Bobby Haas | pilot | Namibian desert | aerial photographer

Take the time Haas was photographing the Namibian desert, widely believed to be the oldest in the world. He was flying with a new pilot he did not know. Silly pilot: He forgot to secure the seats with something more than Velcro.

"We're up in the air, and all of a sudden, the rear seats start moving forward," Haas says. "I had to grab them before they hit the pilot." The kicker: Haas told the pilot to land so the seats could be tied down. When he did, the pilot decided to shut the helicopter's rotors down. "I just looked at him and said, 'Why did you shut the engines down? What if we couldn't restart it?' We were in the middle of the Namibian desert and no one knew where we were."

Funny thing about that: Haas may spend weeks of the year sticking his head out of a helicopter and taking rides with pilots of potentially dubious merit, but he doesn't strike you as a daredevil. Not even close. He speaks slowly and exactingly. He's pleasant but also seems very serious. One could much more easily picture Haas poring over balance sheets than hovering over the king of the jungle.

But somehow, when you think about it, it makes sense that Bobby Haas does both of these things. After all, he enjoys both, and, really, leveraged buyouts and aerial photography aren't all that different. Are they, Bobby?

"To be good in the deal business, you have to err on the side of being a perfectionist," he says. "You have to constantly be aware of the risks, because there are so many ways deals can get into trouble. I think artists also chase perfection. As an aerial photographer, I'm looking for an extraordinary image, just like I'm looking for an extraordinary deal in business."

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what makes aerial photography unique? bobby haas explains.

it moves fast. "with aerial photography, you can take a virtually unlimited range of images at any time. you're maybe 1,000, 2,000, or 10,000 feet in the air, and you're constantly moving, making rapid-fire selections of what you want to shoot.â€