Feb 4, 2011 | Aviation
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPBCMA0029.swf, 404, 600 [/swf]
Have you ever used in flight WiFi? if you have, it’s because of this plane! Inside this Albatross is the most amazing array of flying computer, internet, radar, wifi, cable stuff, a gear hear would think they’d died and gone to heaven. This is the first time, ever, I’ve sat down in a seat in a plane and a notebook lapboard comes standard! And silly us, we only brought cameras for the ride.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPBCMA0070.swf, 595, 482 [/swf]
We’re racking up the miles knocking out the projects and this was our little reward for this week. Jake & I headed down to Boulder City with an invite from our dear friend Dennis for a really cool meetup of multi engine float planes pilots getting their annual check rides and paperwork. There were pilots from Guam, AK, MI, WI, TX, FL just to mention a few. And this morning, the star was this gorgeous Albatross B. One pilot, a great guy, Peter, has been flying since ’57 and flew the Connie for TWA! Like usual, it was the people and not the planes that were the stars.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DPBCMA00921.swf, 595, 482 [/swf]
After a pilot’s breakfast, Jake & I were on the field early to shoot some statics. After awhile it was time to hope aboard, goggle over the computer network on board and get a thorough walk through of the system and how it’s installed on 37 & 67, it was time for taxi and a 90min flight on Lake Mead. I’ve not processed all the stills or edited the 16GB of vid yet and the night is getting catching up to me. So, I’ll have to get it finished and up over the weekend since we’ll be spending the next couple of weeks in Yellowstone and I wanna be caught up before them.
Photos captured by D3x, 16Fish on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 3, 2011 | Aviation
This past weekend at the museum, we went back out at noon to the flight line. It might be just me but here were these amazing subjects and the worst possible light. I knew better but I shot anyways. My thought process was simple, arrange the elements in the frame to make them interesting and then see if in post, I could make something from nothing. So that’s what I did. What you see here are two images, the “before” and the after. The before though is not straight out of the camera but rather, a one images HDR. The first one was done in Nik HDR Efex and the last three done in Photomatix Pro. What the two? Both programs have strengths I think, you can see here visually what I liked. After that the images where finished in PS using Nik Color Efex filters, Bleach Bypass, Tonal Contrast, to name a few with selective masks. And the final images? Well, ah, sorta…na, shoulda gone with my gut and not shoot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Feb 2, 2011 | Aviation
The 100th Bombardment Group took off on 6 March, 1944 to bomb Berlin. Sixty-nine bombers did not return that day, fifteen of those from the 100th (the movie & TV series 12 o’clock High was based on the Bloody 100th). What you see here those members of the 100th that were able to make it to the “mini” reunion at the Palm Springs Air Museum. I couldn’t help but take photos of all the family members photographing the group portrait. There were lots of great grand kids present which we pretty cool.
Five of these gentleman spoke about their life in the 100th. We had a crew chief talk about all that was required to keep the B-17 in the air. One spoke about when the first ME-262 German Jet (the 1st ever jet fighter) ripped through a flight taking a deadly toll. One spoke about how one by one, members of the crew in his B-17 lost their life during a flight and with a fragment in his eye, bullet to the chest he managed to get his plane back to England. And then there is Bob and his story. It starts off with “two days after graduating from high school I enlisted…..”
“…at age 18 and by age 20, I was the pilot of a B-17.” On that faithful day, 6 March, 1944, Bob related the story of his flight and how, after the third flight of fighters going through them, his tail gunner looked in the skies around the Our Gal Sal (their B-17) and saw no other B-17s! They were the only ones left and felt…very lonely to say the least. After the presentation, Jake & I purchased the new book High Noon over Haseluenne and were able to get Bob to autograph it for us. We knew we were going down for a lecture but had no clue the reunion would be going on or we’d hear from folks like Bob. It was a great afternoon, made some new friends and able to say thanks personally to some of the greatest generation!
Feb 1, 2011 | Aviation
There was no way Jake & I couldn’t cruise the tarmac even though the light was high in the sky. What you see here is both camera and computer craft. The aircraft (in order) P-40 Warhawk, P-63 Kingcobra, B-25 Mitchell and P-47 Thunderbolt are all very much flyable. Today though they had been pulled out on the tarmac because the North Hangar / European Theater Hangar was cleared out for the the gathering of the 100 Bombardment Group “mini” reunion. Though the light was desert hard, it worked with the lines of the aircraft. On the computer side, images were finished with either ACR, Nik Viveza & Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.0
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120VR on Lexar UDMA digital film
Feb 1, 2011 | Aviation
Projects and articles from last fall are now getting out. I have lots of them and I wanted to highlight this one because I really like the online presentation. It’s just darn cool. Give Airplanista a gander (pg38 I hear is particularly nice), it might be the wave of the future, here now!
Jan 31, 2011 | Aviation
And right after Sentimental Journey took off, a PT-17 Stearman took off. Good panning practice and always fun to see the old classics in the air!
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
