Jun 13, 2011 | Aviation
photo by Larry Grace
One of those great memories and honors that comes from what I do happened last week at the ISAP convention. Jake & I went down a little early to the banquet, our guest speaker was there early as well. WWII triple ace Bud Anderson answered his nation’s call and served in the 8th Air Force out of England. We had about 10min before anyone else showed up and were able to talk to not only a legend, but a war hero. Bud being Bud had already had a copy of his book autographed and placed at the chair of everyone coming to the banquet. That was freakin cool! Since we were early, he offered to personalize our copies which was even cooler. Even after talking with these amazing veterans, it’s still impossible for me to relate to what they’ve seen, done and accomplished. When you see the reenactments of Bud’s aerial battles and then you talk with him, it’s hard to imagine that he lived through what you saw. He actually lived it! If you have the opportunity to hear him speak, do because he’s a very engaging speaker. At the very least, get a copy of his book, it’s a great read about our history!
Jun 7, 2011 | Aviation
Our ISAP field trip ended as a day for a convention of aviation photographers should, with two Stearman flying off in the sunset. They made a pass down the runway heading to the west and then turned and headed right back towards us. And luckily for us, the pilots put a little attitude, gesture in the flight which over the coastal marine layer that was floating in made for a great click. I wanna thank our host Bill Allen for a marvelous locale to spend the afternoon and all the folks of ISAP for making it a very memorable day!
Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Jun 7, 2011 | Aviation
Stearman owners love to fly at dusk as I learned 1st hand last week. This is Steve McQueen’s plane going for a cruise. Even at 1/30 handheld, the 200-400VR2 delivered a nice click.
Jun 7, 2011 | Aviation
I’m not kidding you, the hangar door is to the right, the home theater room is in the back and the wall behind me is the amazing bar. And parked right there is the incredibly rare Boeing FB-5 biplane of Bill Allen’s and is it gorgeous! The first time I walked through the room, the light from the track lighting was nice, the neon cool but that was all. About an hour later when I walked through (because there was so much to see, one trip wasn’t enough), the late afternoon light streaming through the windows was way cool! I had to have the shot, I just love it! Here’s the problem, the light coming through the windows on the right, the light on the floor and the shadow in the back was a HUGE range. Yeah, I could have brought in flash but that would have been a helluva lot of work and time consuming, neither was on my agenda. So I ran out, borrowed Bill Fortney’s tripod and because I didn’t have a plate on my D3x, I held the body on top of the tripod to do a 5 image HDR of this amazing plane. In all honesty, all of the above was the easy part, it was a no-brainer. It was the framing that still has me scratching my head. I like the top image because it includes the two cool leather chairs telling the story of the room. The bottom photo though has that killer neon sign on the left. Don’t know how to see this light and work it, come to class and you’ll learn how to make it work for you! Since I couldn’t make up my mind, I took them both and played it safe. But seriously, this is his den and it rocks!
Jun 7, 2011 | Aviation
We are at a location where biplanes and Stearmans are everywhere so it only makes sense that you’d have opportunities to photograph them. But here’s the trick. The location right from the get go appeared to be a static location. We drove past the large static display being set up at Gillespie Field for the airshow, there were four biplanes parked when we got to Mr. Allen’s house so static photography seemed to be the afternoon shooting. If you thought that, you might only have with you lenses like a 14-24 or 70-200, all you really need for statics. If you didn’t follow the ol Boy Scout motto of Being Prepared, some really cool photo opps would slip through your fingers. Jake & I having learned the hard way long ago, put our 200-400s on our Sun Sniper straps so they were with us all the time. Then when the Stearmans went cruising by, all we had to do is swing them up and shoot. Have admit, we have gotten real fast at switching the shooting mode from Aperture Priority to Shutter Priority and AF from Dynamic to AAA with the hands free operation with the Sun Sniper making it possible.
Jun 7, 2011 | Aviation
After our killer time at MCAS Miramar, the ISaP field trip continued on to a land that has no description where few men have ventured before. To say we went to Bill Allen’s house really doesn’t cut it. That because it’s not just some house, but a hangar converted into a barn with vast collections of helmets and aviation posters and oh yeah, biplanes! It really overwhelmed the senses and was a ton of fun just to meet our host and cruise his home he opened up to us. We weren’t there long before someone said, “Hey, you might wanna go around the corner, there’s a gorgeous Fairey Firefly parked there.” Sure enough, it was parked there and oh yeah, it was gorgeous! But how do you make something from this opportunity?
The fact it wasn’t really parked for photography is like many subjects, you’ve gotta make the most of what’s presented you. You can see from the top shot that your basic poses aren’t going to fly. What you can’t see is all the photographers around the plane also shooting it. I’ve come to learn that others in the photograph really isn’t a problem so I shoot without stressing about them being in the frame. I do try to minimize the hassle by looking at where they are at and lines to match, but otherwise I just click. So with a plane set in place and with folks walking about, I saw only one place to shoot the overall Firefly.
That’s right, the Butt shot was the pose to go for. While I like the PT-17 Stearman in the upper frame, it’s the gesture of the Firefly in the bottom frame that makes it my favorite. The difference is the top frame I was on the ground and the bottom frame I was on one knee. That coming up those 18″ permitted the wings to come into the frame, the D Day stripes to appear and gives the plane some visual depth. And if there were no clouds in the sky, I would have not even made the click. The top frame I used OnOne Software to finish and the bottom two frames are 1 image HDR. But you knew that. It’s a real sweet plane that some day I hope I have a whole lot more intimate time with.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
