Sep 16, 2016 | Aviation
I meet Steve-o the first time back in 2008 at Reno. The winner of the Unlimited Class many times over, in 2013 & 2014 in Voodoo … a highly modified P-51D, he is a great, incredibly talented, humble guy. Steve-o has been everything from a subject to a photo platform pilot for me over the years so when I was asked in a text to take his portrait, I was excited and honored. Then I was instantly really nervous! Why? The shoot was going to be in the incredibly active and visually busy Voodoo pit. It was going to be a real quick shoot and, I knew I’d have all sorts of eyes on me. Dealing with the really busy pit meant setting up and working outside the pit so we wouldn’t be in the way. Dealing with the visually busy pit (we had to hand move a blue outhouse!) meant shooting with a real narrow DoF. That’s why I had the 105f1.4 AFS, it fit the bill on both accounts.
BTS Drawing
created on iPad with Adobe Draw
The pits of an unlimited during race week at Reno is a busy place. I had three portraits to make, Steve-o being the second. First thing to do was determine where I wanted Steve-o to stand. On the wing so you could in part see his name on the Voodoo fuselage and in the background, kinda make out Voodoo on the over sized bra seemed like a good fit. That determined my angle so I grabbed a ladder, put it in place and started to figure out where I would be when I shot. The Gitzo Giant tripod was a must cause I was ten feet up when I took the shot. Now the 105f1.4 AFS was a must because it’s angle of view and f/1.4 (yes, shot at f/1.4) eliminated a whole bunch of the visual junk while bringing the elements together. I had Profoto B2 on a pole being held by Jake because I needed the flash up high and had to make sure the wind (which was blowing), didn’t take the flash into the plane causing any damage. With that all in place, I took a couple quick shot using Jake as a model. I shot in Manual Exp Mode to control both ambient and flash light while cementing in the exposure for when Steve-0 stepped in. That all took about thirty minutes to accomplish. Then Steve-o came out, got on the wing and stuck the pose once I made some suggestions. A couple of quick clicks, showed Steve-o the LCD to make sure that’s what he wanted, a couple more clicks and done. Took less than five minutes at which time I said to Steve-o, “You sure can hold a pose.” To which he responded, “I learned to do it right the first time so I’m done faster.” It always strikes me as funny how much time goes into a portrait for such brief shooting time. And that’s how we made the Steve-o Portrait. And on Sunday, we look forward to seeing him the the winners circle, again!
Gear Used:
Nikon D5
Nikon 105f1.4AFS
Gitzo Giant with RRS BH55
Profoto B2
Profoto B2 Octa
Profoto Ext Cable
12′ Painter’s pole (Amazon)
Kacey Pole Adapter
Sep 13, 2016 | Aviation
My subject for the day was our dear friend Bernie. The most common way folks see Bernie is wrenching on a plane and this week, he’s at the Reno Air Races as chief mechanic on the Unlimited Class Voodoo doing what he does so well. He’s really good at what he does though and I wanted to say that visually. So during a run up test on Voodoo was a great opportunity to say just that. I sure wouldn’t want to stand there and to say that in a photograph meant be close (70-200f4 AFS) and a lots of clicks at a slow shutter speed (D5) to get the one with the right body gesture. Simple formula once you think through what you want to say.
Sep 5, 2016 | Aviation
Last weekend, B&H & Lexar hosted a marvelous event at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome. It was a marvelous time with some great folks and aircraft. It was a very target rich, photographic satisfying location with marvelous subjects and backgrounds lending themselves to storytelling. I posted a couple of images and they got lots of notice and comments. The “feel” of being a daredevil going fast in old flying machines comes through the photos and many have asked how I made that happen. Well, here it is.
First is the light. The three aircraft are in sun where the backgrounds not so much. Next, the aircraft are a good distance from the background, that is important. This sets up the rest of the technique. Shooting with a long lens (80-400 at 300mm) and with a camera that can rip off the frames (D5 at 12fps), you next want to rip off the frames at a slow shutter speed (1/50). This combination means that when the subject travels in front of the background and your panning is solid, the subject is frozen by the panning action while the background blurs. Understand, and this is very important, practice is everything to make this all work. This combination communicates speed. And that simply, you’re bringing speed to the still!
Aug 30, 2016 | Aviation
Sunday at the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome was simply, amazing! A Lexar sponsored B&H event, we had 75 photographers out in upper New York having the time of their lives. We had the company of a WWII B-25 pilot, Marty Biener as well as the classic “antique” aircraft of the Aerodrome. Sharon and I have been on the go since the event so unlike normal, I’ve not gotten to even look at all my photos yet. Saw some great images yesterday at the B&H Crit and more have come in since so I’ll have more to share shortly. Like, how did I make this reall old, slow 1910 Hanriot look like it’s going real fast? But wanted to say thanks to all who came out and made it such a fun day, especially the Aerodrome! mtc
Aug 11, 2016 | Aviation
The plane might look familiar, it was featured in EAA Sport earlier this year and in our Pilot Portrait class on KelbyOne. We got to know these great folks a year back after I first saw their completed Starduster Too. They were so kind to let me “invade” their lives with my camera on so many occasions. So it was great fun when at Oshkosh last week, Bob, Sherri & Gannon appeared from the crowd cause we didn’t know they would be there. Even funnier was Bob telling us that he entered their Starduster Too in the competition for aircraft construction. The best was when the last night of Osh, Bob sent me the text photo of his trophy! That was a highlight of my week at Osh. Not only is their plane gorgeous, but they are such a great family. Congrats to you all!
Aug 5, 2016 | Aviation
I posted this photo yesterday on my Instagram account and someone said they would like to know how it came about, the planning and the like. When I read that, I had to laugh. Why? Here’s the BTS of the photo so you can laugh too. It was our last night after 13 days of shooting on the road. There was little left of our crew, we were all totally wiped! So wiped, one shooter in our bunch just wanted to sit and watch the show and didn’t even shoot. Knowing there were going to be fireworks, while eating dinner I looked for an aircraft to be in the foreground. Parked there was the Howard 500 so I texted the owner and asked if the plane was sticking around. He said yes and have fun. So we ate our dinner, strolled over to the plane with our chairs, planted our butts down and when the show began, hit the shutter release. This shot was a 25sec exposure with the trail being created by a single aircraft doing its act. And that’s it. No real planning, no real thought other than being weary photographers and wanting to take a photo with as little effort as possible. And it was that simple because, simple was all we could do.
