Life is full of surprises making exploration with a camera so rewarding. I had a group of photographers with me last week and I had planned to be on top of Steptoe Butte on Thursday for sunset. It’s a gorgeous location towering over the magnificent Palouse providing a 360 panorama of its rolling hills of green. They are very special people to me so I wanted to arrange a little something different from the normal telephoto landscape photography from the butte. I was talking with my friend about another flying project we have coming up when I just asked, “You wouldn’t happen to be flying on Thursday would you?” He wasn’t but asked what I was hatching. I then told him my plot and he was all in. It was about a twenty-minute flight to the Butte for Jay so pretty easy. At the appointed time I had my folks in the right spot with the right lens for a moment they will never, ever forget. Jay did a great job flying putting The Palouse in the background providing us all with a sweet shot. After he flew off into the sunset they asked how I made that happen. I simply said, “I know a guy.”

The P-39 looked pretty darn cool there on the ramp. The light was kinda hard so I went to B&W. After a few clicks and looking at the results, it kinda reminded me of old WWII photos. That’s when I thought the photograph needed something more. That’s when I went and asked Steve if he would be so kind as to “play” a sentry for my story. Most airshows have these great folks who go to great lengths to honor the men and women who served. They love, love to have their photograph taken so I try to incorporate them whenever I can (sending images later to say thanks). The results of our couple of minutes turned out pretty darn cool. When you can keep it simple, they usually do. Just remember when you see them, use them, they love their photo taken!

We use them to take us to far off destinations for our photography. But not very often do our lenses get turned on them. The commercial aircraft that whisk us away on our adventures are actually really amazing. And for those wanting to get into aviation photography or want to up their game, they are a great opportunity. Many airports like Anchorage, Portland OR, LAX just to name a few provide locals for you to stand and photograph the pattern. It doesn’t require much, they are big planes and real close, perfect for practicing your panning. Go longer and work on incorporating interesting elements in the background like clouds. Go in low light to get dramatic shots. The list of opportunities is nearly endless. Keep it simple, keep it fun and remember, they’re planes too!

Planes tend to go “slower” as they get up on step and then once on step, they seem to leap of the water. To get that feeling of speed like you see above I shot at 1/40 to blur the water and background. This takes a little practice but the results are fun. Just be forewarned that once you go to a splashin, you get hooked!

I had a marvelous time last night with the Huntington Camera Club (thanks folks!). Real nice folks and we talked about a favorite topic of mine, aviation photography. The Jones Beach Airshow is coming their way shortly and during the Q&A, a marvelous question was asked. It would seem the entire airshow is backlit, the sun is behind the aircraft. “How do you make photos in this scenario? “While this can from time to time create some great photos, hours and hours of backlit subjects would get old, fast. What I do in this scenario is leave show center and head to the end of the performance box (the end with the best background) and photograph the aircraft as they make their return turn to show center. During that turn they will have sun on them and that when, like you see in the Corsair above, you can get out of the shadows. This is the easiest solution I know for the backlit airshow.