Meet the pilot who's capturing stunning storm photographs around the world
It's not often that a pilot is also a photographer, providing some truly unique views of storms and our world.
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00:00 Even more than passengers,
00:01 pilots have a different view of weather
00:03 while flying through it.
00:05 Santiago Borja is a pilot and a photographer,
00:09 and though his job is his hobby,
00:11 he's able to capture some amazing images.
00:14 Melissa Constanzer spoke with him about his skills
00:17 and how he manages to combine them together.
00:20 Of course, at first I was only a pilot,
00:23 but then I got lucky to fly international routes,
00:27 so we spent a lot of time in the airplane,
00:30 and usually with extra crews.
00:33 So in the end, you might have a couple hours or more
00:36 of time you can use, and if you can rest, you can eat.
00:39 And then I started doing photography,
00:42 but then focused on storms
00:44 'cause I've always loved weather.
00:46 And I was wondering if I could capture some images
00:49 of this great phenomena around us,
00:51 and turns out I could, and that's how it all began.
00:54 Of course, your number one priority in the air
00:56 is safety, but then two, you wanna capture
01:00 some of these amazing images.
01:01 How do you determine the bounce for that?
01:03 When you're flying long haul,
01:07 typically there's not only two pilots.
01:09 It's three or even four.
01:11 So you take turns at the controls.
01:14 So when you're not at the controls,
01:15 you can literally walk around the airplane.
01:18 As long as there's not something unusual
01:21 that's requiring your attention,
01:23 you usually have enough time to take a picture,
01:26 so there's no problem.
01:27 Do you have a favorite time of day to take photos
01:32 or perhaps a favorite weather phenomena to take photos of?
01:35 Well, I love capturing storms
01:38 'cause this is kind of something difficult
01:40 to look with the naked eye.
01:42 And it has to be at night
01:44 because these are long exposures.
01:46 Typically, a photo will be two, three seconds long.
01:51 So definitely we wanna be dark sky, no moon,
01:55 and that's pretty much the only way
01:58 I can capture a storm during the night.
02:00 And the rest is just luck.
02:02 I have to be very lucky.
02:03 We have to be also in calm air.
02:05 There has to be no turbulence 'cause I don't have a tripod.
02:08 So I'm just holding the camera with my hands.
02:11 So it's all luck.
02:14 What makes a great photograph in your experience?
02:18 You know, this is not very common
02:20 to have a pilot with a semi-professional camera
02:24 being able to capture the storm.
02:26 So it also involves being able to be at the right place
02:31 at the right time.
02:33 We certainly look forward to more of those birds
02:36 I've used from you.
02:37 Santiago Borja, pilot and photographer,
02:40 thank you for joining us.
02:42 Thank you.
02:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]