wrap your head around the scale of that much water until you see it like this.

Thinking of everyone who is facing a much harder cleanup today than we are.

06/02/2026

Sometimes you just need to throw on a black mist and send it.

04/02/2026

I don't really f**k with the beach.

Unless I’ve got a camera in hand, then it’s different.

03/02/2026

One lens. One session. 35mm f1.2.

Man, I forgot how much I love shooting primes.

31/01/2026

29/01/2026

Forestry frames // Ford LTD.

Set 02.

28/01/2026

I wasn’t going to post this.

To me, this project was a failure. I felt I could have done better, even if it meant postponing a second time and upsetting the client in the process.

The preparation went out the window when the storm clouds rolled in. Everyone was ready to go, and the weather wasn't waiting.

I’ve shot handheld panoramas on the ground many times - careful movements, sufficient overlap, clean stitches. I hadn't accounted for being in a helicopter with high turbulence, heavy haze from the clouds, and a four-minute window of light before it turned unusable.

For full transparency, I’ve included the EVF footage. It shows the panic: shaking, holding my breath, trying to force a clean row of frames. When the light finally closed up, I just had to accept that I either had the shots, or I didn’t.

It was messy and incredibly stressful - none of what I want when shooting a high-stakes project.

Despite everything, a row of images from that window did stitch. With some work, it became exactly what the client wanted. They’re happy, so is it really a failure? Probably not. But to me, it is.

If we don’t strive to be better and solve the problems we face daily, we don't improve.

Take the L and turn it into a lesson. ✌️