It’s actually real simple, just get out and shoot! Then when you’re done, shoot some more and that will keep your panning skills sharp. A quick review is to use proper handholding, then plant your feet and twist at the trunk following the subject. Bam! Proper handholding consists of pointing you left palm to the sky and having the lens barrel rest in your palm. Bring elbows into your sides, press the camera against your face and roll your finger on the shutter release to fire the camera. Panning consists of selecting the background you want, stand so when you’re shooting “straight ahead” is facing that background then follow your subject and firing when the background first appears in the viewfinder and continue firing until it disappears and continue to twist at the trunk until the camera finishes firing. Easy peasy!

To take your photography to the next level, look for the uncommon background and drop your shutter speed. Shooting at ANC, when I saw the rainbow forming I moved so the incoming Atlas 747 would be at the right AGL to incorporate the rainbow in the background. For the Speedmail I dropped the shutter speed down to 1/20. Pushing is how you continually grow which goes for your photography and your client list. That photo of Atlas’s 747 and other I sent to corporate which we have now picked up as a client with this and additional images already being used in their communications. It might be cold but the photography can be hot with a little imagination and winter panning practice.

They were high school juniors and seniors when they heard on the radio the attack on Pearl Harbor. Without hesitation, they enlisted to serve their country. The “Greatest Generation” came together making the USA a life priority with many making the ultimate sacrifice. We owe all who served and paid the ultimate price for our freedoms, especially that day in Dec 1941. They shall never be forgotten!

Years back we wanted to understand that Sunday morning so we traveled to Pearl Harbor to fly the routes of that morning. This is the story of that flight. We’d been planning it for months, paperwork filed with official channels asking for permission, route and mission decided on, all was good to go! The time had come to put the flight in the air. It was a beautiful clear morning 15 March as we meet the team at the gate of the airport. The day before we’d all meet in Rob’s hangar and went over the flight we’d been planning for months. The maps were pulled out and spread on the table, historic photographs of the day laid about, the route was selected and timed with my shot list making sure we can accomplish all that we had planned. Our flight path wasn’t one we came up with but one that followed from the morning attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7^th, 1941.

The sun hadn’t graced the skies yet but there was a glow over Diamond Head outlining its very distinctive shape on the horizon. The first thing we had to do was get the screw out of the window of the photo platform I was going to shoot out of. The Cessna 172 is a very common photo platform for air to air work. The windows though normally only open a short way, too small an aperture to get the lens out to shoot. Because of the airspeed, you fly, you can safely and easily with the screw removed, let the window open fully (the airflow actually holds the window up for you) making shooting possible.

After that, there was the preflighting of the 172. I’m always comforted when I see the pilot have the POH in hand and running down the list as we get ready to go. Stab the wing tanks, plug-in headsets, seat belts fastened and with a yell out the window, “Clear!,” the prop turns and the engine kicks over. Then there is the warm-up and initial systems check. Then there is talking to the tower so you can taxi. Then there is taxing over to the run-up area and doing the last engine run-up for oil pressure. An hour has passed before at 07:15 its wheels up and in the air heading for our rendezvous.

Our subject plane, a gorgeous SNJ painted in the scheme of the USS Saratoga, is hangared at historic Barbers Point. As part of our briefing the day before we had arranged where we would meet once in the air. While you can plan everything well in advance and go through the preflight with flying colors there seems to be one thing that tends to come up way too often for me. And that’s radio problems most often from loose or dirty connections. And as you might guess, while working perfectly the day before, the first depress of the button and a scratchy, static voice rang through the headset. We flew north towards our hook up point southeast of Wheeler Field. It was an amazing feeling flying the path of that historic morning!

Right on queue, we find Bruce and his SNJ visually but radio communications are anything but clear. As long as we fly the brief, there should be no problems. We are a little early for our scheduled time over Wheeler Field. Wheeler Field is still active so clearance was obtained to do a couple of flyovers to photograph the SNJ with the Field in the background. We flew a little north and came down the shoot the same as the Japanese did that morning in 1941. In the background were the same rice fields and agriculture that were present on that day.

The radio came to life, a flight of Black Hawks was on their way into Wheeler. They were calling the tower. We heard no response and then the radio crackled to life clearing them. Rob waited for a second and called the tower. The sweetest came across the radio answering back. “Ah good, I know her,” Rob said to us and he answered back. The two of them talked pleasantries and then got down to clearing our filed flight plan. With everything cleared, we had the next ten minutes to buzz the field and get the shots. That’s when the challenge began.

Radio communications with the SNJ were challenging, the connection was sketchy at best. While we flew the brief, being able to talk on the radio to fine-tune the photograph is essential. We flew the strafing runs the Japanese flew that fateful morning down Wheeler Field. Bruce is a Pearl Harbor historian and had told us much of the facts leading up to that morning. The P-40s had been lined up in a perfect row to prevent saboteurs from attacking the aircraft (an attack by sea wasn’t believed possible by some of the brass). Needless to say, this made it really easy for the Japanese to cause a great amount of destruction with little effort.

One thing that is very hard to do in a briefing is to explain angles. The angle of the photographer, the subject and the background so they all line up in the viewfinder is hard to prevision. That’s why the radio was so important. Despite the brief, getting the SNJ in the perfect position just wasn’t happening. After a couple of passes the radio crackled, “Photo flight, airspace is now closed. Thanks for coming!” And with that, we headed south.

Bruce took us south on the same path the Japanese took to Pearl. The landscape below us now is nothing like what it was on that day. Oahu urban sprawl has grown up to Wheeler Field. We fly south checking the time. Bruce had managed to get flight clearance over Ford Island and the Pearl Harbor Memorial. A photo mission over these historic areas hadn’t been granted for quite some time because of some military installations in the area that the military didn’t want to be photographed. At the appointed time, Bruce starts calling the tower to get our clearance to start our run. “Sorry, we don’t have that paperwork, clearance denied.” The PAO hadn’t got the paperwork to the tower! Unlike Wheeler Field, we couldn’t just circle while we tried to clear up the problem. So off we went.

For the next ten to fifteen minutes, Bruce tried to run down the PAO. Finally, the PAO made the call to the tower and we were cleared for just two passes. That’s not what was originally arranged but the clock had been eaten up trying to reach the PAO. With months in the planning, it all came down to these two passes. The radio issues hadn’t cleared up and the same problems we had at Wheeler Field rose again. The goal was to get photos of the Memorial, Ford Island and other historic locations in the background of the SNJ. Lining up those items with just two passes and poor radio communications just wasn’t happening. After two passes without a word from the tower, we flew out of that pattern.

After leaving Ford Island, the flight split with us heading back to Honolulu and the SNJ back to Barbers Point. After landing and buttoning up the 172, we hopped into the van and drove over to Barbers Point where Bruce was waiting for us. We spent the rest of the day with Bruce having the most amazing, historic ground tour of December 7, 1941. With Bruce’s military clearance, we were able to tour Wheeler Field and see the OC where the card game was going during the attack in which Taylor & Welch left, got into their P-40s (parked at the remote strip) and got in the air to bring down some attackers. We saw the secret, underground plane assembly plant, and runway. It’s a tour that if you’re into history is absolutely amazing!

We even went back to Pearl, visiting both sides of the channel. Late in the afternoon found us at the hangars on Ford Island. There and at the seaplane port just down the ramp, we could see the remnants of the bombs and bullets of that morning. We were at that infamous place where all the B&W photos of the PBYs and Ducks burning was taken, the pot marks still in the cement. We then went up to where the Arizona and other battleships were moored, next to the officers’ quarters and got out and stood where the explosion did so much destruction. Very powerful!

At the end of the day, we ended up back at Barbers Point. Barbers Point construction was well underway on Dec 7^th but not active. While a bomb did fall nearby, many think it was not intentional. In the last waning light of the day, we wheeled out the SNJ on the deactivated base for our last couple of portraits for the day. Our flight occurred from 07:15-08:11, not too much different than that morning. Despite not going 100% as planned, it was an incredible flight and an amazing day. It’s our history to honor, remember and pass on so it is never forgotten!

It’s winter and with it comes cold and snow. One of the easiest ways to say the temps are minus like this sunset in MI a few years back is to include snow. Snow is white and it you want it to say cold and winter and not just winter, you need to include blue. The easiest way to do that is White Balance and shooting when the sun is not shinning, that’s a cinch! Making the blue, bluer just takes another color like the yellow like on “The Beast’s” wing. And lemme tell ya, this is a whole lot easier to do then convincing a plane owner that pulling the plane out just for a static shoot with the temp is below zero is a great photograph! That’s because they know that there’s more to the photo then just blue says cold.

First flying at the end of WWII, the Piper PA-17 “Vagabond” is a small, two seat plane that sold for $1900, in 1948. I have a good friend who has one up and flying and looking like it just came out of the showroom in 1948 that I’ve fallen head over heels for. The plan, to do an A2A this coming weekend but I want more than to just fly alongside and photograph this cute little plane, but take a step back in time. In other words, make the uncommon from the common.

Looking at advertisements for the PA-17 from the day, I got sense of who Piper was marketing it to. With that, I did some online searching of the area we’ll be flying to find a “rural” background reminiscent of those ads. Then had to look at charts to see if we can get down to 500AGL. Then had to look at the sun direction and level during the day. This gives me a general flight plan to talk over with the pilots. And with that, I’ll go through my preflight checklist in preparation for the photo mission.

But here’s the deal and what you’ve got to be prepared for, it all could be scrubbed! I have had one heck of a lot of A2A photo missions scrubbed this year because of everything from weather to the price of gas to planes just not wanting to fly. That’s part of the process that you have to be prepared for, you gotta mentally plan on as well. I love the whole process which includes the planning a 1948 flying ad!

There are only seven of these Speedmails left, and this one by far is my favorite! I’m real fortunate that I get to spend time with it every month. On this flight a number of years back always comes to mind when the first snows fall. We had already done a couple of A2A photo missions before the Speedmail. The pilots just said, “There’s still some light, lets go!” and who am I to say no?! Now the air temp on the ground was already hovering at the 20 mark but once we got up to 1000 AGL, with was Zero. Now Addison in the Speedmail was warm and toasty in his winter flight suit and cabin heater. Ryan had the heater in the 185 keeping him nice as toasty. They were actually worried about me hanging out the open door with just gloves and a long sleeve shirt. But I’m weird, I was warm and having the time of my life. Ever since though in the winter when I go to the hanger, I have all the clothes / gear I need to be up where it’s cold cause the light, it’s hot, hot, hot! Cause when I’m flying, it might be zero but who’s counting?

One of the first lessons I was taught about aviation photography is get the “going away” shot. It can be a very powerful photograph! Not just the mere fact you’re taking it, but by incorporating a background that tells a story. In other words, when you have some drama n the sky. In this case, an incoming storm at sunset set the stage. The Super Cub in the pattern doing touch & goes made for the perfect subject. Bringing the two together just took standing behind the hangar on the taxi ramp and the 180-400VR @560mm. I shot it both ways, with the camera plum with the earth and cocked to make the Cub appear it was making a left out of the pattern. The bottonline is that despite the fact the Cub is tini tiny in the frame, you can’t help but see it. And it appears to be heading out against the big storm all on its own all because of the long shot.