The background is everything, it’s the stage we set for our star! In the spring we have a small window for a unique background that can make your photo stand out. This is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. The Palouse is a great landscape and in the spring, sections become ablaze with color. This opens the door for photographs not typically captured for an air-to-air. In this example, it’s a huge juxtaposition. The subject, A Goose specializes in working on the water. The owner lives near The Palouse and loves them hills. And that’s the trick to finding and making the most of spring color. Talk with the owners / pilots as they know typically when as where you can find spring color. Start asking now so you get a tentative date on the calendar. You can watch that area fine tuning the time of your flight. It just adds another special aspect to your photo mission making the photograph that much more special!

The excitement is in the air as airshow season is back in swing. With aircraft in the air, the question comes back as it always does each season, what lens? We are very fortunate as we have many, many options but I fear all those great options cause more confusion than clarity. You might narrow them down to these three:
Nikkor 180-400VR
Nikkor Z100-400
Nikkor Z70-200f2.8
Why these three and what about them that makes them possibly THE lens for you? The one common factor is they are all zooms. That flexibility gives you flexibility in all factors from where you stand on the flight light to arranging elements in the frame. No two airshows are the same so having one lens that is flexible also permits you to have just one lens covering all the airshows you want to photograph.

The 180-400VR is my preference, it would be attached to the Z 9 which makes a killer airshow photography kit. I don’t recommend this combo though to folks (I’ll discuss why in a moment). Next is the new Z100-400 which is hands down my #1 recommendation to you. Next would be the Z70-200f2.8 with the Z1.4x in your pocket. How do you know which is the right lens for you?

This is the trick, and it is a trick in many ways. Airshow demands that we are on our feet all day panning away to get the shot. That combo is why you are the biggest variable in which lens is best for you. I prefer the 180-400VR because its physical weight attached to the Z 9 is the perfect balance for my panning. That “swinging” of the rig right left, left to right panning is a balance of the rig and you and when it’s right, you have sharp image click after click all day while not beating down your body. You won’t know this for a new lens until you shoot with it which means that to find the lens for your airshow photography, I think you should rent before you buy. It might take an airshow or two but you will end up with the right lens for the rest of your photography. Don’t get hung up on focal length as much as flexibility, in the lens and in yourself and you will find the right lens!

The first airshow of 2022 is just a couple of weeks away, are you ready to get out, have fun and come back with them visual memories? I know I’m not which is why I’ve been out practicing my panning like crazy. This season I’ll be out with the Z 9 / 180-400VR, a new rig with a slightly better balance so I’m getting that muscle memory built and flexed. It starts by simply properly handholding about 30 minutes a day. The Z 9 is set to 1/20 and I keep practicing until I’m getting sharp images consistently. Then I’m building on that by following Maggie zipping about The Ranch shooting at my favorite shutter speed, 1/40. This is how I practice my panning when I’m at home. Yeah, my left arm was a little tired at first but after a week, my arm was not as tired and the number of images that were keepers was back up to where they should be. At this same time, I was also practicing with the new features in the Z 9, mainly 20fps and 3D Car subject detection (use Car with aircraft). I’m truly looking forward to getting back out with aircraft and I know by practicing now, I’ll be ready then!

I’m really fortunate to have not only found a very talented photo platform pilot, but having established a great creative relationship with him. I love flying with Ryan, in fact just flew acro with him a couple of weeks back, a little 3.2G fun. Well, I ping Ryan quite a bit looking for subjects at various times, the most are in the winter. I want that snowy background. Ryan knows everybody! In this case, the owner/pilot specifically wanted the snow-capped “Alps” in the background. Perfect! Ryan is always up for a cold flight, so am I but most are not but since the client wanted it, well he was up for it as well. That’s good because being in an open cockpit at Zero is hard! Well, we had a great flight but it was all possible because of my relationship with Ryan. The point, aircraft take people so more important than f/stop and shutter speed is your ability to form and keep those relationships!

Sharon & I were very fortunate to spend New Year’s weekend with both boys and a lot of friends on both ends of I-90. And with little surprise, planes managed to be a part of it as well. Out on the BZN ramp with a nice wind chill of 0, we had some sweet time with Jim’s new Great Lakes Biplane. New to him I should say, the second owner of this sweet ride. After moving some snow from the hangar door, we towed it down to a quieter part of the very busy BZN ramp (my how it has grown!) for a later afternoon shoot (the shot above).

As you can see, there was snow on the ground, and all around for that matter and that’s really why we pulled her out. It was also a great opportunity to get some more time in with the Z 9 and its fold-out monitor. That’s how I took this particular shot. I had the grid active and then bent over and lined up the shot with the monitor pulled out so I could easily see. Using the 3D Car mode, the focusing was a snap. And while that worked great, there was a point in the shoot the light was changing really fast and this method didn’t work for me. That’s because when I shoot with the monitor, I don’t trust my eyes to get everything perfectly level so I chimp a lot. With the fast-changing light, that doesn’t work. So after all that time staying off the tarmac, at the end of the shoot when it was the coldest, I was lying down on my belly shooting. The final photo was worth it though.

Shooting statics in winter is in many ways a slam dunk. It’s time to get out with your camera! The biggie is the mellow light with the sun so close to the horizon. Shadows under the wings this time of year are at a minimum bringing out more detail. It begs us to get down lower, the angle of view bringing out more drama in the airframe. And the moisture winter brings adds to our photographs. Having the tarmac nice and black from being wet is a biggie. And if you can catch the puddles before they drain off (ramps are constructed to drain fast) you can use the puddles as a great reflection. Finally, the background can grab the imagination and provide that static aircraft a place to fly. Clouds also bring a romance to the shot while mellowing the light even more. Shooting statics in winter are the very definition of, bad weather can make the best photography. This makes winter storms great for ramp shoots!