Apr 18, 2012 | Aviation
With only 90min sleep the night before, we were at Grimes Field at 05:30 to start work. When you have that little sleep and it’s that early, photography is work. At least, getting the brain to function to make images is work. Jake & I arrived with our plans for the morning which we had made based on the briefing the evening before only to find things had changed so we had to move fast. Jake made some amazing images from the end of the ramp while I was in the nose. After a bit of doing, after I was on the ground from the flight, we finally meet up and debriefed from the morning. He had obviously made the images of the morning. I had not.
In the mental rush to try to get caught up on what was perceived missed photographic opportunities is when a hard learned lesson came crashing back. This aviation thing, it’s not about the planes. It’s all about the people who after the years, have now become my friends. The top shot is the crew of “Maid in the Shade” who always have and continue to take such great care of us. Looking at this photo, it’s hard not to get wet eyes knowing I flew in that nose of this plane because of these gentlemen’s friendship. I can’t thank, Spike, Dave and the rest of the crew enough for their friendship and the experience of a lifetime.
And the bottom photo, you might recognize some of these faces since they are no stranger to the blog. My co-instructor for our Air2Air Workshops, Doug Rozendaal flew “Betty’s Dream” in for the reunion. In this group are my dear friends Robert & Casey Odegaard. These folks not only provide the friendship that makes these events so much fun, filled with so much laughter, but make opportunities open up you could never have dreamed of. Walking through the USAF Air Museum here with Bob & Warren was amazing!
And the hard learned lesson? It’s real simple, this event is about the people and not the aircraft! It’s the men who flew the Doolittle Raid that we are celebrating and in a small way, the crews who flew these B-25s into Dayton passion in reminding us about our history. That’ the story, that’s the photos. That’s the learned lesson that will drive the successful photography. It’s going to be a great day today and can’t wait to be standing amongst these amazing aircraft hearing the stories and photographing the heroes, the people!
Apr 18, 2012 | Aviation
On this day in 1942, 80 men launched from a carrier that wouldn’t see years’ end to make a bombing run on Japan. We’re in Dayton, OH with ten of thousands of others to remember that day, those men 70yrs later. There are 20 B-25 Mtichell bombers here to participate in the celebration, memorial today that flew over from Urbaba, OH yesterday. I was very fortunate that my old friends from the AZ Wing of the CAF invited me to fly with them in “Maid in the Shade.” Since I’ve never flown in a B-25, just that made it exciting to me. To fly over in the green house in the nose even more so. And since I’m shooting for a couple of magazines, being able to photograph the arrow formation from the nose was amazing.
Here’s the view I had flying yesterday. Taken with a 18AF, you can see the OH countryside down below. You might notice though, there are no other aircraft in the photo. Never saw a one until back on the ground. The flight was incredible, the experience, over the top, but no photos that I needed. So while I now have a very small idea what it was like flying in a bomber back in the day, I don’t have one image I wanted, not necessarily needed for my articles. I’m not totally freaked, yet, as I have another opportunity to get what I need but it is now putting a little pressure on my mind. That’s a good thing, story telling shouldn’t be easy.
Apr 17, 2012 | Aviation
My bud Larry is on the ramp warming up Panchito and I’m laying underneath it shooting with the 18AF! Yeah, laying underneath it and having a blast! He ran up the B-25 until you could feel the vibration through the ground in your chest, it was great! I shot the D4 all day on everything from 200-400VR2 to 18mm capturing 2989 stills & 32GB of vid. The camera AF for all those images and there was a fair amount of chimping as this was my first aviation shoot with the D4. There was 68% of my battery left after all of this. Not sure about other reports, but I’m not experiencing any battery issues with the D4. mtc….
Apr 17, 2012 | Aviation
It was a great day at Grimes Field, OH! While it started out with big rain, the warmth in the hangars meeting up with old friends, telling storing and planning for fun this week, it was perfect! We’re in Dayton, OH for our first Doolittle Reunion which is it’s 70th and what folks are saying is the last. The story to tell from this even is HUGE so how I’m coming to do it with only 4hrs each evening to get cards uploaded, images sorted and field is going to be a challenge. Lemme start with the amazing ability afforded us today to stand under the B-25s as they landed. Oh yeah, we got to stand right in front of them as they taxied down, and oh…so much more. I’m writing this 90min before I have to “get up” for a 05:30 meeting at the planes. So, that’s all I got for now….
Mar 30, 2012 | Aviation
I whole bunch of your asked to be notified when articles I had done on the Super Corsairs were out. The great folks over at EAA Warbirds were good enough to post the PDF of the entire article here. This was a once in a lifetime event for the aircraft and me. It would have never happened without the friendship of Robert Odegaard, the man responsible for these incredible aircraft to be able to fly again. Enjoy!
Mar 22, 2012 | Aviation
I have a very well earned reputation for getting up early to greet the sun, be it critters, landscapes or aircraft. In FL there is always the possibility of ground fog along with the great light so I just can’t pass it up. So last weekend when at Stallion 51, we were there on the tarmac to greet the sun. One of the coolest things is to see the morning color reflecting off the polished planes, I just LOVE that! The problem is, how do you show that in a photograph? You can see the progression of light in the three photos with the one I really love being the last. That’s when the clouds came in briefly with the morning color. All of these photos have one thing in common, well two things. The P-51D and they are all 5 image HDR. Why HDR? To capture ALL the nuisances in the fuselage, I have found that HDR just does the best job. Looking in the bottom image, just look how that baby glows…I love it!The processing is pretty simple, Photomatrix Pro then into Photoshop and hit levels. I love great light, I love simple.
Now hopefully, you’re asking yourself why, when the exposure levels this early in the day are really not that wide, does Moose feel HDR is the way to go. True, the light levels really aren’t that big and a single click would do a good job, especially if you used a split grad filter to pull down the sky. I do it for one particular reason and that’s for under the wings. I’ve have found that when there is a shadow or under the wings are dark as they would be without HDR, the overall “aluminum” feel is not as strong. They spend a lot of money to have that polished look to these aircraft and I want that to come out. It is of course a personal thing and you might not feel like or want that feel to your aircraft and that is perfectly fine. I do though which is why I use the method and techniques I do.
