We’re quite thrilled and honored that our story on the Texas Flying Legends Museum Spitfire MkIX is a 7pg spread in FlyPast Magazine just out today. While we think it’s a great read, we’re happy because once again, it’s a joint project with our son Jake. Won’t be on the newstands here in the states for a few more days, but hope you pick up a copy!
Have you ever spent a lot of time at some locale, shooting it until you are bored? Then, you have a friend who has never been to that locale and they ask you to go and because of your friendship you go knowing you will probably be photographically, bored? We start off at such opportunities already thinking, “I’m not going to get any photos today!” We know we shouldn’t think that but hell, we’re human! It can be hard to get excited when we repeat a photographic opportunity for the twentieth time but that’s the time to dig down and move our butt!
I’ve spent a lot of time in hangars and while the planes change, the hangar is the hangar is the hangar and normally, they are a visually busy place. They are simply a photographic challenge. The number of hangars I’ve “gardened” for that one shot and then “ungardened” afterwards is more than I care to think about. Even with that, if you think about it, I rarely post any hangar photos because they simply don’t turn out looking anything more than, a busy garage. So when I found myself “stuck” in a hangar while a rain downpour past, I mentally went into a creative slumber. Not a good thing. While in my stupor, the clouds off on the horizon changed and the sun broke through a small hole int them and lit up the hangar. That light instantly burnt off the creative cobwebs for this hangar I’ve been to so many times in the past.
It always amazes me how light can dramatically change the boring! I instantly got the D750 / 24-70VR stuck them on a tripod and headed for that light. The hangar that I’ve spent weeks in full of distracting elements suddenly became new with one subject, the PT-17 Stearman in Luke Field colors screaming to be photographed. Then the light kept unfolding and the storm broke and that busy tarmac emptied and became the perfect background. Then the light changed again making that busy hangar the perfect background by simply turing the Stearman (thank goodness its light!). That mental, photographic boredom had completely reversed and now was that mental, photographic panic as the changing light opened up opportunity after opportunity you didn’t want to miss. The lesson? We might be going to the same locale for the 20th time but a small change can make it all brand new. We just need to smell the roses and wait for that moment and take refuge in the thought that at the very least, we’re not in an office working. Just being out with the camera can get us pushing past boredom.
One of the great joys and thrills of working with WWII aircraft is meeting those men (then boys) who took them to battle. One of my heroes and favorites is Vic Tatleman who just celebrated his 95th birthday! I meet Vic many years ago, one of the first WWII vets we got to know. I’ve spent hours listening to his stories, he’s lived quite a life! He was a B-25C pilot in the Pacific, part of the 499th Air Apaches. His squadron, the “Bats outta Hell” had the amazing nose art you see behind him in the photograph. That’s “Betty’s Dream” in the background, Vic flew “Dirty Dora.” Oh the stories that go with those names!
Vic flew two tours flying more than 120 missions. He earned many medals which include two Distinguished Flying Crosses and one Purple Heart. Spending time with Vic and Lynn and listening to the stories is such a great way to spend time but thank goodness they’ve been written down. You can learn more about Vic in the book that came out about him recently and it’s good reading!
Wondering about that portrait above? That was taken at Oshkosh a few years back when the Texas Flying Legends Museum brought Vic and a number of other vets in to tell their stories to the public. I already knew Vic so spend time talkin and then sneaking in the portraits when I could. He always seemed camera shy. So with that, I worked where I could get the quick click, I only got two off at this pose. The lighting was easy as we were on bright, clean cement which bounces light up so nicely making nice light out of nasty. Swung the D4 / 24-70AFS up and went click as fast as I could. Cause a heartbeat later, Vic was telling a tale again. Happy Birthday my friend!
Veteran’s Day is a time when we honor those who have served our country and all too often, paid the utmost price for the freedoms we treasure. Every Veteran’s Day for years though, a small group of elderly yet spry British gentlemen journey across the pond to come back to a place they trained as young teenagers to pay tribute to those who did not return. In that training, some of those young men died and at a time of war, they were buried where they trained, Phoenix, AZ. This group of British veterans, most in their nineties now, fly over the cemetery on Veterans Day where their comrades lay to pay tribute to their sacrifice. They are not forgotten. We’ve been moved by this remembrance and tribute for years but noticed the numbers of gentleman coming here from England getting smaller each year. This year, only Stan was able to make the journey.
In 1944, Stan Whalley was 18yrs old when he left England and came to the US to train as a pilot at Falcon Field, Mesa, AZ. Hundreds of British pilots came to the US for training during WWII and Falcon Field was a buzz. There were just two hangars back then, both still standing today amongst all the rest. Wings of Flight is in one of those hangars which is where K&M AirAdventures bases out of. Our hosts Dale & Brian are very active with vets so when Brian saw Stan, he brought him to the hangar for the afternoon. As soon as Stan entered the hangar he seemed to have gone back in time and the stories just started to pour out. It’s afternoon I won’t forget!
“I was here for seven months and flew 250 hours” Stan said. “I went back to England to fly Tiger Moths” he said in a dejected way which was a come down from the Stearmans and AT-6s he flew at Falcon. “I was here in the summer and it was hot up to 108” he went on to say. “There were 300 of us here, 3 classes of 100 with a 40% was out, but we went back in style aboard the Queen Mary.” With the great light coming in the hangar, I asked Stan if I could take his portrait. I grabbed the D750 / 24-70VR and started clicking, showing him around the hangar. He went to the wall with the historic Falcon Field photos from the 1940s where he paused and reminisced. After lunch, Brian asked, “Would you like to …” and before Brian could say, “…fly,” Stan was out of his chair heading for the ramp. Forty minutes later Stan landed after having some stick time, hooping out of that cockpit with the biggest smile you can imagine. After it was all done, Stan asked if I would mine sending him photographs, “It’s a day I will treasure.” It was for all of us who spent time with the amazing Stan!
12.14.15 As per Stan’s request, I’m quite pleased to add this:
I have just seen the excellent account of my visit to Falcon Field in November, for which I thank you sincerely. However, I wondered if you could add to your account my later flying in Europe, following my return from Falcon. After flying inTiger Moths I flew P51 Mustangs and found myself in Germany after WW2 ended. I toured a ruined Germany, all the best big cities, in Berlin I entered the ruined Reichstag parliament building and viewed the big hole, outside Hitlers Bunker, in which Hitler and his new bride, Eva Braun, were thrown and burnt.
I left the Royal Air Force in 1947 and followed a career in Banking.
I have been retired 31 years and since travelled the world, but never miss a trip to Mesa cemetery in November where 23 of my colleagues are buried, not forgetting two USAAF cadets and four US Instructors also lost their lives and are buried near their homes.
Stan Whalley, and thank you again for your help .
Sent from my iPhone
We photographers at times think we work in a vacuum when actually, no matter the genre, we never do. It’s just at times we recognize it and others, ignore it. I’ve come to realize after these decades that when we always recognize it, photography comes easier and rewards more frequent. That village that supports us starts at home, the spouse who puts up with our silliness, our passion and at the right moment, supports it. There are those folks at the camera store and manufactures who, though we don’t always recognize their help, actually do add to the success. Then there are the more obvious.
The biologists and scientist I’ve worked with for four decades I have always cited as the essential element and reason for my success in my wildlife photography. These side by side colleagues who guide me to this day instilled in my more than just basic biology, but lessons that effect our entire business. And now they’ve been joined by the plane owners and pilots we so enjoy working with in our aviation photography. Just like biologists, their influence goes way beyond the click! The most dramatic way is in the air to air photographs I love to share! This staging of the Battle of Darwin required a whole crew that started prior to the shoot and lasted weeks later. They are so important to that click I get to share with you!
Then there are your photographic partners. Some my call them friends but those that help your photography are more then friends, they are partners. I’m fortunate to have many, our son Jake who does a great job pushing dad! Then there is Kevin whose friendship and adventures together behind the camera over the decades they sing song about. Another is Joe Glyda who, besides being such a great photographer, has a huge heart and gigantic sense of humor! Joe is a great example of that photographic partner, pushing you to get that shot you might not otherwise get at times taking the hit and stepping back so you can get that shot. And then when you get that shot, take those photos which capture the memory that otherwise would be filed in the back of the mind. Ya, there is only one eye pressed up against that viewfinder, one heart pumping the passion, but the food that keeps that all going, well that takes a village!
There is a greater purpose behind photography, if you look for it and accept it. You can’t but help fall in love with Bob Coleman. This is a simple video about a WWII vet who won no medals, hero of no battles who simply did his job. He did form like so many, a life long friendship for the pilot he served and the plane he serviced. There is a higher calling if you let it in.
