Want an aerial? She’ll buzz you

You don’t want to fly with Lenska Gaebel. Not unless you can handle aerobatics, dizzying dives, land-hugging fly-bys, sudden turns, quicker corrections.

For 12 years she has been jumping in planes and helicopters to photograph Southern California from between 200 and 1,200 feet up, from shopping developments to Caltrans highway projects. But outside the trade, she’s probably best known for her sideline -- photographing private residences from the air.

“People are really intrigued by the bird’s-eye view of their house,” says Gaebel. “Whenever you take a large photograph of an area and you hang it somewhere, people come up and say, ‘Oh, where do I live?’ It’s always a party conversation piece.”

Often residents want the pictures for entirely practical reasons, from verifying boundary lines to helping real estate agents sell their home. But increasing numbers of homeowners are getting hooked on aerial portraits for their own sake, a “postcard of home,” as seen from above.

Each order has its own challenges.

“I got a call from a husband-to-be with a beautiful home in Poway [in northern San Diego County],” says Gaebel, who lives in La Costa and operates out of Palomar airport. “It was on a mountain. He wanted an aerial picture of his wedding party there -- at 7:30 at night. Well, there were rain clouds that day. We still did it. But first we had to find the house.”

They flew their Robinson R-22 bubble helicopter up through a canyon. “It was very cloudy and dark, but we found them. We did at least six passes. We had light signals. We set it up first with the groom and the bride, and no waving, and then when we flashed the light, everybody was allowed to go crazy. [A land-based photo] never would have gotten how the whole house was decorated, with nice white umbrellas, because nobody could step outside and take a picture. It was on a cliff.”

The secret’s also in the flying. “If you do a turn and the rotor blades are down, or the wing, you can’t shoot,” Gaebel says. “So it needs to be a quick turn and quick leveling-off. And that’s where you get sick. Or you may need to go slower, and that’s not the safest way of flying. Only experienced pilots can.”

She is a pilot herself, but she always has a co-pilot up there with her. “I fly the plane until we are there, then I have the other pilot take over.”

How hard is it taking the photos? “With aerial photography, it goes very fast. The angle is there and -- gone! So you have to get it right.”

You also need an iron belly. “If you’re looking through the camera, you don’t see the horizon, so your equilibrium gets tricked very easily. It’s like you’re riding a roller coaster in the dark. Most people can’t do it.”

So why does she?

This, it turns out, is the fulfillment of a dream that began in Germany. “My grandfather was a World War II photographer. He didn’t want to join the Nazi party. He said he’d be better standing behind the camera and documenting stuff. He ended up photographing everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Hitler himself. After the war he started a business buying, selling and renting cameras.”

Gaebel, who was born in Berlin in 1963, seemed destined to take over the family business. Then she met “this wonderful guy” who wanted to come to the United States to be a helicopter pilot. “So we came in 1988. And when I said, ‘Hey, we need to buy a helicopter. We want to open an aerial photo business,’ my grandparents said, ‘If you don’t want to take over the family business, we’ll help you buy a helicopter.’ ” Her grandfather also customized a Linhoff camera with Zeiss lenses for the job.

She’s been in business since 1990, buying an airplane and a photo lab, and most recently making the switch to digital.

So who calls? “It’s usually those with gorgeous homes, groves of citrus trees, pools, tennis courts, secret gardens, too much to capture in one shot except from above,” Gaebel says. “And it’s wives, mainly, trying to get an unusual gift for the husband or dad.” She charges between $200 and $300 for a 16-by-20-inch photo, before framing.

Her advice to anyone thinking of getting an aerial of their home: Research the company. “Some photographers out there shoot and fly at the same time, which I don’t personally find very safe. Also, you want to get the right angle, and sometimes you can’t do both at once.”

Since starting the business, Lenska’s husband has left both her and the business to fly helicopters in the Grand Canyon. Any regrets about following him to the States in the first place? “Well, I was tortured about coming. I mean, who gives up a going, booming family business, everything just for adventure and a guy? Now I know better. I would just give it up for the adventure.”