Three helicopters, two cranes and a cherry picker were required for the images taken from high up.
For the hole in the field image and the buses on the drives, the camera had to be locked in position (for only a few hours in the case of the buses, but 3 days for the hole in the field image) as the retouching required multiple exposures to achieve the required effect, so the camera couldn’t move.

 

The photo of the old folks on the fairground ride was taken from the only thing stable enough and high enough to get very close to them (using a wide angle lens) so far off the ground, a crane. The models were told about the job requirements beforehand and we were assured that they were all happy with being fired up high on a fairground ride. I requested an extra model, just in case one wasn’t as happy as they said they’d be. Sure enough the first time one was hurled into the air, he turned white and asked to leave (always have a back-up).

One of the models said it was lucky I wasn’t afraid of heights… at the time I was hanging over the side of the large metal bucket attached to the crane, looking down on them, camera with wide angle lens in hand – no fear.