Thank YOU for your Sacrifice!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DAPARRR6730.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
Up in the Air – What I was After
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp1769.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
What was I after photographically? The P-51D served many roles in WWII, from bomber escort to ground troop support. You might remember them coming in at end of Saving Private Ryan and their being called “tank busters.” The P-51D can do easily 400mph, not bad. Well with the combination of speed and history, I wanted to fly on the deck and photograph the P-51D from above with the ground a total blur. The shutter speed is already down to 1/90 so that part of the equation is OK, but what’s the problem with this whole concept? First there is the FAA who doesn’t really like strafing. Next to get the ground blur, what do you need to do when panning? The camera position is stack as it pans with the moving subject. I’m in a chase plane doing the same speed as the subject. There is no way to pan. I can’t spin in my seat and it’s not safe to have the P-51D speed by, come back around and then speed by again since we’re not sitting still. So while what I had in mind didn’t work, I managed to get past the disappointment!
Photo captured by D3s, 70-200VRII on Lexar UDMA digital film
Up in the Air – Maybe you’re still earth bound
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DAPARRR19013.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
OK, the price, expertise, time, equipment, one or all of these have scared you off from this whole idea of doing air to air. Many are uncomfortable getting in a 757 let alone a small T6. Yet you’re like to try your hand at aviation photography. Well all is not lost!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DAPARRR12777.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
All three of these images were taken at the Reno Air Races. There were taken from the pits using a 70-300AFS lens.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DAPARRR3590.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
This might be the answer for you and your photography. You can break into this very heart pulsing photography at any of the many airshows that happen nearly every weekend somewhere in the country. The trick is to get in a place where when the planes pass by, you have that clean background. And there is no better background then nice clouds. Trust me, once you try it, you will get hooked! Oh yeah, be sure your panning technique is real good!
Photos captured by D3, 70-300AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Up in the Air – Maybe you’re still earth bound
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DAPARRR19013.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
OK, the price, expertise, time, equipment, one or all of these have scared you off from this whole idea of doing air to air. Many are uncomfortable getting in a 757 let alone a small T6. Yet you’re like to try your hand at aviation photography. Well all is not lost!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DAPARRR12777.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
All three of these images were taken at the Reno Air Races. There were taken from the pits using a 70-300AFS lens.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/DAPARRR3590.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
This might be the answer for you and your photography. You can break into this very heart pulsing photography at any of the many airshows that happen nearly every weekend somewhere in the country. The trick is to get in a place where when the planes pass by, you have that clean background. And there is no better background then nice clouds. Trust me, once you try it, you will get hooked! Oh yeah, be sure your panning technique is real good!
Photos captured by D3, 70-300AFS on Lexar UDMA digital film
Up in the Air – Background, Background
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp2366.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
Just like anything photographic, background to me is everything. Here you can see the Carson Valley, way too much of it. The busy lines of the highway and streets completely take away from the elegance of the P-51D. In the words of the great critiquer Moose, it sucks!
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp1429.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
OK, you move away from the business and while it’s better, to me it still brings way too much earth to the photo and that’s an issue. Well, all you gotta do is move, right? That takes gas and gas can hike up the price. You’d be surprised when you’re up in the air how far you’ve gotta move to get that clean background.
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp1952.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
Luckily for us, we have Lake Tahoe only a 5min flight from the airport. That deep blue water just rocks! But the problem I have is, I don’t want every one of my air to air flights to have the same background. So I wanted to try something new and wouldn’t you know it, there are rules about chasing cars down a highway with a P-51D. Damn! Oh well, luckily for me I will be back up in the air working out those small issues in the near future. In the meantime, I’m going to go up and fly looking just for the right background, taking a GPS to mark the spot where I’d like to fly.
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VRII on Lexar UDMA digital film
Up in the Air – 1st Step
[swf]http://www.moosepeterson.com/swf_imgs/_bmp2452.swf, 585, 473 [/swf]
While this is obvious, it’s really not. The 1st thing you have to do is find the pilots and the planes. Now it all depends on what’s your pleasure, vintage war planes, modern military jets, commercial or private aviation, whatever it is, you’ve gotta find two pilots and two planes to do air to air work. There are actually a lot of these folks around the country, just do a search on warbird flights and you’ll find a whole bunch. When you start out, I’ll pass along the words of advice I was given, bring your check book. A 15min flight goes $400-500 for ONE plane. That probably just stopped most from trying this but you will find that after you’ve made the first contact and made the first flight and paid that first bill, in exchange for prints (which you sent from your first flight), you can put the checkbook away. The pilots/owners are really great folks and love great photography of their planes.
I happened to luck out (that often happens) to have hooked up with the right pilot from the start. Dennis (on the right) besides being a really nice guy and great pilot, knows it seems just about everyone aviation. Ted, the owner and pilot of the P-51D Sizzlin Liz was more than happy to go flying to get some great images of his plane. You might have noticed in more air to air photography you see the pilot in the plane looking right into the lens. What they are doing is not smiling for the camera but watching the other plane as we fly in formation. So before we go up, we sat down at a table, we talked about what I wanted, where we’d be going, how many passes we’d make in each locale, all those logistics to make the photo. You will know you’ve got the right pilots at the briefing, if they are the right ones, they will take your ideas and make them better. Then, all it takes is getting up in the air.
Photo captured by D3s, 70-200VRII on Lexar UDMA digital film