Sky Is Not The Limit - especially, when you're flying 3km above ground in a helicopter with no doors :)

Hello everyone!
My name is Maciej Margas, I'm a photographer and filmmaker from Warsaw, Poland. After a lot of talks @gandalf convinced me to try and share my story on Steem, so here I am :)
Ever since I began to photograph, I was always keen on doing it from heights. Warsaw was devastated during WWII, so there is a lot of place for skyscrapers here to rise, even in the strict city center. Still during Secondary School I began to capture the city and its changes from its highest points, creating hundreds of cityscapes.
You can follow me on Steem, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or my website.

After the school final exams I decided to go to Warsaw Film School, and to try and shoot a timelapse movie about Warsaw, comprised of shots from skyscrapers, the views I knew so well. At that time there wasn't any other movie like this about my city and timelapse technique was beginning to show up in Poland. My first trials weren't so good but as the time passed I mastered my technique.

Warsaw 24H timelapse

The project I named 'Warsaw 24H timelapse' took longer than I expected - since the first shots until it's release 15 months had passed. It took so much time because of a few factors, mainly because of the problems with permissions to access the rooftops and aligning them with the right weather. Also, I had to think of some sort of a scenario, which is quite difficult when it comes to showing the landscapes.

I decided to show (as you may'd have guessed by the movie's title) 24 hours in Warsaw, from sunrise, to the night. In the meantime I got very inspired by Hans Zimmer's 'Time', and I hired a Composer Piotr Hummel with a mission to create soundtrack for my movie. I could write a book about 'Warsaw 24H timelapse' creation, but I prefer to save something for my next story and by now just to show you the movie :)

The premiere took place during Movie Discussion Club at Muranów Cinema in Warsaw, then I published it on Youtube. And what happened next was beyond my wildest Dreams! During one week over 100k people have seen it, by now it's over 540k on Youtube only - what makes it the most popular timelapse movie not only about Warsaw, but about Poland too.

It was shown on the water courtain in the Warsaw Multimedia Fountain's Park (with millions of people there), In Melbourne during Warsaw Uprising Anniversary, and even during the 25 Years of Freedom Celebration, when Barrack Obama came to Poland! I also appeared in many Polish medias, TVs, Radio, and so on, so that's when I finally could go on my own and I had my first serious clients :)

Warsaw on Air

After the huge success of my debut movie I had... a creative crisis. I was thinking there is nothing new to discover in Warsaw landscapes. It all changed when I met Aleksandra Łogusz, hidden under the nickname 'Blogusz', who impressed me with her photograph "Dream of Warsaw", and we began to work together. That's when my new project,Warsaw On Air, came in. She shot photographs of Warsaw from the plane, as seen from the right bank of the river.

It occured to me, that there aren't any good quality night (or even day) photos of modern Warsaw from above. Even I wasn't thinking before about going higher that rooftops. It appeared very interesting to me, because Warsaw city center seemed to be very attractive from aerial perspective, even if that's only what I imagined.
In the next couple of months I got to know what is the problem - to fly above the Warsaw city center, you need a few permissions - from Government Security Bureau, Crisis Management Office, Civil Aviation Office, and you can fly in there only in a 2-engined helicopter, which costs over 2500 EUR per hour (+vat)!

It was an incredible amount of money for me, and it was obvious that 1 hour in the air won't be enough to make a great photo session. On the image below you can see me next to Robinson R66 Turbine we used for the next aerial sessions.

I spent next couple of months looking for a sponsor, and just when I was losing any hope, in September 2015, Coca Cola Poland said they would like to support a young artist. And the next events came very quickly. First, I made a test flight over the right bank of the river in a small Cessna 152, which is obviously a lot cheaper. Then I published them on the Internet with the teaser of what I'm going to do (until that time a kept the project in a secret, so no one could copy it from me).

After that, a man from Polish crowdfunding website Pomagam.pl invited me to make a campaign at his site. I wasn't very convinced, but there was no other way for me to gain more funds by that time, and the weather was turning bad, since it was already Autumn. It was a shock for me, but in 3 days I gained money for additional 1 hour of flight (1 man gave me 1500 Eur at once!). Of course every supporter received the prints of the photos I shot from helicopter, calendars and other cool stuff we've made. In the meantime I've found 2 smaller sponsors - Enigma SOI, and InterLeones. Also, Canon Poland supported me with their best equipment, including Canon 1DX, Canon 5DsR, and the best L Prime lenses.

On 2.10.2015 I made it! In the picture below you can see me sitting in a helicopter in open doors, with my legs outside. I spent 1,5h in the air during day, and 1,5h during night, we started right after sunset. I was sitting in open doors, with my legs outside, attached inside by safety ropes.

Warsaw On Air project went viral all over the Polish Internet, and the photographs I shot became very popular. In the next couple of months I was invited to make an exhibition on 35th floor of WTT skyscraper, then it was showed also in Czech Prague and in Slovakian Kosice. I opened along with Aleksandra the Internet store with our prints and other gadgets - Warsaw Gift Shop.

I also began to think about publishing a photobook of my aerials, and I thought that now, after I showed it in so many medias, it will be easier to find a sponsor. It was't. I spent a few months waiting for a sponsor, but there wasn't any. Even at the Warsaw Book Fair nobody was interested in publishing my photographs...
In May 2016, mostly to my surprise, I was honoured with Grand Press Photo Award in Environmental category. It's the most prestigious Polish photography contest! You can see awarded photo - Planet Warsaw - below:

And it was the motivation I needed. I decided there is no sense in waiting for a sponsor, and I created new crowdfunding campaign, but this time main prize for supporting me was the one and only Warsaw On Air photobook, despite the fact even I couldn't really say how should it look like by that time. This time over 160 people helped me to gain funds for new helicopter flights.

I was flying a few times - during 'W' Hour in Warsaw, and what was the most amazing experience - even 3500 meters above ground level, by night! It's the height from which you can capture the whole city in one frame. We also tried to repeat it by day, but it came out it's much more difficult in Autumn and the weather changes, so we waited over 2 months for the right conditions. Later I also flew 3km during winter.

The next problem was preparing the photobook I promised to everyone. I couldn't just put in nice images and sell it. I spent some time thinking of any kind of conception, and then I came with an idea to compare city to the living organism. I created chapter - The Lung of the City, the Heart of the City, the Nervous System etc. Then I assigned photographs to chapters, and I could finally write something about them.

Crowdfunding helped me only in gaining money for flights, but in the end I found PGNiG Termika and Colliers as the Photobook Partners, and the rest I just invested. Coordinating work of a graphic, translator, printing house, delivery (the whole issue weighted 4 tons!) was very stressful. Until the very release day and new exhibition I wasn't sure if it is going to work...

2.04.2017 I showed my book to the world and it was a huuuuuuge success! It came out that Warsaw Gift Shop is the only store where you can buy a book about modern Warsaw, also in english. Every other publishing houses have only historic Warsaw. By showing this city today we found a niche! We appeared the books in many TVs, we get the orders from all around Warsaw, Poland, and the world. We also collect photos from other parts of the globe - so we got a photo of an album with Sydney's Opera, Golden Gate bridge, Dubai skyscrapers. We even get calls from the Government Offices and Bank's Presidents, asking where can they buy album! In 10 days since the book's release the book paid of.

Last month we also showed our book at Warsaw Book Fair - the very place where 1 year ago everybody told us it has no marketing potential :) It’s kind of funny that this kind of project could be finished only thanks to crowdfunding and self-publishing, without any help from city departments etc. Watch my story in the video below:

Steem seems to be cool platform to show my work so I hope to tell you more about my projects in the upcoming stories. Can’t wait for the reactions of the community here :) I hope my story will inspire you. What I learned from Warsaw On Air, is that dreams don't come true themselves - you can make them true.

Aerial perspective and reaching extreme heights gave me completely another attitude about the city, its elements, the system. In the end, all the distances became very relative and meaningless. We are all a part of a beating pulse of the city, even if we are not aware of it. I tried hard to share what I saw with the world.

Remember - SKY IS NOT THE LIMIT!!