Now, Let’s Juice This Thing Up!

You might be wondering, “Is it hard to sit in a seat in the wind and shoot?” It really isn’t, it’s not as windy as you might think, at least it wasn’t as windy as I thought it would be. What was hard was to think about photography and not just sit there and enjoy the flight. In fact, there were many times when I did just that, sat, look, stared, dreamed and watch the countryside slip by. I can’t thank Mike enough for not only the opportunity but the amazing night. Whata flight!

OK, back to work. With the limited buffer of the D3x and since we were flying which means things go by quickly and there is no repeats, taking care with picture taking is important. So the first think I watched was the lighting on the wings and the ground. Look at the top photo, see how the wings are in shadow? This to me isn’t light and airy and doesn’t communicate the sheer joy of being in an open cockpit plane flying. With that in mind and Mike did the wing overs I would first enjoy the banked turn and then watching the light, bring the camera up with the strut shadows could be used to lead the eye into the frame.

After that, it was all about the background (it’s always about the background with me) and in this case, it was earth. I wanted the curved horizon which from our angle and the 16Fish was easy to do. If the wing weren’t in the middle of the frame like the top frame, you see the curve of the earth looking a little off to say the least. This meant the wing need to be centered so the curve would look correct. So you add up lens, light and background in the bottom photo and you get the kind of images I was after while having the time of my life!

Photos captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

It Was My Turn Next

After 20min Sharon was safely back on the ground (only literally) and it was my turn to climb in and go up. Mike has the Stearman set up with not one but two safety belt systems, just in case when you’re inverted and one fails, you don’t fall out. That is a comforting thought because the one thing I’ve always wanted to do was go inverted in an open cockpit plane (we didn’t do it since we didn’t have the 3rd safety measure, parachutes). So seated and strapped in, off we went!

Oh man, is this ever big time freakin fun! Seriously, one of the best flights I’ve ever had. The skies were clear, the winds nearly zero, it was a slow, romantic flight over the Kansas landscape. As you might tell from the top shot that Sharon took (that’s her shadow on the wing), a 16Fish was attached to the D3x. There isn’t a whole lot of room in the cockpit of a Stearman to take a bag of gear with you. The photo mission really was not the landscape below no anything air to air, it was all about the flight and for that photo mission, the 16Fish rules king!

The one thing that might be confusing you about the two bottom images is the lack of “Fish” look to the photos. The wings and horizon line are pretty straight, you’re not seeing a whole lot of curve not even in the struts. That’s because the camera/lens are being held pretty much “level” so the horizon line is going right through the middle of the frame. Then, I’m being very conscious of keeping vertical lines away from the side of the frame so they don’t bow. This way, you just see the 180 amazing degree view that I was enjoying from the cockpit. Wow, what a flight!!!!

Photos captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

He’s in His Element!

Only to fly with this guy would I leave my house at 01:30am so we could fly with him from Witchita to Ponca just for lunch. This is my good bud and shooting partner for the last 25yrs Kevin Dobler and he’s in his element. Behind the yolk of his Cessna 206 and playing with the Garmin he loves to do almost as much as shooting.

And the top image is a handheld HDR shot. Why HDR? Look out that window, look at the dash, look at the light range! It’s all about light, tame it and the photo is yours!

Photo captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

Alabama Hills and the Fish

One of the great fun things I like to do at the Alabama Hills is looking for shots for the 16Fish. This will sound really bad, but I look for balls most of the time. Here’s a new one I found this morning (I usually find only 1 new 1 per trip). To make it work, you of course first need a fisheye lens. Then you need to find a rock that is partially lit. If fully lit then you have a flat wall, not a round ball. You must have some shading on the side to give the illusion of roundness. Lastly you have to have a great background. To make this shot, I had my butt in the air as I kissed the dirt to get the angle to make the shot. I tilted the lens back to capture the white wisps of clouds you see in the top, right corner which to me, make the whole shot.

And this is the “ball” rock from the side. Looks nothing like the finished photo, does it?

The other thing I look for with the Fish in the Hills are the vast landscapes where the curve of the Fish isn’t a major distraction. I’m not as lucky with this venture as finding balls. That’s probably in part because in my mind, I don’t have a formula to make the shot. When I see certain things like clouds and light, my mind tends to grab hold of those elements and then search for the rest of the elements I like to assemble in certain type of photographs. I don’t have that yet for this type of photo, darn it!

I was quite pleased when I found this one though. This is not only a good example of how I like to use the Fish in the Hills but also how Structure in Silver Efex Pro 2 effects clouds. Look at the color image and then the B&W. See how Structure gives the clouds, structure? I can understand photographers in the process of learning wanting a recipe to follow for images they like and want to duplicate. The problem is, there can be no recipe when you have such huge variables like light and clouds. And these are just two of the hundreds of variables that confront photographers. Once again I hope my images have done their job and invited you in. Even more, I hope they have grabbed your imagination and make you want to come to these amazing hills at the foot of Mt Whitney. There are not only great photos in your future if you do, but a lot of learning that will propel your photography forward!

Photos captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

16Fish Basics

I’m constantly asked about the easiest way to take ultra wide images and when I answer 16Fish, the question is repeated to see if I didn’t understand the question. The 16Fish when shot with the horizon line running right through the viewfinder captures a 180degree view with just one click. No stitching, no tricks, one click pano! Now if you point the lens up or point the lens down, you get what you see above. But even these clicks can be run through a number of programs and the Fish is gone and an ultra wide pano is born. This is why I tell folks the easiest is done with the 16Fish and one click.

Fly the Friendly Skies!

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Have you ever used in flight WiFi? if you have, it’s because of this plane! Inside this Albatross is the most amazing array of flying computer, internet, radar, wifi, cable stuff, a gear hear would think they’d died and gone to heaven. This is the first time, ever, I’ve sat down in a seat in a plane and a notebook lapboard comes standard! And silly us, we only brought cameras for the ride.

We’re racking up the miles knocking out the projects and this was our little reward for this week. Jake & I headed down to Boulder City with an invite from our dear friend Dennis for a really cool meetup of multi engine float planes pilots getting their annual check rides and paperwork. There were pilots from Guam, AK, MI, WI, TX, FL just to mention a few. And this morning, the star was this gorgeous Albatross B. One pilot, a great guy, Peter, has been flying since ’57 and flew the Connie for TWA! Like usual, it was the people and not the planes that were the stars.

After a pilot’s breakfast, Jake & I were on the field early to shoot some statics. After awhile it was time to hope aboard, goggle over the computer network on board and get a thorough walk through of the system and how it’s installed on 37 & 67, it was time for taxi and a 90min flight on Lake Mead. I’ve not processed all the stills or edited the 16GB of vid yet and the night is getting catching up to me. So, I’ll have to get it finished and up over the weekend since we’ll be spending the next couple of weeks in Yellowstone and I wanna be caught up before them.

Photos captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

Including the Sun in Your Photograph

“When do you include the sun in your photo?” “Do you do something special to get that starburts, like a filter or something?” “How do you deal with metering when the same is in the frame?” These are some common questions of late about this basic element we see everyday, the sun. Here’s some of my thoughts on the matter.

I can only speak for myself, but I include the sun when I feel it is in the right location in the photograph where I want to pull the viewers eye in the frame. At the same time the other elements in the frame have to connect with the sun so the eye can venture through the frame, coming back to the sun and then venture back through the frame. So with that basic formula, being able to include the sun doesn’t happen every outing.

I really like this photo from the Alabama Hills except for all the little floating UFOs. They are caused because I forgot the one rule when shooting the sun. Have a clean front element! Those little UFOs are caused by dust on the front element diffracting the sun, scattering the light. I do have a final image where I spent way too much time cleaning them up in PS, but simply cleaning the front element in the beginning would have save me a whole bunch of time.

When it comes to exposure, you have a couple of options these days. The top and bottom frame are HDR images. I went with this option because I wanted information in the shadow portions of the photograph. The middle image is a single click using a 3 stop Split Grad (a dirty split grad). When looking at the LCD for the top and bottom frames, the blinkie was pretty small especially compared to the middle image where nearly the whole top right corner was a flashing neon light. The starburst is real simple, just close the lens down to its smallest aperture. The more aperture blades, the better the pattern. These were taken with the 24PC-E, 70-200VR2 and 16Fish. My suggestion to you is, if a thought comes across your mind to include the sun in the frame, just do it.

Old Friend, Still Gorgeous!

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The Valley of the Gods is an amazing location that I just love to visit. I’m making plans to spend a whole bunch more time there, but that requires different travel plans.

This incredibly small slice of UT when the storms are rolling through is simple, without a doubt, hands down one of the most romantic landscapes in the southwest. There’s a ton of red here, not a issue. I wanted to do a little exploring in B&W and was happy with my results. I can do better but that requires days of on foot exploration. I always love having to have to return to a location

Photos captured by D3x, 18AF, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

Plane Camping Osh Style

I’m no where near done blogging images, experiences and lessons from Oshkosh but thought I would take a moment to answer some common and very valid questions with this posting. The questions center around the logistics of making it all work. Well here you can see the repacking process. I made it to KS with all my gear in my usual carry-ons/check-ins but cramming all of this in the back of the Cessna 206 required repacking. Since I would be packing the gear into the Cessna and not some luggage handler, I brought to small, wheeless duffles to repack my stuff into from the large check-in bags I use.

Everything I brought with me including myself/sleeping bag went into the tent. Our tents were literally set up at the plane. Even though it was hot & muggy and we have no rain, the rain fly had to be kept on because of the nighttime dew. When I rolled up the tent to fly back to KS, after rolling it up and putting it in its stuff sack, when I turned it on end, water literally poured out. I took a day in the 100 degree heat of KS to dry the tent out.

My gear flew up to Oshkosh and I carried it around the joint as you see here. This is a Mountainsmith Day Recycle with their backpack harness and cube inside. It carried the: 70-200VR2, 24-70AFS, 18AF, 16Fish & 24f1.4 AFS as well as iPad and some misc little stuff. The 200-400VR2 with D3x attached went on my shoulder. The system worked great and permitted tons of flexibility. I did take the D3s with me and carried it around the site the first day but it was obvious to me that shooting video just didn’t work into my plans so it was left at camp the rest of the week. The notebook and other support “stuff” was also left at camp. The iPad has become a very important work tool for me and I have found it nearly replaces the notebook. The one place the notebook still excels is dealing with uploading, filing and backing up images.

The camp is a great place! The folks who are camping alongside of you are really nice people. At the end of the day, the first thing I would do when I got back to camp is upload all cards into the Epson P7000. Then I would go to the charging station they have built for the plane campers. They really have thought things through at Oshkosh to make it a very enjoyable experience! There the iPhone, iPad and notebook would be plugged into charge and while I was showering; the cards would be uploaded to the notebook at this time. Yeah, the place is that safe, never worried about anyone messing with my stuff. With that all done, it was back to the tent to file and blog. It was really quite easy to make it all work and that just made the whole time a ton of fun!

Shooting the Big Guy

Simply put, the C-17 is one BIG ASS plane! When it was parked, I tried photographing it with the 16Fish while standing next to it. Couldn’t get it all in the frame. How to make what appears to be a lumbering giant look like anything but that?

Well, can we change the story with simple image size? You get the idea it’s larger but without scale, still don’t really know it’s a giant. Darn hard to get a pickup truck parked next to it when flying for scale. Putting a nicer cloud behind it doesn’t hurt. But it still looks just like it’s there, not really much romance to it.

Change the angle, make it larger and even with a solid blue sky background, looks better but still not there. Showing more belly though seems to help, that coming from the angle spreading more light across the belly giving shape and form.

OK, the old “going away” angle works especially with that cloud background, but it’s still not there.

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Then lets go vertical. OK, a little drama, a little cloud, a little belly and the overall photo, a little better. Be it a rock, pond, bird, mammal or plane, look at the elements you have at hand, light, lens, position and subject attitude and bring them together the best you can to bring back what you see and feel. This is hole even the dullest, boringest, ugliest subject can come to their own in your photos!

Now to just get this Bigger Assed C-5 in the same frame with the C-17….then you would see scale!

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

What Camera Gear Am I Taking These Trips?

I figured I would have a couple of emails asking that (and I did) so I already had this post in the que. This will have to be a two part answer, a post now for the 1st leg and a post in a week for the 2nd leg. The 1st let I’m going to a brand new event for me, never been to the AirVenture. While the “subject” is planes, that’s really saying a mouth full. Planes comes in every shape, size, age and price tag you can’t imagine, and then some. Add to that the thousands upon thousands of folks and you get a better idea of the subject, it’s large than just planes. This is what I’ll have to photographically deal with what I want for telling the story of this adventure.

The planes come one of two ways, either on the ground or in the air. Statics (parked on the ground) has never been my forte, I struggle with them. So they are something I’m going to push myself on this trip. The primary lenses for statics will be the 18AF, 24-70AFS and 70-200VR2. I will also have the 16Fish just in case an opportunity arises for the ultrawide look. There is the slim chance I might be up in a plane doing some air2air work. For that the 24-70 & 70-200 are essential. Along with the statics are at times folks dressed in period aviator clothes, that means models. So I’ll have a SB-900, SC-27, gels and diffuser along. There are also some aircraft in hangers, long line ups of ships, possible needs for minimum DOF so the 24f1.4 is also in the mix.

That’s all that’s going for the ground work. For photographing the planes in the air, the 200-400VR2. That’s the easiest thing to take for this whole trip. When it comes to bodies I’ll be taking two, the D3x (main body) and D3s which is primarily for video capture.

Along with this, the Mountainsmith Day sling bag will also have the iPad (with model releases & portfolio), business cards, Leatherman Tool, spare D3 battery, 6 16GB 600x Lexar cards, Epson P7000, rain shell and couple other little things. This. along with the 200-400VR2 w/D3x attached will be over my shoulder. And this whole set up I have preflighted at another aviation show and that’s all the camera gear I’ll have on this trip.

“Just Don’t Shoot a Stump!”

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Yeap, I have this thing against ugly stump and stick photos. Yet, not sooner then I warn the group not get sucked into shooting stumps and sticks, the next thing they know, I’m shooting a 30foot tall stump. What the?! I just walked a short distance and I saw this stump and as I walked around it, I got to this spot and saw a woman in a long dress carrying a bull statue. I know, I know, I need some rest. Then the “I wonder” went across my mind and no matter what, I follow those thoughts. So I hassled getting the 16Fish out, set up in this tiny slot between the trees, danced around the sunburst coming into the lens, shot the damn HDR, processed it only in the end to be reminded of one thing. Whatever you do, don’t shoot the stomp!

Photo captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

"Just Don't Shoot a Stump!"

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Yeap, I have this thing against ugly stump and stick photos. Yet, not sooner then I warn the group not get sucked into shooting stumps and sticks, the next thing they know, I’m shooting a 30foot tall stump. What the?! I just walked a short distance and I saw this stump and as I walked around it, I got to this spot and saw a woman in a long dress carrying a bull statue. I know, I know, I need some rest. Then the “I wonder” went across my mind and no matter what, I follow those thoughts. So I hassled getting the 16Fish out, set up in this tiny slot between the trees, danced around the sunburst coming into the lens, shot the damn HDR, processed it only in the end to be reminded of one thing. Whatever you do, don’t shoot the stomp!

Photo captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

The Joy Ride

Dennis loves to share with others the amazing locales he finds from finding over the Sierra. This is one of the jewels he shared with us today. For the life of us, we can’t remember the name of the lake but we made a couple of passes around it so we could photograph it. Simply spectacular!

Photo captured by D3s, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

Simple Click – Big Spring Canyon

All I had to do was climb a rock with the 16Fish, nature did all the rest!

Just How Fortunate We Are!

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We have had an amazing week here at Monument Valley! After putting in 4, 12hr days creating new online classes for Kelby Training (can’t wait to see them!) we took today to spend some time with our new friends the Jacksons. They took us to some of the places folks pay to go on the back road tour and to some places only the Navajo go. There simple is no words for our experience.

Here we’re at Eye of the Sun playing “tourist.” The natural formations of Monument Valley were we spent the day in 4 wheel drive are simply amazing! You can see the size of this place with Stephanie standing there shooting up. We went to the back of the formation and laid against the wall and shot out with the Fish to capture the entirety of the location. But this is NOTHING compared to the rest of our day. The opportunities this profession keeps affording us just boggles my mind. We are just incredibly fortunate!

Photo captured by D3x, 24PC-E / 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

Simple Click – View from the Room

Seriously, this is taken from the porch of our room with a 16Fish. Who needs to leave?

Eastern Sierra Adv day3am

The tires hit the hwy at 03:30. For two hours we drive east and downhill, a shooting star lighting up the sky in the beginning but slowly, the stars disappear. The air coming through the vents gets warmer and warmer, the truck get buffeted by more and more wind. On we travel, the sunrise calling us further and further east.

Before the sun can kiss the sky, we’re in the parking lot and walking up the path. We’re at Zabriskie Point, Death Valley NP and on the right morning, a very magical place. We lucked out because the clouds worked their magic because otherwise a desert with bald skies is, well, as my assistant would say, blech!

The clouds were just too magical for any lens other than the 16Fish at one point. They wrapped the heavens and the earth is a bow that was for that moment, truly special.

Photos captured by D3x, 24PC-E / 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film

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