May 6, 2011 | Aviation
Oh yeah, I’ve photographed a few of these now and I never tire of them (this is #12 I’ve shot air to air and all in just a year)! This one is owned by our dear friend KT and her husband Syd who were kind enough to join in the fun of our air to air. I posted these two images so show what happens 180 degrees in the orbit from where I shot the P-51c. There are a couple of things that happen in this arc of the orbit, the main one you can see right off the bat is the prop. It has no light on it so it basically disappears. Is this a bad thing? No, it just is but since you really can’t see it, using a slow shutter speed to blur it doesn’t get you very far. You can shoot at a faster shutter speed making a sharper image without worrying about the prop.
But there is a bigger issue here then a disappearing prop, can you see it? Look closely, what’s missing from the images here from the images here (you’ll have to look hard, it’s small in these thumbnails)? These are my dear friends in the T-6 but they have no light on them, you can’t see them! Light is everything to every photograph! Now you might think the aircraft itself is the subject but I don’t think that way, there’s more to it the photograph then just metal and clothe. My challenge that I face is solving this problem that works and is safe and is practical. I have ideas, just need time and money to prove them. It’s important to keep in perspective what’s your photograph goal I feel and when you don’t reach them, analyze why and improve. I’ve still got a ways to go in my air to air photography but I’m having a ton of fun along the way!
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 / 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 6, 2011 | Aviation
While we had some amazing, and I mean amazing static photography at Fantasy of Flight for our Air2Air Workshop, we were there to get in the air to do some serious photography. And while the P-51c looked great on the ground, it looked even better up in the sky! Doing the workshop in April in Florida afforded us some amazing green background and as you can see it really makes the P-51c pop!
I can never have enough time in the air with a plane! There are so many reasons for that with light being #1. You typically fly orbits (fancy word for circles) shooting air to air. Why? If you fly a straight line you fly away from the airport and your costs double or triple is one reason why you fly circles. As you fly the orbits there is only a short time when the plane is flying into the sun and the prop lights up as you see here. You only have a short time then in each orbit if you want different aspects of the plane to make those happen. In these examples you have the basic side and top profile images. To get the nearly 360 degree prop blur I’m shooting at 1/100 Shutter Priority, Vivid in AWB -.7. Kermit Weeks is at the stick of the P-51c and did an amazing job keeping the Mustang right there for us to make click after click after click. This means placing the Mustang in the frame is up to you and often requires turning the body so you have the attitude in the plane you want. You don’t worry about keeping it plumb to the earth but rather to the attack you want in the plane. You do all of this while using proper handholding and keeping yourself stabilized. It’s an incredible rush that I hope you can experience at least once in your life!
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 / 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 4, 2011 | Aviation
This is not a typical view of a very unique aircraft but it’s one anyone can get with access to a P-51. But when you’re with a one of a kind P-51C, it calls for more unusual thinking, or stretching the imagination to make the most of the opportunity. So once the light went to the harder side, it was time to shoot details shots of this gorgeous aircraft. It’s part of the story telling as well as recording history. One thing that makes this P-51C a one of a kind is how it was restored. It is 100% just as Lee Archer flew it down to the last rivet as a Tuskegee Airmen in the 1940s (Lee even autographed this plane on the armor plating)!
The ladder got one heck of a workout as it was moved and moved and moved to cover every angle covering about a 200 degree arc around the Mustang. I didn’t climb with every move, only a couple times when the angle seemed, from the ground (and it’s hard to guess from there) to look interesting. While this is a different look, it’s not my favorite angle.
Getting to the “busy” side started to make things more interesting. This was of course in part due to the hardness of the light. Just like the white on the Sunderland, the polished silver of the Mustang made for extra contrast causing everything around the Mustang to go darker making it really pop. Especially the painted sections of the plane. This is pretty typical how I make something happen when the light goes hard. You gotta think contrast and use it to you advantage to tell the story!
And this is the one shot I liked the best. Thinking through your problems, coming up with solutions to tell the story to me is a winning photographic recipe for hard light situations.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 4, 2011 | Aviation
When the Short Sunderland was in the hangar, it just didn’t grab my imagination but once I saw it outside and with nothing around it, I couldn’t leave it. Sadly, the gorgeous light could and did as the morning worn on. That’s still one problem I’ve never found a solution to, making the great light stick around as long as I need it. While the great light disappeared, the great subject that was rarely outside didn’t. At the same time, we had total access to the Sunderland which as John Q Public visiting the museum you do not. So just walking off just because the sun gave up on us simply wasn’t an option. I don’t think I’ll have this opportunity again. Time to go to work!
How do you work a subject that’s so much taller then you? You can of course take the one shot showing it’s much taller then you but that one shot kind of is a dead end at times, there’s really not a ton of ways of expressing that. Keep in mind it’s a one of a kind aircraft at this point in history and a one of a kind opportunity. You might ask yourself what’s the one angle one can’t normally get and can you get it? I had a mentor long ago Reg who told me the secret to his success as a photographer was always to find an angle that no one else did.
Lucky for me my bud Dave was with us this weekend. He was working with the P-51C for a upcoming book and wanted to go high. I told him they had a cherry picker, go ask if he could use it. Next thing I knew there was a 12′ ladder in front of the Mustang with all the folks from the workshop in line to shoot from it. When they were done, Dave said, “Hey Moose, wanna shoot the Sunderland?”
Up the ladder I went and the higher I got, the better it got. Now let’s just look at this for a moment. We have a white subject in hard light….let that soak in for a moment, a white subject in hard light. We wanna make a once in a lifetime photo of a once in a lifetime opportunity, how do we do that with a white subject in hard light? I use the KISS theorem all the time, how does it apply here? Real simple, white subject in hard light, by exposing for it (which the Nikon Matrix is going to do), what happens to the sky? Yeah, it goes dark, a nice dark blue. What does dark blue do to the subject? Makes it fly off the page! Just the sheer color contrast between the white and blue are a natural in hard light. After that, it was a matter of finding the character in the “face” of the plane to make the image. I just love the bottom vertical. It just makes me smile!
Photo captured by D3x, 24-120VR (with 12′ ladder held by Dave) on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 3, 2011 | Aviation
The sun came up, the ground fog formed and I started to hoof it! Three million dollars in rare aircraft all yours to play with, killer fog raising around them, you can’t script this kind o shooting. As all the participants were saying, their fee was already worth it with just this opportunity. It was that amazing. So with that, could YOU have made the exposure? The top one was the easiest as the light is pretty even. The second gets a little trickier with the gray with the bottom one being a real challenge since the hangar in the background is in the sun and the plane is not. More importantly then could you make the one exposure, could you have made all three in the short time we had as the fog came and went with the rising sun. The P-51C Mustang “Red Tail” is a spectacular aircraft that you’re not going to find anywhere else, period. Having unfeathered access was more then one could wish for and then add to that the ground fog and light, the pressure was on to get it right. And this is not something you could “fix” later in post. More importantly I feel is getting the exposure to communicate what it is you are seeing here. And that’s what exposure is all about as I talk about to great length in Captured. You have to FEEL the light, not just see it. Personally, I’m pretty proud of these images since I nailed them. These will be hallmark images that will earn me good money and that comes from being in place at the right place at the right time with the right skill set to make the click. You only get that by lots of practice, lots of failure and learning from that. Whether you’re into aviation photography or not, if you’re into photography the light has to suck you in. If it didn’t you need to do a reality check because sexy romantic light is to be relished wherever you find it!
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
May 3, 2011 | Aviation
This past weekend we were in FL at Fantasy of Flight for our Air2Air Workshop. We were in place long before the sun started to shine and in time for the magic to unfold. This massive flying boat, the Short Sunderland is normally in the hangar in the back corner. We lucked out in it had been pulled out and where you see it. It’s a massive plane with a ton of character as you’ll see this week. In the predawn light, it just glows even though there is NO light on it yet. The fact it’s white makes it stand out because of color contrast. The exposure is minus 2 2/3 stops but other then that, there’s nothing to make the photograph, unless lying on the ground you consider as being work.
Then about 30min later the sun started to rise and shine through the hangar windows behind us. This beam of light came out and kissed the nose of the Short Sunderland as you see here. Again, other then dialing in minus 2 2/3, there is nothing else to making the photo. Who here’s my question to you. Could you have made the photo of this light? Does your imagination and technical skills permit you to see the light, record it and then such the viewer into your photo WITHOUT bracketing to get the right exposure? Why does that matter? In this case when the plane is definitely not going anywhere, it doesn’t matter. But what if this were a bull elk out in a meadow and was moving, not standing still? Bracketing wouldn’t save you then if you couldn’t make the shot off the cuff. I’m often sadden when I see folks in these situations chimping like crazy hoping that their last guess at exposure will be right when the LCD lights up. This is a skill I feel is being lost in photography, communicating light through exposure from knowledge and experience. Moments like this are rare, don’t take the chance of making them by luck.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR / 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
