Jun 17, 2016 | Aviation
Wm Barry Needham
Wm Barry Needham, in 1941 this spry 21yr old Canadian found himself in England flying a Spitfire MkV in the RCAF. On 7 July, 1944, he was shot down by flak and became a prisoner of war (liberated 40days later by Patton’s 3rd Army). In between he sung E-boats, shot down a FW-190, straffed locomotives and with a fellow Canadian, chased off two FW-190s from a crippled B-17 whose crew was baling out by attacking the fighters even though he was out of ammo. He was and is just a regular guy who at age 95 (96 in 45 days) is living history sharing his story. For example on Sept 17th, 1943 he was told to scramble with a fellow Spitfire. They were to pursue two FW-190s from England and nearly across the channel. His partner shot down one FW-190 and just as the FW-190 was about to reach the French Coast and out of range of Needham’s Spitfire, he squeezed his trigger on his cannons and saw a puff of smoke on the enemy. In 1995 an author was writing about these hit and run attacks by the Germans and found Needham’s combat report. One thing lead to another and the brother of the German pilot who Needham shot at got in contact with Needham. Needham went to Europe and meet the brother of the pilot. The pilot after the encounter dug out the 20mm Cannon round he had been struck with and mounted it. The brother fifty years later presented that 20mm round to Needham saying, “You gave this to my brother, now I’m giving it back to you.”
Wm Barry Needham
It was an an amazing afternoon and only the start of our time with Barry and his son and son in-law. I had got the word on Tuesday of Barry’s visit to Minot and Wednesday I was in Minot, ND. Meeting this amazing, walking, breathing and delightful storyteller of our history wasn’t to be missed. Ya the camera was out as photography is one of the great ways to preserve these memories and share the stories. But it was half way through the afternoon that photography truly passed along its magic. Barry was asked if he would sign a number of the prints I had taken of the Spitfire MkIXc for the Dakota Territory Air Museum. The prints were spread out for Barry to sign. His son Scott walked over to view the prints. Before we knew it, his eyes had welled up and he had to remove his glasses and dry his eyes. Personally, I’d never been paid a higher compliment for a photo or print. Just as we can learn about how our freedoms we enjoy were preserved by the Greatest Generation through the sharing of their stories, we can continue that storytelling through our photography and sharing it. The best part of this story is, it’s not over. Tomorrow we get to spend a whole bunch more time with Barry, hear more of his stories and learn about our history firsthand. Thanks Barry!
Jun 6, 2016 | Aviation
There we were shooting the gorgeous Spitfire MkIX at sunrise. We had this gorgeous sky that, though bald had a killer glow growing in it. We were in front of the Texas Flying Legends Museum hangar at the Dakota Territory Air Museum on a ramp covered in fresh rain. It was just a great morning. And as always, I was looking around and behind me for other photo opps. That’s when I saw the moisture and light on the F-106 Delta Dart and I knew that was the photograph. So, I grabbed the 24-70VR and took a walk to get the shot. But as soon as it was in the viewfinder, I knew it was all wrong!
Shooting with the 24-70VR, the first thing is I had to get close physical to get the shot. That made the plaque honoring the pilots who flew them in the 5th become a visual eyesore. But more importantly, it makes the nose of the plane visually more important that the wings. The nose “sticks” out and the wings “shrink” in. That’s bad, it totally takes away the F-106 “bad ass” stance. The solution to all these problems was moving way back and take the shot at 400mm. You can see the difference in the two photos. I think about this all the time with all my subjects, in this case even when shooting aircraft air to air. The lens completely changes how you speak about a subject, you need to use that in your visual storytelling. And that’s simply, the long and short of it!
Jun 2, 2016 | Aviation
Tammie’s second career is flying medivacs, something she does with great passion. It’s a thankless job often because her passenger is on the edge of death. It can be days of boredom waiting on call and then seconds of high tension action when the call puts the team in action. And she does it was that smile bringing reassurance and professionalism to her life saving job!
I got two more pilot portraits in this past week, both with the D5, the first I’ve done with it and the D5 and it was sweet! This one of Tammie was the “rush” job. We had set up portrait for the afternoon (wanted the sun side lighting) but the thunderstorms were coming back so we had to push up the shoot. With the incoming thunderstorms comes the winds, fierce winds, it was a challenge but it was fun. The Helo is always parked in this spot on the call, ready to to fly so it was set in place. Tammie has those great glasses so the combo of the Helo and the glasses is how I determined where I was going to be and therefore, the Profoto B1 with the 5′ Octa. Sharon almost blew away with that big sail on the ramp, but as you can see, it worked out just fine. Where was the Octa? Carefully placed as close to the camera as it could be put at the spot so, Angle of Incidence equals Angle of Reflection put the Octa just out of the frame of her glasses. Love doing these, especially when they are so unique!
Jun 2, 2016 | Aviation
Last week it was me, this week it’s Jake, back to back covers for Trade-a-Plane! Darn cool and I’m thrilled to share the fun with my son. Life is good!
May 23, 2016 | Aviation
I’m incredibly excited my KelbyOne class on Aviation Post Processing is now live. The second in the series (Landscape went live a few weeks back) is 90minutes of techniques combining camera and computer clicks. The Landscape class compliments the Aviation class and the Aviation class compliments the landscape course. Check them out, lots of love and technique in them!
