I receive a number of emails asking where do you start in regards to an air to air? Folks see my images with rare and exciting aircraft and naturally think that’s what one starts with. Of course, it is possible but not likely. At the same time, starting with something “less” naturally seems like a let down. But that couldn’t be further from the truth! Photographing GA (general aviation) is a great place to start for every possible reason. Access, ease on the wallet and the best, leads to bigger and better. This is a prime example, a 1954 Beech V35 V tail shot over Kansas years back. This was actually a test shoot for the Epson Finish Strong campaign, shooting with the then new D810 and 70-200f4 AFS. It’s like many things in photography, you might not want to cut your teeth shooting for the top wrung but rather, start at the bottom and work your way up making mistakes and learning when the stakes are as high. But what’s most important for your photography is, start where it makes sense.
PT-17 Stearman & PT-22 Ryan capture by D5 / 200-400VR2
I knew there would be no statics, I knew there would be no air to air, we went to the marvelous Cable AirShow for one reason. Our measure of success was not a wall of amazing photos, rather, answers to questions we needed to solve with real world shooting. For example shooting video with three DSLR bodies, D500s and D750, all three with different lenses, 80-400VR3, 70-200f4 AFS & 24-120VR filming the same flying aircraft, how do they all meld together in the final movie? New microphones, new tripod fluid head, new monitor, shooting video while shooting stills, field testing new 70-200f2.8, answers with these were our measures of success for our shooting. We had one helluva good time cause we were with great friends and able to work out of their hangar. That made it possible to drag so much new gear to test and techniques to try all at one time. We learned alot, took tons of notes. Some things worked great like gimbal, monitor and 70-200f2.8. Other things like batteries blew junks and is an issue we must deal with before the “real” shooting rolls around. The way I work, I have to do this real world testing so when it’s a real shoot, as many squawks are solved as possible. This is all things you should do to test gear and techniques before the big shoot you’ve got coming up. It makes the big shoot so much more enjoyable and successful when you have the bugs are worked out. So while I made a couple of nice clicks this weekend, that wasn’t our true measure of success.
Friday was a special day, couldn’t have thought of a better way to end the year! Jake and I cruised over to the westside for an assignment I had with a really cool airplane. Actually a Schweizer 1-26 or as the boys called it, a “poor man’s U2” is a glider. This is a glider but as you might notice it has a little assistance, jet motors! After we did the air to air, it was time for a little fun. What you see here is the still and video from that fun. The stills were shot with the D5 / 200-400VR2 and the video was shot with the Keymission 360. In the still you can see where the Keymission 360 was mounted. And if you have fun with the 360 video, you can see in it where we were shooting the stills. It was so much fun, hope you enjoy!
And if you want to feel like YOU are in the Schweizer, watch the 360 video on your iPhone or iPad!
One aspect of photography that tends to confuse photographers are the exposure modes. There are four modes, A, S, P, M, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Program Mode and Manual. Personally, I use A Mode 90% of the time because you select the lens aperture you want for the depth of field you need to tell your story and the camera selects the correct shutter speed (and this is stepless). The other 10% of the time, I’m in S Mode because I need to control the shutter speed and the aperture doesn’t matter. The photo here of the SNJ is an example where I was in S Mode because I needed to shoot at a constant 1/40 to get the prop blurred. Does this confuse you? It’s OK if it does as most photographers get confused about these years after owning a camera. Well, I’ve got something for you and its FREE! Photography FUNdamentals is an iBook you can download for FREE courtesy of B&H Photo & Video that covers everything exposure modes to depth of field and so much more. It’s totally interactive through the power of the iPad permitting fun and fast learning. Go grab it, it will help your photography vastly improve!
“Do you have a creative resolution for 2017?” When that question came in I knew I had an answer though I’d never quite thought of it in that way. It could be just me, but as a photographer we have always looked out a year in advance or more in our planning. Be it meetings to conventions or more importantly, photographic projects, though I’m shooting today I’m looking out a year or more to the next project(s). In this process comes those photographic ideas that pop in your head you’d like to accomplish. So with that explanation, ya, I have New Year’s creative resolutions. What is it? Actually, it’s a roll over from 2016.
1929 Waco DSO captured by D5 24-70VR
A photograph I wanted to make in 2016 that never came to be that is still at the top of my list for 2017 involves old aircraft (what are referred to as antiques). I want a photograph that is totally opposite of what you see here, I want them in SNOW! I’m after an old biplane (like you see here) that is parked in the snow, ready to fly in the brutal white of winter. Ideally, it will be a yellow plane parked by a red barn with an old Model T parked nearby with some milk cans stacked up. In the perfect world, there would be a Moose off to one side watching it all. The final touch would be shooting this on a clear bright night with a full moon. So ya, I have these ideas in my head, photographs and stories I want to tell that I work towards. The think is, I don’t do this what I call “visual dreaming” just at New Year but ALL year. Some years more come to be than others and that’s OK. I still keep dreaming!
A6M2 Zero being chased by P-40 What you might have seen Dec 7th, 1941 over Pearl
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!
Kate Torpedo Bomber
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 7th, 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 ways, too small an aperture to get the lens out to shoot. Because of the air speed 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 past before at 07:15 its wheels up and in the air heading for our rendezvous.
Our subject plane, a gorgeous SNJ paintes 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 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 que, 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 fly overs 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 was present on that day.
Flying down the valley of the first bomber attack
The radio came to life, a flight of Black Hawks were on their way into Wheeler. They were calling the tower. We heard no response and then the radio cracked to life clearing them. Rob waited 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 begun.
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 real 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 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, air space is now closed. Thanks from coming!” And with that, we headed south.
Flight over Wheeler Field
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 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.
Flight over the Arizona Memorial
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 hoped 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 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 sea plane 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 7th 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 amazing day. It’s our history to honor, remember and pass on so it is never forgotten!
