Classic Gas!

Yeah Baby, they haul ass! Hawker Sea Fury is a pretty darn cool Korean War vet. The paint scheme of the Dreadnought just begs to be photographed.

My personal challenge continued with this speedster, showing off the romance of flight with the bat out of hell profile. During the Sept races the planes fly a pretty tight track around the course, not so during PRS so each time they come around the course they are a different distance from you. This gives you different opportunities to make all sorts of different images.

With clouds in the background, romance and speed is much easier to capture. Throw in a really low pass along the ridgeline at Pylon#4 and you’re golden!

Photos captured by D3s, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

A Little Jet Action

Typically in June, Reno is HOT, like 90-100 hot. Typical though for my year, the heat I wanted for the afternoon thunderstorms was only 69 the first day. Not makin no clouds when it’s that cold. On Thursday, a little thermal action happened and the clouds began to form.

We were at Pylon #4 and saw the clouds forming. When there are great clouds you wanta be at Pylon #5. But you just can’t drive wherever you want on the course whenever you want. FAA and all that stuff. So, we had our eyes on Pylon#5 but didn’t make the move until we knew it was the place to be. Pylon#4 don’t suck so didn’t want to leave a great place but we didn’t dare jinx ourselves and move early.

Above is a L-39 Albratros which soon was joined by a TS-11 Iskra (with a hot paint job). You might be looking at the clouds and thinking, “did they move?”

Nope, we didn’t move this day, the clouds just never got to have any real drama to them. There were little wisps here and there like you see here which were nice, but you had to watch very carefully in the viewfinder as you panned to capture those small wisps in the background.

The color of the TS-11 Iskra against the blue sky with the hint of clouds just rocked though. And it was great fun and a challenge to capturing it in front of the right wisp of clouds. It makes shooting at the pylons fun!

Photos captured by D3s, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

How Do I Spell Speed?

Cranking at 450mph, the P-51 cuts through the sky with amazing speed and grace. It’s hard to imagine what they were like over the skies of Europe in WWII.

Bringing to life that speed and grace I think is a real challenge. What if you focus on the second plane in so doing blurring the lead plane. Does that communicate their speed?

Of course I’m shooting in Shutter Speed priority at 1/180 to get prop blur. That adds to the illusion of speed, as does shooting it diving and moving away from the camera.

But I think it’s the combination of all these things with a blurred background that really does the job. You might wondering about the placement of the P-51 in this last frame. Personally I really like it, makes it feel like it’s screaming up from some airfield to do battle with incoming enemy planes. The romance of flight, I’m still workin on it and in the meantime, I spell speed P-51D

Photo captured by D3s, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

Simple Click – Light at 6000 Feet

My big push is to put the romance into my aviation photography. The biggest key to bringing in that romance is light. Just like in all of my photography, light is what sucks the person into the photo first.

And to answer a question many are sending in right now, yes, I was in another plane and this is an air to air shoot. mtc on that.

MiG Morning

We decided to get up at 4am so we could be on the flight line at 5am for sunrise. It always sounds like such a smart idea the night before. It was pretty quite on the ramp so we moseyed down to the far east end where a bunch of MiGs were parked. There is a firm there that reconditions them for resale. So I kissed the tarmac, placed the camera on the ground, put the bracketing to 5 images and produced some HDRs (yeap, did handheld HDRs).

My static plane photography needs lots of work. I’m building up my inventory of plane images so this little exercise helps both. Making something that’s designed to go Mach look good when parked on the ground I find quite a challenge. Being such I do a lot of it with most of it ending up in the Trash Can. I keep working on it though with these I kept.

This is a MiG 21

This is a MiG 15 Midget

This is a MiG 21 Mongol

Photos captured by D3s, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

Simple Click – Keys?

I love the Corsair! Man, I wish I had the keys, I’m dying to take ‘er for a spin!

Lovin' the 200-400VR2!

The principle lens I used at PRS was the 200-400VR2. It did a great job, I’m lovin what I’m seeing in my images. Here’s a quick example, focused on the pilot, Bruce, as he heads around the pylon. The shutter speed for this handheld image was 1/180. Schweet!

Click Here

Lovin’ the 200-400VR2!

The principle lens I used at PRS was the 200-400VR2. It did a great job, I’m lovin what I’m seeing in my images. Here’s a quick example, focused on the pilot, Bruce, as he heads around the pylon. The shutter speed for this handheld image was 1/180. Schweet!

Click Here

And They’re Off!

When a race starts, the planes are lined up in a group but it doesn’t last. The planes soon spread out across the field. During PRS, there is no race or time keeping but rather just learning the course and testing new gear. But they still start the same as a tight group.

These are the T-6 Texan, a WWII trainer that is pretty popular, especially with me. #33 is no stranger to the blog, a plane I’ve photographed and photographed from in the air. It also races at Reno and in June with the skies we have, it’s color scheme really stands out. Now this is the typical bread and butter shot you get at the pylons. It’s one I love to take, trying just to capture the speed of the craft.

But as I mentioned last week, I was pushing myself to do more this PRS. Carter here is pushing #33 hard around the pylons, taking the turns pretty darn tight. That’s gives one the opportunity to look right into the pilot seat and the intensity they fly with. Just working on this one new aspect of shooting at the pylons pushed me and I learned a few lessons in doing so. Stick around, there is a lot more to come on this topic.

Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

And They’re Off!

When a race starts, the planes are lined up in a group but it doesn’t last. The planes soon spread out across the field. During PRS, there is no race or time keeping but rather just learning the course and testing new gear. But they still start the same as a tight group.

These are the T-6 Texan, a WWII trainer that is pretty popular, especially with me. #33 is no stranger to the blog, a plane I’ve photographed and photographed from in the air. It also races at Reno and in June with the skies we have, it’s color scheme really stands out. Now this is the typical bread and butter shot you get at the pylons. It’s one I love to take, trying just to capture the speed of the craft.

But as I mentioned last week, I was pushing myself to do more this PRS. Carter here is pushing #33 hard around the pylons, taking the turns pretty darn tight. That’s gives one the opportunity to look right into the pilot seat and the intensity they fly with. Just working on this one new aspect of shooting at the pylons pushed me and I learned a few lessons in doing so. Stick around, there is a lot more to come on this topic.

Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

Simple Click – Simple Joy

Here’s one of the “worst” images from the air to air shoot. Yeah, I Loved It All!

PRS Rocks!

What an amazing, amazing week! In the last two days I’ve shot everything from corporate portraits to group PR portraits to pylon racing to air to air with a five ship T6 flight. I’ve been averaging 8000 images a day and loving every moment! The shooters, RARA volunteers, ground crews and the pilots (who I’m getting to know more and more) make this THE event in my books. I have 105GB of unedited images from that last two days of shooting, uploading until 1am and back at 5am on the flight line shooting filling up cards again. I’m bone tired, beaten up from the air to air and in the Nikon Center (rather then being a field rep today) today just trying to get caught up. We’re making plans for Oshkosh (end of July), lining up new air to air projects and editing images and thoughts I would through up one.

This gorgeous P-51D owned by Chuck Greenhill is painted up in the original Yellow Jacket Squadron and is part of the Unlimited Class. One of the best things about the June PRS are the afternoon thunderheads that hopefully form. On this day, we had some nice clouds so I positioned myself so if the planes stayed on the right track running the course, it would put them in front of the clouds. On this pass, I scored. I’ve been experimenting and pushing my photography this week. My keeper rate has gone down but the number of “cool” and “romantic” images has gone up. I’m a very happy and tired shooter!

Photo captured by D3s, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

Simple Click – AHhhhhhhh

Thursday was an amazing day, 98GB of images that I’m still editing. There is MORE to COME! Here’s a F4 Corsair to hold ya over.

Calling all DLWS Alumni!

My lovely assistant Stephanie has sent out a DLWS Alumni Invite.

Please be sure to check throughout your email boxes to see if you have received anything from her.

If not, and you are Alumni, please send Steph a quick email letting her know. Especially if your email has changed.

Stephanie’s Email:
stephie@moosepeterson.com

A Class I Usually Don’t Hit Hard

It’s just me, but I typically don’t get excited about shooting the more “modern” jets. But today this L-39 Albatros in the afternoon light was just darn cool so click I went.

At first I tried to make interesting clicks of it coming and of it going but after a couple of orbits, I decided I wanted to do better than the norm so decided to get shots that looked like I was shooting down on the plane. This meant seeing into the cockpit.

To get that shot meant being in the right place when the L-39 banked to shoot around the pylon. I didn’t quite get it but I do like this shot. So, it’s something I’m going to pursue the rest of the week. Which me luck. Oh yeah, it’s going by at 400-500′ doing 540mph. Not bad panning if you ask me

Photos captured by D3s, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

A Class I Usually Don’t Hit Hard

It’s just me, but I typically don’t get excited about shooting the more “modern” jets. But today this L-39 Albatros in the afternoon light was just darn cool so click I went.

At first I tried to make interesting clicks of it coming and of it going but after a couple of orbits, I decided I wanted to do better than the norm so decided to get shots that looked like I was shooting down on the plane. This meant seeing into the cockpit.

To get that shot meant being in the right place when the L-39 banked to shoot around the pylon. I didn’t quite get it but I do like this shot. So, it’s something I’m going to pursue the rest of the week. Which me luck. Oh yeah, it’s going by at 400-500′ doing 540mph. Not bad panning if you ask me

Photos captured by D3s, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

Go Dennis, Go!

You might recognize #33, it’s the T6 that has been in a lot of my aviation photographs. The owner is Dennis who actually has three of his planes in PRS this week. But he’s not flying #33.

Now I don’t know if it’s ethical or not, but I was naturally rooting for Dennis even though he was racing. There is no racing going on, no laps and not timers. The pilots are here to get use to the course, test out their planes and just have a great time. #43 in the hands of Dennis has won the races in the past, I’m pulling for him to repeat. Only Sept will tell. I’m excited because I’ll be in #43 flying this week along with some other planes. Be sure to stay tuned for the excitement!

For those who are wondering, to get the blurred prop, you need a shutter speed at most 1/250. To get that speed, this is the only time I use Shutter Priority.

Photos captured by D3s, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

From Flight to Flight

Yeap, we flew from TX to Reno to be here for PRS (Pilot Race School). This is just a great event with great planes in great skies with great friends. Oh yeah, damn great photography too! Here’s just a small example of the fun and photography. #94 belongs to my good friend Dennis, the pilot of the T6 I fly with to do a lot of air to air work.

So this is the first kind of photography I go after, the basic coming and going shots. As the pilots are practicing for the races in Sept, they fly the course as we photographers are standing at the pylons photographing them going by. My good friend Richard taught me my first time out that there is more to shooting then just them coming down the course at us. Turning around and getting them as they go away can yield some cool stuff too. My friend Tom is here for the first time and all he did all day was smile. I took that as he thought the planes just 500′ screaming by were cool. It is!

Photos captured by D3s, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film

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