Lightning Strikes Chino – the vid

As previously posted, I was part of the media day at Planes of Fame for their upcoming airshow, Lightning Strikes Chino. Not until late last night did I remember I shot video with the Moose Cam (Contour w/NightFlight filter). Shooting with the D4 with 80-400AFS attached, the Contour rides left of the viewfinder, attached to the shot shoe with the Manfrotto 492LCD Micro Ball Head. There are two reasons why I love the Contour: the rotating front permits you to level the image no matter the angle of the camera; it works Bluetooth with the iPhone so I can see exactly what the camera sees!

You will see just how much turbulence there was for our short flight as I bounce around. You can see the end of the 80-400AFS which was on its first of many air to air flights. I did an amazing job! My gloved hand is around the front to keep from scratching plex I’m shooting through (you can see scratches already there from others) and shade the plex as much as possible. It was an amazing fun, bumpy, great flight! I want to thank Planes of Fame and the pilots, John Hinton (P-51D), John Maloney (P-38J) and Matt Nightingale pilot of T-Bone for doing a great job!. Enjoy!

A Moment with Sierra Lightning

Saturday night we had the makings of a thunderstorm actually producing some much needed rain. By sunset, nothing. Then I thought I saw a flash but never heard any thunder. Forty minutes later the fast moving storm had gone north past us. Using the iPad app Radar, I saw the track of the storm to be right over the house so I grabbed the D4, 24f1.4 AFS and tripod and went out on the deck and waited. I got outside and just set up when the first “close” claps began. Just then it started to pour so wimping out, I went inside.

Once inside (and back to the Olympics) I switched out lenses to the 50f1.4AFS because I could see less of the sky. My settings were basic night lightning settings, ISO100, 8sec f/4 – f/5.6, Manual Focus, Flash WB (so the house lights would be warm). I attached the MC-36 and while watching the Olympics, every time I heard the shutter close, I depressed the shutter release. And as fast as the storm started, it was blown past us. What you see here in the video is the start of the storm, the meat of the storm and then the last downpour light up by car lights. In one of the last frames, while there is no bolt of lightning, dead center you’ll see a Big Brown Bat flying by.

When it comes to creating the video, that’s a snap. I took all the images and had them in a folder. Launched Photoshop > Time Line > Add Media and selected all the images. I put a Cross Fade between each image and then Export > Render Video and upload. It was that simple! I like the video presentation for the storm rather than the stills you see here (my favorites from the shoot). And if I could, while you’re watching the video, I’d be right be hand your chair yelling, BANG!

#74 Hits the Course

This is the closest we’ll ever get to racing at Reno. In Sept, 2011, my dear friends permitted me to place a GoPro in the cockpit of #74 Super Corsair to create an amazing video. What I have here is just 15min of the 208min process of getting an Unlimited up on the course and back down again.

Just what are you seeing here? The video starts with my bud Casey turning on the GoPro just at the start of the process of getting #74 ready for racing. You see Brady getting in #74, #74 being pulled out, gassed and placed on the ramp prior to the race (in the skies is a L-39 show). You’ll then see Robert Odegaard, one of the best pilots out there, get in #74, do the preflight and then taxi. #74 will take to the skies (you can see the GoPro in the still capture above and me taking the photo on take off in the video) and get in place with the other Unlimiteds prior to jumping on the course. You’ll see a T-33 Jet, that’s the pace plane. You’ll see the Unlimiteds jump on the course and then Robert take #74 around on three laps. You’re watching one of the best behind the stick. It’s a great show! Enjoy!

And if you’re wondering why I’m just posting this now, it’s because I’m behind! I have 980GB of video shot during the last year that I’ve not edited and posted. This 15min comes from 5.98GB, 208min of video and even though I edited it in Photoshop CS6, still took 2hr to get done. But I think you’ll find it worth the wait.

Winter Feeder Fun

In the Bag
• D4
• 300mm AFS
• Lexar 64GB 1000x UDMA
• SB-910
• Nikon SD-9
• PocketWizard FlexTT5
• PocketWizard MiniTT1 Radio Slave
• PocketWizard AC3
• LumiQuest Promax Softbox III

A Historic Flight

Video is a part of most of my shooting the past couple of years. Usually I mumble at it because I find it a pain in the arse when it comes to editing. But there are times when I am so glad I’ve taken the time to become somewhat familiar with it. This is just one such occasion. The Moose Cam was running as we experienced this piece of aviation history. The video tells just part of the story. The rest will appear in three articles I have coming out. There is that much when it comes to the people and the aircraft making this day happen. The only piece of trivia is the little white plane on the left you see as the Super Corsair taxis out is the A36 Bonanza where we sitting, waiting our turn to taxi out to run up area.

When it comes to creation of the video, I’m using now the Coolpix S9100 because it shoots 1080p but has no way of connecting a mic. It rides in the hotshoe of the D3x via a miniball head. I hope you enjoy!

In the Bag
D3x with
70-200VR2 and
TC-17e II
D3s with
24-70AFS all loaded with
Lexar 32GB 600x cards
Coolpix S9100 Moose Cam attached to
Manfrotto 494 Mini Ball

You’re One Crazed Photographer!

I received more then one email this last week with this sentiment. It comes from video I had playing as folks walked into my presentations this past week at B&H, Unique Photo and Foto Care. It’s the video you can see below of our air to air shoot with the F2G-2 Super Corsair. While I was talking wildlife photography, I can’t help but sneak in a little aviation photography anymore and the response has been, well, simply amazing! When you have 150 folks waiting in line to ask questions, answering questions really thoroughly is a little bit of a challenge. I also had a number of emails about this shoot so thought I’d post all the answers to all the questions I can.

This was a still photography editorial shoot. The photography platform is a A36 Bonanza, the subject is a F2G-2 Super Corsair. The principle camera rig is the D3x with 70-200VR2 w/TC-17e attached. Secondary is the D3s with 24-70AFS. When the buffer of the D3x is full, I switch over to the D3s, otherwise the D3x does all the work. Attached into the hot shoe of the D3x hotshoe is a Coolpix S9100 shooting 1080vid. In the cockpit of the Super Corsair is a GoPro shooting video of its cockpit and me hanging out the photo platform.

Shooting the video you see above is Sharon, she’s in the second seat in the A36 cabin. She’s shooting with the D7000 with a 16-18AFS lens. Attached in its hotshoe is the Sennheiser G3 with the mic tucked up in the earpiece of my David/Clark headset to record the audio. Now you might be wondering what am I going to do with all this video because we shot a lot. Well, we have a lot of behind the scenes video sitting in the can and I’ve just now hired an editor to put all the pieces together so we can share it with you. I started 2011 thinking I could tackle that along with everything else I do and, well, I simply don’t have the time or skills. So, it’s one of those winter projects we’ll slowly get finished and posted. I hope this answers folks questions on the story behind the video

You are so lucky you have a video to look at because if you had to survive on just my drawings, you’d never learn a thing! But I hope this answers folk’s questions. You sure were great and I really look forward to seeing you on the flight line!

In the Bag
D3x
D3S
70-200VR2
24-70AFS
TC-17E
Lexar 32GB 600 UDMA
Coolpix S9100 w/Manfrotto Ball Head
D7000
16-85AFS
Sennheiser G3 w/Fuzzy Windjammer
GoPro

Moose Cam – Air2Air TX

The thrill of working with a WWII bomber and fighters is like no other, especially meeting them in their environment, the skies!

A Lit’l Taste of Life at a SJKF Den

I am a still photographer, it’s my goal to capture that definitive moment that says a 1000 words in a single click. On the other hand, I am an amazingly fortunate photographer seeing natural events few others can ever experience. I’ve had a whole lot of emails, a whole lot, asking why I’ve worked with the San Joaquin Kit Fox for 24yrs. The answer is pretty simple, I haven’t got their whole story on film yet and, well, watch the video, it says it better then I can.

A little technical background. The daylight video is a den site with 3 adults and 3 pups (about 8 weeks old). The video was captured by the Coolpix S9100 (shooting 1080p) attached to the hot shoe of the D3x with the 200-400VR2 (handheld). All the stills of the pups were at 1/20. The night video was shot with the D3x attached to the 600VR shot at ISO 9000 (definitely not handheld). The video you are seeing here is just a small clip from the night and is kinda the first of its kind thanks to the amazing D3s. There are 4 adults and 4 pups at this site though you will only see 3 and 3. The lighting is the ever lovely sodium vapor. But without it, I couldn’t share this very simple joy of mother nature with you!