Favorites - The 111th Aerial Photography

Favorite Photography Stories

Congratulations to us! The 111th is celebrating 30 years of aerial photography! Since taking off in our business and career in 1994, we have honed our skills in an art that can only be learned through doing. Looking back over three decades, we are still not only learning but inventing new aerial photographic techniques. These are some of our favorite photo flights and pictures over the last 30 years.

Humpback Whales ~ A Whale Tale

Thar she blows! June 2023 In more than 30 years of aerial photography, Pat and I have been fortunate to have seen many amazing sights, but one view on my bucket list had eluded me. I had always wanted...

Nvidia Crop Circle

The Crop Circle that Took the Internet by Storm! December 2013 In December 2013, a mysterious crop circle appeared in a rye field in Chualar, California. The images went viral—over a million views wo...

2020 Lockdown

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic had the world in lockdown, but we were safe as long as we kept socially distant. You can’t get more socially distant than in our airplane and helicopter. We took the ...

Eelgrass Audoban Society

In 2017, the National Audubon Society contacted us to take aerial photography of Eelgrass in Richardson Bay near Sausalito, CA. Of course, we would be happy to… one question, “What’s eelgrass?” Eelgra...

Google Dome

In 30 years, we have had the pleasure of documenting the construction progress of most of the iconic and unique buildings in the Silicon Valley, including the Google Domes. There are three amazing Goo...

IBM 6-16-11

On June 16, 2011, we helped commemorate IBM’s 100th anniversary by doing a “People Logo” of IBM Research – Almaden Lab employees in San Jose, California. It was a hot afternoon, but the scientis...

Foss Maritime working the Aircraft Carrier Midway

Midway 10-7-2003

USS Midway comes to Oakland: Thirty years of aerial photography have enabled us to accomplish some remarkable things on the job. In October 2003, we were asked to photograph the USS Midway as it arriv...

Night Aerial Photography

Night aerial photography is a very specialized art form. We are especially proud of our daughter, Niki Britton, who has mastered the skill and produced some of our most memorable photographs. What mak...

Alaska Aug 2015

Over the last 30 years, we have been privileged to have flown and photographed in some of the most beautiful places on earth. During these warm days of early summer, it feels good to look back at a tr...

Pilot Boat 3-18-25

When we started this “30 years of aerial photography in 30 weeks” project, I was certain that our most memorable shoots were behind us. This past March, however, we were shooting a site near the Gold...

Salesforce

We have had a love affair with the Salesforce Tower since it was under construction. We have photographed this beautiful San Francisco landmark at all times of day and night, from airplanes and helico...

Sinking Sailboat

The Sinking Sailboat 1-29-24: In the 30 years we’ve been doing aerial photography, the most common question we get asked is, “What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever seen from t...

Cranes 5-1-2002

Cranes on their way to the Port of Oakland. In May 2002, we were hired to document the arrival of giant cranes under the Golden Gate Bridge into the bay, heading for their permanent home at the Port o...

Mare Island

Mare Island turned out to be Love Island: Some pictures we are asked to take turn out to be very personal. The photography we took in July 2022, is of Mare Island, a peninsula located in northern Cal...

Levi’s Stadium Construction Progress

From Groundbreaking to Opening Day 2012 – 2014! Construction progress photography may not be the flashiest part of our work, but when we’re asked to document a project from groundbreaking ...