Justin de Reuck Hangs Out Of An Aerobatic Plane With No Seatbelt To Get The Shot

What have you done to get the shot today? Parked your car, walked into a studio? Plunked down a tripod on a sandy, tropical beach? Fiddled with some macro rails? South African aviation photographer Justin de Reuck unstrapped a good deal of his harness, slid open the canopy, and took photos at what I'm guessing is 100 knots, mere feet from the ground. I'm not sure how that plane actually took off with Justin's balls of steel on board, because man, they must be huge.

While the video takes a minute to get to the good stuff, it is well, well worth a watch if you're interested in aviation photography or just adrenaline-pumping video in general. While I've always been into this kind of stuff, I had no idea how wild it can actually get. There's even a moment where Justin is fiddling with his camera, canopy open, and the pilot goes into a high-g banking turn. Justin's reaction is priceless - an instant "Oh god, oh god!" The video isn't super-heavy on the technical or how-to aspect of things, but I still learned a great deal about how these images are made.

While I'm not too well-versed in the physics of all of this or how dangerous it actually is, my palms were definitely sweaty from watching.

If you've got a few minutes to kill, I'd also heartily recommend a visit to Justin's site, which is chock-full of unbelievable aviation images, I guarantee you'll be impressed.

Mike Kelley's picture

Michael Kelley (mpkelley.com) is a Los Angeles-based architectural and fine art photographer with a background in digital art and sculpture. Using his backgrounds in the arts, he creates images that are surreal and otherworldly, yet lifelike and believable. A frequent traveler, Michael's personal work focuses on the built environment of unique

Log in or register to post comments
9 Comments

Ahh he's still got plenty of lap-strap holding him in! What freaks me out is the lack of camera strap going on, could've gone overboard much quicker than him!

nice vid, i was more nervous for the camera than him...lol

Talk about misleading title.  Photographer was still 'secured' and in those planes it takes some serious work to dump a person out of it.  Would of been more impressive if he wing walked to get shots.

I actually fast forward the movie to see the wing walking part... i'm disappointed.

 Care to enlighten those of us who don't do this on a regular basis? :)

Agreed, misleading. There was no 'hanging out of' the plane. He was still technically within the cockpit the whole time.
Im not saying wing walking, but try actually hanging arm length out of the plane to get the shot.

 Seriously! The photographer does nothing compared to the pilots! 1 half inch lower and those planes flipover and it is good night mr/mrs pilot! Impressive! 

I think the next F-Stoppers article should read "Man saws off own arms and achieves award winning time lapse photos of the whole process" that's some attention grabbing words right there, very much like this articles.

Wow, i just saw this and as a commercial pilot myself, this was very dangerous. Any hiccup in the pilots part and he would burry the plane in the water. Very ballsy move.