Mar 3, 2011 | Aviation
Air2Air has an awesum staff! Our safety officer, 2nd seat in the photo ship, amazing pilot and instructor Doug Rosezdal saw the light on the horizon and headed us in that direction. In the back of the skyvan, you can see where you’ve been and that’s all. Doug though up front and in the 2nd seat see’s it all and being great as what he does, it makes it all work!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2A500s0213.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
By the time we took to the air, the last downpour that had past overhead was now out to the east. We were able catch up to it and play a little in the clouds. Wow!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2A500s0245.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
This is were the skill of our pilots really plays a pivotal roll in our success. They are the ones putting us in the right place at the right time and all we have to do (making it sound simple) is go click. There is actually more to it all away around with your having the easiest part, simply enjoying the fruits of our labor.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2A500s0249.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
The best part, these are the ~worst~ of my images from this shoot. Yeah, the morning just kept getting better and better. I’ve always said that the worst weather can produce the best images and while you really don’t want bad weather shooting air to air or even flying for that matter, the photo gods smiled on us this morning. mtc!
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Mar 3, 2011 | Aviation
Backgrounds, they are everything! I can’t talk about them enough because they plague all of us. If there is one rule in wildlife photography that is nearly always true, it’s if you can’t find a good background, throw something green behind the subject. Well, this holds true for other subjects as well.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2A500s0099.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
There is a golf course just past Falcon Field so this time I made a point of having us fly over it a couple times with the various aircraft we were photographing after the great success we had with it last workshop. The green of the greens along with their pattern, the morning light make them such a killer background. And when it comes to creating a “ad” for a commuter plane, the golf course is a natural!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2A500s0142.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
For comparison is this background. It’s just not the same image even though it’s the same plane. Backgrounds, you just can’t skimp on them!
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Mar 3, 2011 | Aviation
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2A500s0204.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
As we were taking off the previous day, a participate asked if a polarizer was needed. His reason for using the polarizer was for the simple reason is sucks up two stops of light. Why would you wanna knocked down the light by two stops doing air to air? It took me a little while for it to sink in, in fact, it wasn’t until that night that it struck me. Any guesses?
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2A500s0048.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
We’re shooting in Shutter Priority to control the shutter speed and effect the prop blur. Quite often you’re around 1/90-1/250 with a f/stop of f/32 – f/16. When you wanna blur the background and make the subject pop more, how do you do that when you’re in Shutter Priority? Well the polarizer is one way, knocking down the light by twp stops. Wanting to avoid that, I decided to do two things, I lowered the ISO to L1 and used the teleconverter. This brought my f/stop down to f/4.5 – 5.6 most the morning. But if you look in the upper photo, even with that f/stop there is still a lot of detail. It’s better, but not perfect.
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Mar 3, 2011 | Aviation
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dpa2a500s0004.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
The weather that brought us dark skies the afternoon before ended up bringing showers to the desert over night. Big winds and showers carpeted the area, until sunrise. We arrived at the hangar at 06:15 and were stuck inside as the last down pour went by. Then it lifted, we warmed up the planes and got into the skies. The runway was still wet from the last shower making for incredible images!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2A500s0007.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
This is a Rockwell 500s Commander also known as a Shrike. It’s a commuter plane from the ’70s that Air2Air’s big supporter Robert Odegaard has purchase for a tribute at Oshkosh this summer. It’s a killer plane that was perfect for the morning shoot. Now here’s the bummer, these photos aren’t tack sharp. I wasn’t ready as we dragged over the runway and when I saw the Shrike I was just standing up. I might be able to get a decent 11x print out of these files but nothing big. I was bummed, until I looked at the rest of my images from the morning.
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 w/TC-17e on Lexar UDMA digital film
Mar 2, 2011 | Aviation
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp76841.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp76751.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
The background is everything! We dragged Cripes A’Mighty & Stang down #4 to produce a really sweet image. I wish we had “the” light to have put the real finish touch on this killer moment. It was still sweet, it’s still a very unique photograph and I really like it. And like nearly all my images, gives me a place to go, a direction to improve and a goal for next time I’m in the air. And the past part, I know how our air to air the next day went. When you pay your dues…..
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
Mar 2, 2011 | Aviation
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2AB171408.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
The skies never opened up for us, the light stayed pretty flat the entire hour in the air. No matter, we made the most of it which meant lining up on the last orbit for our trademark closing to an air to air shoot. This was possible because of our amazing photo ship coordinator Doug, our communicating with the tower and access and most especially the talent of our two subject ship pilots. That combination makes things happen!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPA2AB171417.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
So a new twist was added to our trademark finish, two planes rather then one. And the two were our P-51D little friends. Well outside from the field we set up the shot. The wind was still buffeting us but we continued on. And wow…what a finish…oh, this is not the final photo, that’s next!
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
