With the helicopter door wide open, there is very little between photographer Lucia Griggi and the perilously cold Arctic Ocean thousands of feet below. Held inside the chopper by a single harness, the nature and adventure specialist leans over the edge, gripping her camera close as she takes aerial photographs of the glaciers and ice shelves beneath.

"The funny thing is, I'm scared of heights," says Lucia, who has been shooting from the air for 10 years. "But that's the thing about photography – I love it so much, I become focused in the moment. As long as I get that shot, nothing else matters."

Lucia's images have featured in National Geographic, Condé Nast Traveller and on ESPN, and she has worked with brands such as Rip Curl, Billabong and Jeep. Today she works full-time in the travel industry shooting images of nature and wildlife, mainly in the polar regions.

Lenses for aerial photography

Lucia often uses zoom lenses such as the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L III USM and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS III USM, but she favours prime lenses where possible and bases her lens choice on both technical and practical needs.

"If I'm shooting low, or down out of a window, I prefer to use a lighter lens to get the angle, such as the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM," she says. "But when the doors are open and I'm on a harness, the Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens is a dream for shooting ice shelves or glaciers. I can shoot handheld, crop in for an abstract shot and the images are still very sharp."

A delicate balance of light

Getting the lighting right is one of the biggest challenges Lucia faces when shooting from the sky. "You have to consider which direction you can shoot in and utilise the sun and cloud cover, which acts as a natural softbox," she explains. "Shooting glaciers and ice shelves can be challenging because of the whiteness of it all. Unlike a braided river, with its vibrant colours, glaciers are practically monochrome, so you have to go in the right weather to bring the most out of it. You're looking for something different, a pattern to paint a picture with this sort of abstract vision in mind. With braided rivers it's about the colours, but with glaciers it's about lines and shapes."

Lucia recommends using semi-automatic modes, in order to "worry less about the technicalities of shooting and concentrate more on framing and balancing the light". In terms of shutter speed, to maintain sharpness she tries not to drop below 1/1200. She adopts the same approach to ISO, which she tries to keep under ISO200, but if the light is compromised and the aperture is wide open, she will bump it up to a maximum of ISO800. In low light, she uses a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM lens to get a sharp image.

"Aperture depends on the conditions," she says. "If it's bright sunshine, I set it to about f/8; if it's low light, such as sunrise or sunset, I'd have it at about f/2.8. The distances involved in aerial photography are more forgiving, so you don't have to adjust your settings. That's the great thing about Canon cameras, you can trust them to get it right and concentrate on framing and exposure."

It's not only her cameras that Lucia has to have faith in. "There will often be a tricky manoeuvre – hovering a few metres above the frozen ground or flying less than a metre from a 50ft ice wall," she says. "I'm attached to a harness, shooting away. I have to trust the pilot, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do what I do."