Dec 23, 2016 | Aviation
PT-17 Stearman
captured D4s / 24-70AFS
“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!
Dec 7, 2016 | Aviation
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!
Nov 1, 2016 | Aviation
Capturing a story, in part or in whole visually so the end product evokes a response is in large part what drives my photography. Whether it’s stills, video or both, the end game is to evoke a response. We all start out the door with that in mind but we don’t always come home with success in our pocket. That’s why we keep going out, to find that success. I offer up this example of going out for six months refining that message to where we’re close to success….
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/189521972/46297e8827″]
And if this video does it’s job, we’ll have not only put you in the pilot’s seat and in the audience watching, but also reminded you of those who provided us with the freedoms to explore all we do with our cameras. And lastly, to get you out next week and vote because just as your photographs matter, so does your vote. They can change the world!
Gear used to create video
D5 2x
D500
D750
80-400VR3
70-200f4 AFS
24-120VR
24-70VR
Ace M Fluid Head with 2-Stage Aluminum Tripod & Mid-Level Spreader
MC24-EL Battery or Phantom Powered Professional Condenser Shotgun Microphone
Oct 31, 2016 | Aviation
Every subject has gesture. What’s gesture? Since I use this term a lot, I’ve been asked to define it, a lot. The problem is gesture in this sense is not some body movement communicating some message. You could say it speaks of an emotion but I don’t think it’s that simple either. Successful gesture in a photograph communicates a whole lot more than a single word, a single emotion or even a single action. There is no camera setting or digital darkroom slider called gesture. Rather, it’s a response invoked in the viewer of a photograph that permits them to connect with that subject. What I have here is an illustration of gesture as I feel it.
Both of these aircraft are flying, that is obvious. But the feeling of joy breaking the bounds of gravity, the freedom flying a routine brings one, the weightless feeling when there are no G’s, this and much more is communicated in the gesture in these photographs. Now if you go looking for gesture odds are you won’t capture it. If edit for gesture, again it won’t appear. Gesture is a emotional response communicated to us by the subject and if we are in tune, we click the camera at the right moment. If it doesn’t strike you, doesn’t make sense, that’s pretty normal. But if you open up your passion and give yourself time, it will and you’ll feel it in your photographs.
Oct 27, 2016 | Aviation
The ramp at sunrise is a special place. Yeah, there are the planes and that sure sets the scene, the thrill and the challenge, but there’s more to it than that. Being able to be on the ramp at that time of day is special if for no other reason then, you normally can’t be on the ramp that time of day. This past weekend during the Wings Over Houston Airshow, we were there continuing on with our project with the Texas Flying Legends Museum. These aircraft are very familiar to us, having done everything from washed them to flown in them. And this wasn’t our first morning to be shooting them on the ramp. Then in telling the story, how does one keep moving it forward?
On this particular morning, the TFLM TBM Avenger was parked kinda by itself. This left open many photographic opportunities with the rising sun. As the sky started to open up, I went to my classic arse shot. Shooting with the D750 / 70-200f4 AFS, the monitor is flipped out making shooting at ground level a whole lot easier. With the grid turned on, I line up the symmetry which is so important in arse shots. The shot looks nice so I make the clicks. I’m about to get up and move to another angle when I see a Major walking the line shooting the planes himself with his cell phone. I wait to see if he comes down to the TBM. He walks on down and then stops when someone calls him. It’s all I need to make the click. While the TBM by itself is a nice shot, the soldier makes it great. Not only does he give it scale, but he now gives it an emotion that wasn’t present without him. That’s the challenge we face in our photography every time we go click. Those times are the fleeting moment.
Oct 21, 2016 | Aviation
Wings Over Houston, one of our favorite airshows, is this weekend and some questions about what tips I might have to offer. Below are some thoughts one bringing life to your images, motion to your stills. Realizing most learn best from watching rather than reading, I have three classes on KelbyOne that will help you: Kelby Class on Aviation Photography, Pilot Portraits and The Art of Air to Air and especially Finishing. And if you want a sense of what’s happening at Wings Over Houston, be sure to watch Warbirds and the Men Who Flew Them which was filmed at Wings Over Houston!
These techniques apply to ALL moving subjects not just planes! Start with understanding that shooting unrestricted is essential! My airshow set up this year consists of the D5 / 200-400VR2 (could be substituted with 80-400AFS which I’ll have for my air to air work), 24-70VR and 14-24AFS and that’s all (and of course AN-SBR2 Black Rapid Quick-Draw Strap). I love it being so light as that permits me to easily carry it all in my slingbag along with iPad (to show previous images to pilots) and business cards (to give pilots). The less you carry, the more mobile you are, the more mobile and limber you are, the sharper the photos and better composed they are (here is a complete listing of the gear that’s with me, most in the vehicle just in case). And don’t forget the basics, handholding and panning which are a must (start practicing now!)! With that in mind, here are some tips that you can apply to any action photography and in particular airshows.
Put yourself in relationship to the action in a position where it performs around you. At airshows, aircraft often make a “photo” pass which is often done in what’s called a “banana pass.” If you can picture a banana with your being inside the curve of the banana, that’s basically a banana pass. When you’re on the INSIDE of that curve, the aircraft or athlete or motorcycle will will be MOVING into your frame which gives a feel of not only speed but also intimacy. Keep in mind that being on the inside of the curve, the subject will be going faster in relationship to your position so your panning has to be spot on.
Taking your shutter speed down below your comfort zone is key! Shooting in Shutter Priority to be in control of shutter speed and then the blur puts action into your still. In some cases the shutter speed is arbitrary based on how you feel. In some cases it could be a very specific shutter speed to blur props of aircraft or blades on a helicopter, in this case 1/20 to blur the blades of this Cobra. Keep in mind that your panning blurs the background and the degree of that blur is a function of how fast you’re panning vs. your shutter speed. Now if your background is all blue, bald sky, there is not a slow enough shutter speed to show motion. You need something in the background to scream movement.
When you’ve got the light, forget everything else! Ya, there are lots of rules, ideas, suggestions and sexy action that can grab your attention but when you’ve got light, ditch them all for that light. This gorgeous P-51D is a great example as the light brings out the fuselage and the dark skies sets is all off. The light also brings the prop blur to life making it feel like a bat out of hell. The angle of the light makes all the rivits pop and creates a shadow that just makes it seem like it’s going faster. You can’t go wrong with great light!
Go for the ass! Any subject that is going away from you in the frame sets the mind to thinking movement. While this seems obvious, ass shots in themselves can be tricky. There is the matter of proper social protocol (not my speciality) along with attractiveness. There are a couple of aspects of subject positioning that goes along with this. Lower and centered in the frame is the place to start and then based on other elements in the frame can be moved about accordingly. When shooting the ass of an aircraft, the blurred prop is required to speak of movement. The slower the shutter speed, the more blurred the prop and the more blurred the prop, you change the position of the aircraft in the frame.
This one is real simple. When you have a great background, think of smaller subject size in a slightly awkward placement in the frame. Yeap, that’s all it takes for the mind to see the placement and move the subject through the frame against that background. I like simple!
Let the path set the movement. A track, street, sidewalk or trail of smoke communicates movement when you place the subject on that path. This again is another real simple one to employ but to take it to the next level, put the subject on the path again in a slightly awkward place.
Low angle with a wide angle is a great way of communicating motion! Here is a classic example considering the only thing moving in the frame are the props. The rule of thumb is to leave enough room in the frame in front of the subject for the mind to give the subject motion. You can enhance this mental path by getting down low with a wide angle. This technique is great when in reality, you’re crammed up in a crowd and can’t get physically where you want to. In the case of aviation, think of slow shutter speed and not keeping the horizon plum. Here, it’s slightly slanted up hill and the sun is included (lens closed down all the way for a sunburst) to finish the feel.
Follow your subject in the viewfinder for its entire path! You just never know what surprises you might find in the viewfinder that if your eye is not up against it, you’ll miss. In this case these Stearman finished a loop right overhead so a normal view of an aircraft from the ground, looking at the top of the aircraft, was all you see in the viewfinder. A unique perspective to any common subject begins the journey of having a unique photograph!
Cramming action into a vertical creates lots of mental movement in a still! The tension of the subject looking like it’s going to run into the side of the frame can work with the rest of the elements are in sync. Other elements? Ya, light, blur, color, placement in the frame vertically, all those elements that together bring movement to the subject. Keep in mind that as soon as you turn the camera to vertical, your panning gets more difficult and composition more challenging. At the same time, the rewards for success goes up as well.
Never ignore the common! This Huey is no warbird or screaming jet yet I would be really bummed if it weren’t in my files. When you can make the uncommon out of the common, your photograph always wins! In this case, since it’s an airplane and it’s up in the sky, the mind knows it’s flying and that in itself says motion. Use proper handholding and panning, look for the light and think motion with a big dash of fun and you will be successful! The TFLM will be flying their six ship this weekend, here’s a guide to get the best photos from their performance. Have a great weekend shooting! OH … my good friends the Texas Flying Legends Museum, Sharon, Brent and Jake will be there so if you see us, say hi. And if we can be of assistance, just ask. Cya there!
