Two pieces of unusually packed gear in the kit were required to make this shot. Swim trunks and surf shoes, since the image was taken while standing in the water. The white towel was present as well, not for me but to keep hands dry while working with the gear. The water wakes splashing up on my sides made keeping steady to shoot at slower speeds were as much a challenge as keeping gear dry. But it was a great angle and a ton of fun, as getting wet is part of it.

Bringing the sense and feeling of motion to a jet, that requires a bit more thought. When you have an afterburner like the MiG17 has, it’s a tad easier. That red exhaust tells the viewer the plane is moving, we mean, really moving. But that’s a small sense of movement. When you have clouds, and they are slightly blurred, you’ve got more sense of movement, and we make some progress. I find, though, that changing the presentation of the jet in the frame truly helps the most. In this case, pushing the MiG to the extreme side of the frame, one can’t help but feel it’s moving and climbing. When you tap the imagination, much of the challenge to tell a story is solved for you. In this case, to the stars and beyond.

Basically a converted B-24, the wing span of the PB4Y is truly impressive at 110′! I truly wanted an arse shot, but the background was way too busy, so I decided to go forward. Not really what I had in mind, especially when I saw I would be shooting directly into the sun. I kept walking and walking, backing up and backing up to get those wingtips in the viewfinder. The Z50f1.2 creates a grand starburst when shot closed down, but the exposure range I knew was going to hurt. I went with -2 exp comp, and the final results weren’t what I thought nor, that I would like it. But as it turns out, I like the mood. Turns out getting further away was a good thing, so much wing!

We sat on the far, far east of the flightline, where aircraft would come the closest doing their banana pass. The clouds were slowly floating away, leaving a solid, blue sky, my favorite (not!) I watched the “replica” YF-16, tracking it in the viewfinder with that solid blue sky background. I made some clicks, but they just had no depth or feel of speed. Then it started to set up for its banana pass, and at that moment, a small cloud popped up. My hopes climbed. I panned with the Falcon, hoping it would come down a little in altitude so the little cloud would be in the background. As it started to get close, I hit the hammer and kept until it was well past the cloud. It’s a shot I so wanted just because, and I was so happy to have a photo of the iconic YF-16.

It’s true, size matters! But it might not be the size that first comes to mind. I have found it far more challenging to have the subject physically small in the frame and still have it smack the viewer between the eyes, AND fill the rest of the frame to keep the viewer’s interest. To tell the story with more than just the subject. When you have a common object, in this case, the clouds in the background, the mind naturally assigns scale to those clouds. Adding the magnificent P-51D Mustang, they now become bigger in the mind while being small in the frame. The incredibly simplistic background makes those birds pop! It’s all a simple illustration that size tells a story.

I shot every arse at #OSH26 with the Z50f1.2 for three days. I was quite happy, very happy with my results. Then on the fifth morning, I revisited the Douglas World Cruiser. The background had changed, and to control it better, I decided to go longer. When I compared the two photos back on the computer, 1st day Z50f1.2 vs. 5th day Z70-200f2.8II, I found I liked the long lens photo better. Took me a while to figure out why I liked it better. But the bigger and higher profile aircraft looked bigger in the photo because I was farther back and therefore, shooting more wing surface. The tree in the background becomes larger in the frame as well. I had gotten in such a rhythm that I didn’t stop to really think about what I was seeing and saying. Makes me happy I learned something about the arse.