Why Hanging Out of a Cessna Was the Only Way to Shoot Belize's Great Blue Hole

I needed this shot. No exceptions. I traveled to Belize with one goal, which was to capture the sheer scale of the massive marine sinkhole from the sky. The stakes were high because shooting through the tiny window of a bumpy prop plane makes framing an exact composition incredibly difficult.

It was tight. Really tight. I jammed my camera body against the glass while the pilot banked hard over the open ocean to give me a perfect top-down angle.

The conditions were tricky. Severe glare. The bright tropical sun was bouncing right off the water and reflecting into the cabin, threatening to ruin my entire exposure. To pull this off, I set my camera to a fast shutter speed of 1/400th of a second at f/6.3 and locked the ISO to 125. I used a circular polarizer filter to cut through the surface reflection, revealing the dramatic depth transition from the shallow turquoise reef to the pitch-black center of the hole.

The result? Unreal. The raw contrast between the coral shapes and the deep blue abyss came through perfectly on the sensor.

If you are planning to shoot from a small aircraft, do not leave your settings on auto. Keep your shutter speed high to fight the engine vibration, push your lens close to the glass to eliminate reflections, and always secure your gear because a sudden pocket of turbulence can send your camera flying.