Aug 27, 2014 | Aviation
Pietsch Pass is a special location for aviation photography I’ve been very fortunate to shoot from a time or two. In July, we conducted out first “real” shoot after some practicing. We had no way of knowing that a month later, we’d be putting it into action. The gorgeous Howard 500 made a stop at KMOT. Being good friends with Warren, when he told them of our special shooting location and said some nice things about me (really nice things), we made the mad dash to do the shoot. Sharon & I got in the truck and hauled ass (1hr drive) to Pietsch Pass, ran up the hill with our gear (I had the D4s / 80-400, Sharon her Nikon V2 / 10-30 with ME-1) and got in place. Just minutes before the Howard got on station, Warren arrived with a hand held to act as ground control. Well, I think the video tells the rest of the story perfectly.
Aug 25, 2014 | Aviation, Random Thoughts
“Think vertical, vertical, vertical!” My good friend Richard likes to remind aviation photographers to think vertical when flying air to air photo missions. I don’t know about you, but I just don’t think verticals naturally. My vision is always on either the wide or intimate horizontal not the vertical. My mind’s eye just doesn’t naturally go vertically but if you want magazine covers, you gotta think vertically. In my entire editorial career, I was never after covers because I naturally arrange elements horizonatly. The one cover I cherish the most was the last wrap around cover Audubon magazine ever did in 1995, a horizontal image of a California Gnatcatcher. Not really worried about covers, I don’t shoot verticals for covers. Just having my 10th cover for 2014 hitting the news rack this week, it made me think I should say something about this unnatural photographic format that does pay bills.
Being an old fart, I still call them verticals still while most call them the portrait format. Anyways, the vertical used on magazine covers is not the same aspect ration as when we turn our cameras vertically. At that same time, covers have to have room for type and at the very minimum, the name of the magazine at the top of the vertical. So if verticals aren’t a challenge enough, you should leave room for the cropping to the right aspect ration and type. Just knowing those two things, you can see why I’ve never been really trying to get covers. Staying true to your style and storytelling makes covers hard to do. But covers are where the money lies with some going for as much as $2k on the big mags! What you see here is our 10th cover for the year and one I shot hoping it would be a cover. If you look at the top image and remove the type, you can see that it’s not an image you would normally frame in that way. Because without the crop and text, it’s kinda stale. If you look at the bottom and crop it to the right aspect ratio for a cover and place type, you can imagine how tight it would be. That intimate portrait was why I framed it the way I did to begin with in the viewfinder. So while we typically go to the vertical format to tell the story of height, I want to encourage you to think about the other life of the vertical.
Aug 21, 2014 | Aviation
We arrived on the field at 05:30 and Warren had already pulled out the Waco QFC-2 and taxied it over in front of the hangar. The hangar is from the 1929 Ford National Reliability Air Tour and has penciled on the inside walls the pilots calculations for the next leg of their flight. Well the hangar was a natural background for the 1931 Waco, its age and color a natural. And the best part, it all faces the east so perfect for a sunrise shoot. So yesterday morning, there we were. Now what you don’t see is all the work the guys did to make it all possible. This is a working hangar to this day, the ag spray business based out of it so their trucks, trailers and lots of boxes were moved (thanks again guys, you’re the best!). And with everything in place, D810, 18-35AFS and Profoto B1 (shooting TTL!) inside the hangar to light up the spare wings in the rafters, we waited for the sun.
And there we sat, and sat, and sat and sat. As you can see, the magical skies we’d been flying in for the last three days turned totally bald. At least, behind the hangar! On the eastern horizon was a thin layer of clouds that lit up, shortly with the sunrise but otherwise, they stuck with the sun like a bad toupee. Seriously, I had flat light for 90 minutes! What you see here are the before and after images from the morning. The bottom photo is the best the sun was producing, such a let down. The top photo is when I brought out the second Profoto B1 to light the plane.
The photo goal: have the Waco lit by the sun creating a shadow on the face of the hangar outlining the great shape of the byplane while bringing out the great paint job under the wings. At the same time, a lit in the hangar to show the old spare wing to bring a time period feel to the photo. With NO sun, I had no shadow and no light under the wing (major bummed). So the second B1 was brought in, set up low and pointed as best I could to lit under the wing and cast a little bit of a shadow (gaffers tape on bottom of flash head to keep light off tarmac). So while we all like the photo and in part because we’re so attached to the Waco and hangar, it’s not really what I had in mind when I thought up the shoot. Used all the tools I had but it’s hard to replace the sun when it’s the main light source. Just goes to show, getting up early (like I like to do), you don’t always catch the worm.
Aug 19, 2014 | Aviation
Working with others involved in education, great things always come from the colaboration. Today is just such an example. The A6M2 Zero from Texas Flying Legends Museum and AT-6 from Dakota Territory Air Museum went to Grand Fork’s Int’l for their 50yr celebration. Being here, we hitched a ride and in my case, it was in the back of the T-6 and I had my camera in hand. Heading up to 7500′ AGL, we had the clouds to work, again looking for that South Pacific look. With Warren at the stick and “Cruise” flying me, we had an amazing 70min flight stuffed with photography. When we landed, there simple were no words for the experience. mtc
Aug 18, 2014 | Aviation
Back in our room after a 14hr, 6783 image day. Everything got used today, D4s, D810, Df, 18-35, 24f1.4, 24-70 and 80-400VR3, SB-910 and Profoto B1 shooting a couple more pilot portraits, an award ceremony, 1929 hangar wall to an air to air. This is a rare FM-2P we photographed this evening in front of a killer North Dakota thunderhead piloted by my dear friend Warren (shooting out of a T6 piloted by our good friend Derek Peterson). When we’re with Warren, I tend to be standing in front of a lot of great things with a camera in my hand. And I don’t get much sleep! mtc.
Jul 28, 2014 | Aviation
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The Golden Era of Aviation, an early period in aviation that instills deep romantic feeling today, the aircraft of this era are also known as antiques. This gorgeous ’31 Waco QCF falls into these categories, Golden Era and romantic. We photographers tend to get wrapped up in camera and technique, exposure and sharpness and while these are important components to a photograph, they should not be our end goal. Jay Maisel has wisely stated where we really need to start with, Light, Gesture, Color because within these we tell the story, we reach our viewer’s hearts and that should be our goal. Case in point.
It was again one of those magical evenings in North Dakota where once in a lifetime opportunities seem to come. On this gorgeous evening we went flying which turned in to an air to air shoot. I quickly grabbed the D4s / 24-70AFS, jumped in the cub and took to the air. It was so spur of the moment, there was no brief, no flight plan, just heading out to catch the setting sun. The gear was in hand, the technique in place and with the pilots, the subject in place. Killed a few pixels this night, these kind of flights don’t come around often. And which images came through as successful, at the minimum reaching Maisel’s words of wisdom? Well, recognizing them after the fact is in part how you learn to recognize them in the viewfinder. Which one of these six didn’t meet the goal, why? Learn to see and feel this and you’re photography will vastly improve.
