With the sun low on the horizon, and winter storms trying to carve out a spot in our skies, now is a great time to spend a little time at your local airport. Commercial jets like this Alaska 737 are still planes and with that sweet, mellow light, are great subjects. At the very least you get some good old panning practice in. You might be wondering why I’m using such a long lens for this large plane at your basic airport. Well, the longer the lens, the more selective I can be with the background while photographing the plane further out. I want more of a head-on shoot than broadside. If you want broadside, use a shorter lens. You could go with a Z180-600 and get both angles cause heck, with fall, head to the runway!

The PT-17 “Goliath” is kinda of a legendary flying aircraft. I saw it for the first time just a week ago and the first thing that struck me was, that color! I wanted to accomplish two things in the photograph, communicate its name “Goliath” and make the color burn in your vision. The answer to both questions was accomplished in one action, lying down! Yeah, I went prone on the grass. That angle of looking up on Goliath made it have a more prominent stance on the taxiway. At the same time, that angle took in some green grass and more blue sky, those colors make the orange eye popping even more so. It was that simple to pop the color.

Sitting in the 185 in the warm-up area, the door was off giving me clear vision to all our surroundings. Taxing to the warm-up area on the dirt strip was one of our subjects, the gorgeous Curtis Wright Speedwing. As it spun up, the clouds of dust filled the air, the Speedwing backlit in the afternoon light. The resulting shot is an instant favorite of mine, resinating of days gone by.

Bald skies are hard to incorporate in a photograph as they tend to take up so much space with nothing to say. I like to arrange element to not only move the eye around the frame but also tell a story. What does a blank sky say much of the time? Nothin! But when you have access to a cool aircraft for just a day and you have bald skies, you can’t blow it off. You gotta as they say make lemonade from lemons. So I hit the ramp almost an hour before sunrise, when the light far off on the horizon is not even a glow yet. I then started to arrange elements by putting the Z 6 on a Benro table for an arse shot. Dialed in -2 exp comp, put the WB to 9000k, and made a click. I waited 10 minutes and took this shot. The vignette is natural, I did nothing in post, this is right out of the camera. What did I do for the rest of the morning? I had coffee and donuts with the guys and enjoyed being on the ramp. So with bald skies, go dark!

Serious, this plane is called a Moose and it has nothing to do with me! It’s a kit and in this case, it was constructed by Thomas and his son Matthew and it’s gorgeous. You could think of it as a wide-body Cessna 185 with the ability to carry a moose. It was delightful to fly in and land at grass strips, riverbeds, and in the future, I hope at some amazing, remote fishing streams. And hopefully, I’ll do an A2A with it, a moose with wings!

It was a classic “just show up” situation. Bob said just be there, not why, just when and where. Being my mentor I did as advised. The photo above is just one example that came from just showing up. What has always gotten me about the shot is the juxtaposition of the Zero and the fall color background. I love the color, I love the action, it’s just, well, I’m not really sure what it is about the whole click. I know the pilots loves it, and many of you have said you like it. Perhaps for me, the photograph is all about the background story.