[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp75681.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
On the edge of the field just before you land, you fly over this great orange orchard. It’s a great background and I always make sure my buffer is clear to capture the two or three clicks you can make before it’s gone.
Our gorgeous morning light and clouds came together in the afternoon to create dark clouds, flat light and really strong winds. Just because you have the planes standing by and cameras loaded doesn’t mean everything falls into place. No matter, we hit the skies with the B-17G Sentimental Journey.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp73591.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
When we open up the door of the sky van and our participants see her staring right back at them, their faces say it all. It’s a powerful and magical moment that nothing can prepare you for. You see the hesitation in the shooting as the aw factor overwhelms them, every single one. Then it’s time to get down to the business of recording the moment.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp73661.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
The air was amazingly rough, my right knee taking a pounding against the side of the sky van as I was bounced around. Stabilizing myself was only part of the battle, it was such that I even turned my VR on to Active from Normal. The biggest challenge was the flat light. The real saving grace was the polished bird out the back door. Sentimental Journey is in great shape for a 70yrs lady, just as graceful as ever.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp75011.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
I determined for myself right from the get go that trying to capture overall wide shots of her wasn’t my goal. I wanted to go in tight and ended up shooting the entire flight with her tight. I wanted to capture the concentration on Reed’s face (the pilot) as he worked to fly in the wind and work with us to get the shot. You can’t see it readily in these small thumbnails but I was able to achieve my goal. I’ve been amazingly fortunate to photograph Sentimental Journey a few times now with a few more shoots yet to come this year. I was grateful for this shoot even though the light was less then perfect, to work on some other aspects of photographing the old lady.
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp31141.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
Dragging down the runway, Air2Air’s closing favorite move brought to us by our amazing instructor Doug Rozendaal. How we normally end a Air2Air shoot is how we started our Saturday evening shoot, and with Sentimental Journey no less. If only we hadn’t that strong cross wind. Wow!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dpazcaf1857.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
Practice, Practice, Practice, I do it all the time because it’s the only way I know of keeping sharp at my panning skills. Getting a sharp image throwing the 200-400VR2 around at 1/90 demands constant practice. Once again the field provided us access (which is everything in aviation) to the taxi way for the group to learn, practice and refine their handholding and panning, We had Sentimental Journey and some other cool aircraft including the Lancair Evolution, one of only three around. The sky wasn’t the best but no matter, I was just practicing. I selected the 1/90 not only to show visually how good my technique (in case I needed more practuce), not just to blur the prop, but to blur out the background as much as possible. I was glad the images came out sharp, hate to think my practice went for not. Great start to Air2Air and only a hint of things to come!
Photo captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dpazcaf1709.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
Our good friend and supporter Bob acquired a new plane, this 500s Shrike and she’s a beaut! I personally have never seen one so never photographed it. Since it would be one of our air to air targets, I wanted to get a few static shots of it.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dpazcaf1717.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
By the time I moved over to the Shrike the clouds had already closed in. To make the most of the opportunity though we pulled the plane out and positioned it on the ramp. It just amazed me how our hosts, the AZ Wing of the CAF treats us like kings and spoils us.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dpazcaf1749.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
With that ability to position the planes as we need for the available background, even with the clouds change we can make the image. I like both images for different reasons. The 1st Shrike because of the graphic, the 2nd because of the gesture and the NanChang, well that’s obvious, the red.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/dpazcaf1645.swf, 595, 484 [/swf]
I was proud of this find, not bad for me. Wait for it…..