Nov 22, 2010 | Aviation
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Fifi is the only flying B-29 in the world right now and it just happened to be making a four day stop on its tour in Phoenix. So we ended our Air2Air Workshop by heading over toe Deer Valley where is was coming in. Most know of the B-29 because it’s what delivered the Atom Bomb to end WWII.
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It was great to see all the folks turn out to see Fifi. The CAF does a great job preserving and sharing our aviation history with the public. I have a personal attachment for the B-29 because my father fly in the nose of one during WWII and Korea. Jake said it best when he first saw Fifi…”And I thought the B-17 was big!”
Photos captured by D3x, 200-400VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Nov 19, 2010 | Aviation
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Our last plane, #9 of our air-to-air was this gorgeous V-77 Stinson Gullwing. This is one freakin gorgeous plane! As you can see, we had a couple of moments of the Bamboo Bomber with the Gullwing and then the Bomber went back to base and we flew an orbit with the Gullwing. The light at this point sucked and that really bummed me out because the plane is freakin gorgeous! I do like the last shot here when the Gullwing went over an orange grove. Oh, I’m very grateful we were able to photograph all these planes but being the kinda photographer I am, just want things perfect. Good thing we’re going back!
Photos by D3x, D3s, 24-120AFS / 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Nov 19, 2010 | Aviation
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Say Hi to the Bamboo Bomber, also known as the Cessna T-50. This is an all wooden plane made in WWII for bomber flight training. It’s a great plane! And its color, wow! But as you can see, the light simply slipped away from us. The bottom image is the only one I’m really happy with, the rest the light just doesn’t work with the “cheery” nature of the Bamboo Bomber. I like the slight angle of the Bomber opposed to our direction of travel. But hey, I didn’t stop shooting just because the light wasn’t perfect, too much damn fun!
Photos by D3x, D3s, 24-120AFS / 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Nov 19, 2010 | Aviation
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Next up in the viewfinder was the PT-17 Stearman. A fighter trainer back in the day, these now fill the main roll of enticing folks to leave the safety of earth for a flight.
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You might not recognize it because typically they have a blue and yellow paint scheme. This one was dubbed “The Red Baron” and was a lot of fun to photograph.
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When you go up in the air, you have a little more time to shoot with good light because of the change of angles. But once the light goes hard, it goes hard! Just like shooting back on earth, when the light gets hard you have two options, stop shooting or experiment and see what you can make of the situation. So I played and while I like this photo, it’s the next one I really like.
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Once we were shooting into the light, the contrast between the white wings and the earth made it a no win situation for exposure so I simple underexposed to create what you see here. It would seem the white of the Sky Van reflected just a tad of light into the front of the Strearman which is what saves the whole image. If it were black, it would have been deleted. I would love to tell you that I saw that in the air, but I would be lying.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Nov 18, 2010 | Aviation
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And in a heartbeat the light went to me, yuckie right when this really cool RV-8 come up. Unlike sunset where you chase the light as it mellows, in the morning you run from the light as it gets hard.
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I don’t know if it was the light, the distance this smaller aircraft stayed from the photo platform or my back which by now was killing me (air-to-air photography is very hard on the body), I just couldn’t make a click I liked.
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This is such a great little plane, John such a nice guy, I wanta photograph this plane again in the future. I do like the top shot but all of them required a little post processing to being out a little drama in the light. I’ll have to think it through a little to make the right shot. I just know I don’t have it here.
Photos captured by D3x / D3s, 24-120AFS / 70-200VR2 on Lexar UDMA digital film
Nov 18, 2010 | Aviation
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Sticking with the “commercial” shoot idea, I shot a bunch of full page / cover layout format photos. I went with 1/90 the whole time because I liked the white tip props with the white paint making that full circle. If you’ve ever looked at what images are being used in this way, you often see planes like the A36 Bonanza with couples in the plane. They story line is they hopped into their plane and jet off for the weekend. So keeping with that theme, we had a gorgeous blond next to Casey during the shoot.
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Wait, I know that gorgeous blond, that’s my wife! Yeah, Sharon loves this aviation stuff as much as I and in fact, she had her camera in the Bonanza with her shooting away. She was shooting so much, we had to radio the Bonanza and tell her to stop for a while and just enjoy the ride so we could get what you’re seeing here. How cool is that?!
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Of course, I’m still wondering what story Kevin told his wife to explain why a gorgeous blond was in the second seat of their plane.
Photos captured by D3x, 24-120AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
