Apr 18, 2018 | Aviation
Lt Col Dick Cole
Doolittle Raider
Seventy-six years ago today, 80 airmen in 16 B-25Bs launched from the USS Hornet to attack mainland Japan. Pearl Harbor was fresh in everyone’s memory and even though the damage from the raid was thought to be a token at best, the boost to the US moral was immeasurable. In Dayton, OH in 2017, eleven B-25 flew over the USAF Museum to pay their respect and tribute to the Doolittle Raiders and thank them for their sacrifice for our freedoms on the 75th anniversary of this event. Lt Col Dick Cole, 102 years old, is the last of the eighty Raiders and was present for the ceremonies. We feel very honored to know Dick and being able to call him friend. He’s not just a piece of living history and a hero, but he’s incredibly funny! We owe all our vets a tribute and I’m glad we are saying thanks to this very special vet!
The 11 B-25s present for 75th Reunion
Mar 29, 2018 | Aviation
We’re down in Florida at Turian Aviation continuing our work on the C47 Normandy Bound project. Right now they are in the process of replacing all the main cabin windows. It was a perfect opportunity to go “el natural” and just use light and shadow to tell the story. I wanted both sides of the installation process which is what dictated in large part my lens selection. The D5 was the obvious choice for the body so by in telling the story, once the light was known, the rest fell into place.
C47 Project
captured by D5 / 24f1.4
That’s because, with the light, the story of the window was dealt with by how much or how little of the C47 was required in the photograph for you to know he was working on a plane. So for the interior, I went with the 105f1.4 and the exterior, I went with the 24f1.4, both being shot of course, at f1.4. After that, it was simple to arrange the elements so you can see the concentration and care going into the replacement process and bring a little visual drama to an otherwise mundane task. It’s what makes such projects like this both challenging and visually rewarding. That and the 550GB of video shot and the 24hr time lapse we have running. Bigtime fun!!!!
Mar 19, 2018 | Aviation
You Can Become a Fighter Pilot! – September 10th – 13th, 2018
The Utah Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, Historic Wendover Airfield, and the United States Army Air Forces Historical Unit (Arizona Ground Crew Living History Unit, Inc.) is excited to announce that it will be holding a WWII Pilot Training Camp at the Historic Wendover Army Air Field. Wendover Field is the most intact WWII Airbase left in the United States.
During your five nights and four days of training you will:
– Receive a Flight Suit and Pilots Log Book.
– Barracks accommodations for five nights.
– Three meals per day in the Mess Hall.
– Training materials
– Receive Ground School Training on all aspects of flying operations.
– Take Primary Flight Training in the PT-17 Stearman.
– Conduct Advanced Flight Training in the AT-6 Texan
– Air Cadets will be flying every day (3.5hrs total airtime) during this condensed training course and upon completion will Graduate and earn their WINGS!
TRAIN WHERE THEY TRAINED!
SLEEP WHERE THEY SLEPT!
EAT WHERE THEY ATE!
Air Cadets will be sleeping in the WWII Barracks and messing (eating) in the WWII Mess Hall. Ground School will be conducted in the massive Enola Gay Hangar. Visit the WWII Service Club on base while not training for a little relaxation or just sit on your bunk in the barracks and write a letter home on your footlocker.
You will be immersed in the lifestyle and culture of the USAAF while serving during this Training Camp. You will learn what it was like to be an Air Cadet during WWII.
For MORE information please visit us on Facebook at WWII Pilot Training Camp or go to the registration page www.planetreg.com/WWIIPilotTrainingCamp
And in case you’re wondering, yes I’ll be there and we’re working on having an aviation workshop going in conjunction with this killer event! Stay Tuned!
Mar 16, 2018 | Aviation
There in the middle of a Florida swamp, forest, field, parked, was a piece of our history that’s now Normany Bound! #43-48950 was built in 1943 and instantly sent to Europe becoming part of WWII history. The Vintage Aero Group is putting this special piece of history back in the air and along with 32 other C-47s from the USA, flying it to France, June 2019 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the D Day Landing. This two-year project began last summer and our cameras have been there from the beginning!
Peterson & Sons Productions are filming a documentary on 43-48950’s recovery, restoration, and reliving of its life in 1943 flying the northern route to Europe. This history belongs to us all and we’re going to share it all with you! We’ve created a website about the project and the documentary, Normandy Bound. There you can see the Offical Trailer for the documentary, read about the history of 43-48950 and our days of trials and successes on-site with 43-48950 with our cameras. It’s already been helluva of an adventure and there’s so much more to come. You can be a part of it. There are opportunities for the public to actually work on the aircraft for example, because the history belongs to us all. There a place on the website where you can contribute to the filming of the documentary (and we thank you for contributing in a special way). We invite you to come along, it’s going to be one heck of a ride in history!
Footnote: We are overwhelmed and incredibly grateful to all of you for your contributions! Thank you ever so much!
Mar 13, 2018 | Aviation
Yep, there is a dirty little secret to those killer aviation photos you’re not going to learn in the hangar or hear on the flight line. Lean in close to your monitor as I whisper the secret because I don’t want to be the one blamed for letting out the secret. You ready, here is comes … LIGHT!!! Yep, that’s the dirty little secret you’re not supposed to know about, at least that seems to be the case with the photos that I’m often asked to critique. What’s missing is … light! And we’re not talking about any old light, oh no!!!
We’re talking sexy, provocative, tasty, mysterious, sculpting light! It’s light we further tweak with exposure and white balance in the camera and in post, we lower the blue saturation in ACR to remove that color cast from the top flight surfaces. And most of all, there is BLACK! Now, this light does not only happen at sunrise or sunset, rather some of the best happen at midday (like the P-51D photo) when clouds come in as God Skrims not only sculpting light but bringing the story to an aircraft. While sexy on their own, that sex appeal has a limited audience when it’s just a plane photo (had to use the bad pun, sorry) and you say in your photo with boring light, “yawn, Here’s a plane.” But with that magic of light kissing that airframe, you’re then saying in your photo, “screaming, HERE’S A PLANE!” It makes all the difference in the world which is why it’s aviation dirty little secret to cool photos.
Cub – captured by D5 / 70-200f4
P-51D Mustang – captured by D750 / 24-70VR
Mar 5, 2018 | Aviation
It was an incredible honor to shoot and produce Warbirds and the Men Who Flew Them four years ago! Working with the amazing pilots and planes of the Texas Flying Legends Museum, the crew from KelbyOne but especially, the WWII Vets will always be a highlight of my career! But what chokes me up is years later receiving a note like this that just reinforces the great visual stories are ageless!
I have followed you for many years for your insightful, helpful lessons on photography. Today, I find it necessary to write and tell you how impressed I (USN retired, Vietnam vet) and my wife (USAF service) were by the subject video. More than the photography, you presented the sacrifices and heroism of the Greatest Generation that our fathers were a part of with honor and respect. You accomplished this with dignity and understanding of their sacrifices. Your video brought tears to our eyes as we listened to the stories. You are one heck of a photographer, but that reputation palls beside your caring nature.
Thank you for sharing this magnificent story.
Respectfully,
Charles J Horvath
