Nov 21, 2011 | Aviation
I’ve had a whole bunch of emails today asking basically, “Is that for real?” The paint job on the nose of the Lone Star Flight Museum’s P-47D “Tarheel Hal” simply can’t be missed. Now I am waaaaaaay behind in getting images processed from the last couple of weeks air to air activity. I had 16 fights in the last two weeks and everyone of them produced a treasure trove of killer images. Getting those images processed, out to the pilots, articles off to mags has put bags under my eyes. It has also prevented me from doing a ton of research on “Tarheel Hal.”
I do know though it is an accurate paint scheme for the pilot from WWII. You might ask like I was thinking that such a paint scheme might make you a bigger or better target. Once you get in the air and see it though you realize it makes it no more visible and as such, better target. I’m dying to read more about the pilot though, if his plane was this colorful, how colorful was he?
Photographically, you can see some of the shoot I did with “Tarheel Hal” in the vid I posted earlier today. The Moose Cam, a Coolpix S9100 got knocked at the end of the shoot so I didn’t get much of the P-47D on vid. The top shot is a basic nose shot. When flying towards the sun you can get this great disk blur and the P-47D creates a great one! The shutter speed was 1/60 which is what creates that blur. The bottom photo, the shutter speed was 1/200. The bottom photo is called a “dirty” profile since the P-47D has its landing gear down. That is intentional and all part of getting the whole story.
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VRII w/TC-17e
Nov 21, 2011 | Aviation
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The thrill of working with a WWII bomber and fighters is like no other, especially meeting them in their environment, the skies!
Nov 17, 2011 | Aviation
Sharon & I have just finished a five week road trip in which all but one day, I was teaching while shooting. I enjoy that a lot but your mind is never truly, fully on your own photography. You never get to really go inside and have a good conversation with yourself and talk through a photograph. I thought I might go past the 2mil mark for digital files in my entire library this trip, but didn’t think I’d fly by in such grand fashion coming back with over 1.8TB of images for the 5 weeks. Wow, that’s a lot of clicks. Wow, that’s a shit load of images to finish (all landscape and aviation, no wildlife :-( )! And the very last day of our road trip was my day to do my photography for my own projects. It was simply an amazing day where all the months of planning came to be and executed to the T as planned. That rarely ever happen! What a rush, what a high!
Then we came home where there was a home to vacuum, dogs to walk, snow to move and mail to open. The day before I was chasing planes through the clouds and the next, the office. One thing I have never gotten good at in all these years is coming down from such photographic highs. Don’t get me wrong, I love home, it’s my favorite place to be and this time of year with a fire in the evenings, it’s great. But being a road warrior, I no sooner get home then the itch comes to be back on the road. The one thing I do once I get back home is to get the “work” done so I can “play” as soon as possible. The first work thing actually starts on the road. That’s getting all my images edited, filed and numbered so all I have to do is dump all the files on the network. That’s the work, the office organization stuff. Then comes the play. That’s taking those images and finishing them, printing them and sharing them. So now I’ve been home a day and the work is done and I’ve started the play and I’m feeling a little better. It might just be me but after great shooting, coming down is hard to do!
Planes: B-17G “Sentimental Journey,” T50 “Bamboo Bomber,” F2G-2 Super Corsair “#74”
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VRII w/TC-17e
Nov 16, 2011 | Aviation
Sharon likes hangar hanging because she gets to fly, this time going up in a Stearman. Schweeet!
Nov 16, 2011 | Aviation
If you follow the blog then you know my thing for the F2G-2 Super Corsair. I was very fortunate to not only spend a bunch of time with the Super G but also with the family who brought it back to life, the Odegaards. To say thanks, I’ve sent them a whole bunch of prints over the year. Well, I wanted one for myself, a special one I could share with others. So my good friends at Image Wizards worked their magic and made this giant print of the Super Corsair from Reno this past sept. I took the print with me to AZ and got Bob to autograph it. And it was fitting, he signed under the wing of the Super G. It’s such a simple pleasure, the print, but it makes such a huge impact. Share your moments, share your prints! Thanks Bob!
Nov 16, 2011 | Aviation
One of the really cool things about the AZ Wing of the CAF is the ability to hang around the hangars. I do it all day long! There is always something going on with aircraft, that’s the obvious photographic finds. But it’s the people who come to visit the Wing that are the real find. We have meet and become friends with many, most being vets from WWII. They come to see their old friends, the aircraft, and share some of their stories with their family. Well Monday we were hangar hanging with our good friend Bob at his Super Corsair when a docent came over and asked Bob is this 91yr old vet could sit in Stang, Bob’s P-51D Mustang. The gentleman flew them during the war. Without hesitation, Bob said yes and bounded over to Stang to assist. With camera in hand, I followed.
The gentleman hearing he could, started to approach the Mustang when he broke down. The memories came rushing back, what exactly they were, what his experience had been I don’t know but they were powerful. His family grabbed the gentleman steadying him. Bob then asked if the grandson would like to get up into the cockpit, experience a little of what his grandpa had long ago. Smart grandson, he was up and in in a heartbeat. After a little while grandpa had regained his composure and was being helped up into the cockpit. Once in, you could see he was back home, memories came rushing by and were communicated in his face mainly with big smiles. I asked if I could take some pics and they said yes with a very quizzical look on their faces.
Then I told the son and grandson to hop up on the wing for a quick portrait which they were happy to do. Then they all came off the wing and once grandpa was back on the ground, the emotions over came him again. And this is not uncommon in the hangar to the Wing or any time warbirds are out in public. To the men who flew them, they are more then just metal.
This is the reason I always have a camera with me when hangar hanging. After the family had finished with the Mustang and grandpa was back to telling stories, I passed them my business card telling them to contact me, I’d send them prints. Grandpa got all tearie eyed again. Odds of them all being together and with a P-51D again are pretty slim, the photograph though will always remind them of that moment. And that’s what photograph is all about!
Photos captured by D3s, 50f1.4AFS
