Oct 18, 2016 | Aviation
If you want to drive me nuts, give me great light and nothing to shoot! There is simply nothing worse then to waste great light so when it started to unfold Saturday at the Nut Tree Air Fair, I instantly started to pace. What makes it great light you ask? The range of light is less than three stops and that’s part of it. More importantly is the way the light is being bounced and modified by the clouds. There is a reason you see so much of my photography including clouds, it’s the light! Luckily for me, right then they decided they needed to move a plane to get to another plane out of the hangar. And the plane they had to move is this gorgeous, simply spectacular 1929 Waco DSO … I was so upset that’s all I had to throw in the great light :-)
Being a California boy, the gorgeous hills in the background with the oaks in the light was the perfect background. Working in the shadow of the hangar which is a favorite technique of mine, with this combo of ramp and background, I asked if the Waco could be pushed to the corner of the ramp. Once there, I just waited for the sun to just barely kiss the Waco and started to shoot. This is the one thing I will stick my butt up in the air for as I was down on my knees (oh that hurts) with the D5 / 24-70VR inches above the ground as I shot. I depend on the Grid in the D5 for these shots, to center the subject for symmetry and level. Then, if it couldn’t get any better, the Waco was turned over to taxi it to its parking spot for the day. Still working in the great light, I now had to move, fast to get the second shot. Just like the light, the opportunity came and went fast, too fast but just these couple of clicks, I love. Which pose and gesture to I like best? On that, I’m still torn. Now, to only get in the air with this beaut!
Oct 14, 2016 | Aviation
We … Brent, Jake, Sharon & I are part of a very special project. I’ve talked about the project during this past year, the first of its three years and I’ve been asked many times what’s it all about. Some of it simply can’t be discussed right now. This video Brent created from our last event says in photographs pretty well what it’s all about. Being a visual storyteller, being able to tell a story in this way is important which is why I bring this to your attention. To learn more, please visit the Texas Flying Legends Museum website. Enjoy!
[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/187095069″]
Oct 12, 2016 | Aviation
On Monday after taking care of work, Sharon and I had a couple of moments to spend at Lake Hood to watch the comings and goings. For those who have not been to Anchorage or ventured over to Lake Hood, it is the busiest sea airbase in North America with over 82k landings each year. And being a lake, the planes that are landing are on floats. It’s just a lot of fun to watch them take off and land because they are right next to you! There were gorgeous skies the entire week we were there but the moment we had for watching the planes, the skies started to close in and it got dark. This doesn’t mean you can’t shoot.
Down below you can see what the scene really looked like. It’s not very inviting. Now I have manipulated it a little, the bottom photo doesn’t have its proper white balance so it’s really gray, but you can see how the light was not really nice. To get to the shots you see above, I simply opened up the shadows in ACR (you can see how here). With that done, a simple application of Nik Pro Contrast and I’m done. Na, not the most amazing photos I’ve taken at Lake Hood but the slight touch of snow on the mountains in the background, the skies having some texture and the gesture of the aircraft work well enough to communicate the fun that is Lake Hood. And that’s the point, to have fun even if all the elements aren’t perfect.
Oct 4, 2016 | Aviation
P-40 “Aleutian Tiger” / P-51D “Dakota Kid”
captured by D5 / 70-200f4 AFS
It’s so simple, so in the background and it’s so important, our plane of focus though is overlooked and misunderstood. And that’s only natural because when we think of our sensor, it’s always worrying about dust and not math. But when it comes to getting subjects in focus, either movement or depth of field and much more, you gotta think about the film plane (it effects flash exposure too!). With it being fall, many photographers are out photographing flocks of birds and I’ve been receiving emails asking why are some of the birds in focus and not others. Most suspect their camera’s AF is not working when in reality, it’s just a function of our plane of focus.
P-40 “Aleutian Tiger” / P-51D “Dakota Kid”
captured by D5 / 70-200f4 AFS
I’ve used these photos to try to illustrate why some birds (feathers or metal skins) might be sharp and others out of focus. In this case, the film plane (sensor in the D5) is traveling the same speed forward as the two aircraft (top photo). In the top photo, when the film plane speed is matched with the two aircraft, they are both sharp. When the P-40 in the foreground changes up its forward speed, it is no longer matching the film plane speed so it is now out of focus (middle photo). When you’re panning your camera to freeze the forward motion, the film plane speed must match that of the subject. When that flock of birds (or single bird for that matter) forward motion is matched by your panning, everything is sharp. When it’s not, they are not sharp. And in the case of a flock of birds, the odds of all the birds flying the same speed as your panning is pretty slim so some will be out of focus. It has nothing to do with camera AF performance but math. This is just one aspect of the film plane you need to understand and when you understand them all, you can move your photography forward!
Sep 26, 2016 | Aviation
In the struggles to make a photograph we want to call our own, we often jump through all sorts of hoops which, in the long run come up short. There are lots of times if we just had the right settings from the start, the rest would be easy. This leads us to two conclusions: when setting up a shot, look for that setting from the start and, when you find that setting, exploit it to its fullest. Case in point …
We found ourselves inside a WWII hangar last week, a really classic hangar! Its sheer size meant it was constructed with huge roof windows and giant doors. Both of those make for great light. The size and the light dictated the gear, for size and keeping the lines true, the 24-70 and the light, D5. The trick as it were, was to be there when the light was working its magic. In this case, we waited for hours for the afternoon light to paint across the hangar floor hitting the P-40k “Aleutian Tiger.” Then because the hangar faces nearly due East, we knew the sunrise could easily be seen. We just had to be there and just had to have the doors open. Once the setting was set, the rest was real easy, just so up. So just something to stick in the back of your mind. Settings can make the shooting easy.
Sep 23, 2016 | Aviation
Jake and I have the great fortune to be apart of the Atlanta Warbird weekend that starts tomorrow at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport just outside Atlanta. We are here with the two Texas Flying Legends Museum P-40s to honor the AVG’s 75th. Our job is relatively simple, tell the story in stills and video of how the aircraft and their pilots spent their weekend as part of this celebration. The first day, Thursday, was all about the media and the media ride. The concept is simple, the media tells the story of the event and therefore gets the public to come out and see the planes. It’s a great thing! The media was out in force because we were incredibly fortunate to honor AVG Frank Losonsky. He was in China with the AVG, Flying Tigers. He is living history with great stories! The event started off with Frank being flown in the TFLM P-40e across the skies of Atlanta. He really enjoyed that. Then came the interviews.
As I said, our job is to tell the story of the TFLM aircraft and crew, and get that story out to as many as we can. Frank was going to be interviewed and since he’s a AVG, the interview was to be in front of a P-40. I saw the in hangar studio set up the new crews had prepped. While it worked OK, I could make it better, both for the whole story as well as for our client. So with a little soft nudging (ok, I picked up their lights and moved them), I was able to get the crews to move their studio so the background would be the same aircraft that Frank had flown in. But you know me and backgrounds. The original studio background was just the back of a hangar with a business jet. When I saw the big American flag hanging on the wall, what the background should be to me was obvious. So once I got the news crew willing to move their studio, I went to work staging the TFLM P-40 that Frank flew parked in front of the flag. And with that simple move, I was able to take care of our obligations to our client and storytelling.
