Sharon and I have been in a favorite locale of ours, Minot, ND for a marvelous week. It started with a great air to air for a client. Then we had three great days with our K&M Air Adventures, then I had to go to work! Argh …. Na, it’s really pretty darn fun but not having done big sets for quite some time, the old brain took a little time to kick into gear. Thankfully, once the big sets were done and quite well I might say, it was time for some old fashion airport hangin. Part of the job are what I call “pick up shots.” These are no more than photos that just happen without any planning that if I’m Johnny on the spot, fill the criteria of the job. Like the one above. Heard it was coming in, saw it on approach and because it was a handsome plane, put myself in the right place to make the shot. Now the flying dust spot, I like when I can combine my photographic passions but for this client, it will disappear :-)
Then there are the other rewards of airport hangin. At the end of the day, the question was asked, “want to go flyin?” The answer is of course, quite obvious. Off we went for a gorgeous sunset flight and shoot with this gorgeous Monocoupe 110. It was our typical flight length, just 20min but the three of us, photo platform pilot, subject pilot and I have worked so much together, we’re so efficient in doing the job that it’s just a ton of fun. Both photos taken with my favorite photo rig, D4s / 80-400VR3, the FPS and focal length being perfect tools for my storytelling. What you see here is what is called a Section Take Off. The Monocoupe taxis downs and takes off beside us. We climb faster and it stayed lower so I could shoot down on it. Yes, I am leaning and outside the plane when I’m taking this photo. No, it’s not scary and nothing falls out. And yes, I really like the photos that comes from this. Now the first time we did this long ago, the results weren’t as sweet as this. But just like anything in photography, practice makes perfect. Right now, we’re still airport hangin, waiting for the ground fog to lift to do a big set shoot with a hovering helicopter over the jet. Fingers crossed!