Nov 19, 2013 | Aviation
Now I’m obviously not referring to crawling under a griz to photograph its belly. I’m talking more along the lines of every coin has two sides kind of thing. Many photographers look at a good subject, but it just doesn’t grab them. It happens to me even though I know it’s a good subject. So perhaps by simply looking at it’s other side, the way to take the photo that excites you might appear. This is true for nearly everything from as large as Half Dome to a as small as a flower. Many photograph Half Dome from the valley floor, few find it from its eastern view. Shooting from the sky down on flowers common, the cool photos though come from those shooters who shoot from the bug’s eye view. In this case, the background wasn’t cutting it shooting down on this gorgeous polished T6 Texan. By changing my point of view, the background is improved the the subject shines. Shooting the D4 / 24-70AFS / Vulture Strap and a couple of hand signals and we made the shot. When you’re just not feelin the love, shoot the other side.
Nov 4, 2013 | Aviation
Tuskegee Airman, George Hardy, Alexander Jefferson & Charles McGee
I’m the kind of portrait photographer who has to see the portrait unfold. Since day one working with biologists, I shot journalistic style, taking the portrait as the project unfolded. Setting up the portrait is just not my strong suit and knowing that, I’m working on uping my game. As I work with all these hereos, WWII vets, I feel the pressure to tell their story in their portrait. This means pushing myself and it’s hard. Where my bud McNally can meet a stranger on the street and five minutes later have them posing naked, it takes me a hour just to screw up the courage to say hi. So I start by learning a little bit about the vets prior to saying hi. In Houston, I had the added stress of knowing I’d be having a conversation with these vets on camera for our documentary. Can you say … panic!
WWII Corsair Pilot Joe McPhail
I started where I knew I was safe, behind the camera. A few of the vets took the stage to tell the four hundred folks gathered in the Texas Fling Legends Museum (host for the reunions) hangar a little of their story. There is a giant American flag on the back wall and to incorporate it in the portraits, I had to stand way off to the side. From that angle, I had all sorts of “stuff” in the frame that made a clean shot a challenge. The top two images, I went vertical because of the “stuff” (mostly folks with pocket cameras) but I didn’t like the results. When I put the pressure on myself to do better, I push myself because of the importance to telling that visual story. I had to do better!
“Betty’s Dream” Navigator Jim Mahaffey
When Jim took the mic, I knew I had to make the shot. I kept inching myself up towards the stage. I didn’t want to get in the way of those there to listen, it was a reunion and the room was filled with family of these vets. It was their day, not mine. Shooting with the D4 / 80-400VR3, I was slowly able to move forward ten feet and that was all I needed to make the horizontal shot I wanted. In my own mind, after listening to some of their story (they have so much to share with us!) and watching them through my lens, I started to feel more comfortable with them. With that, I was able to approach them and start a dialog which led to the portraits. I already knew Joe, but the other gentleman I had not made their acquaintance yet. By the end of the weekend though, we’d all become fast friends and had a great time with them on camera for our documentary. And yes, I made more portraits of them as you’ll see. The moral of all of this, you simply gotta push yourself beyond your comfort range if you want to up your photography. Success comes from failure to some degree. Just don’t settle!
Nov 1, 2013 | Aviation
Had a few inquiry what’s up with the blogs the past week. We were in Houston in part to participate in the Wings Over Houston and in part, shoot the Kelby Training documentary on air to air photography. That’s hardly describes all we did but during all of that, I ended up filing just shy of 18k images. I barely had time at night to upload and backup, never got to edit or file. It was crazy good but something had to give and the blog was it. This photo is from one of the many air to air missions I did during the week. There is a lot more to come next week but for now, gotta get back to processing.
Nov 1, 2013 | Aviation
Flypast magazine has brought out a special US edition and I’m quite honored to have the cover article. Here’s what the editor Nigel has to say …
“The 124-page November issue of FlyPast – one of the World’s best selling historic aviation magazines – features a superb Moose Peterson B-17 Flying Fortress photo on the front cover! Moose’s brilliantly illustrated feature on the CAF’s AZ Airbase B-17 “Sentimental Journey” also runs to five pages within the magazine. Packed with warbird news and features, this special issue also looks in depth at the North American P-51 Mustang – 24 pages of it!”
The November issue is in Barnes & Noble stores – and other major book stores – across the US now, price at $9.99.
Oct 31, 2013 | Aviation
“Show up and you’ll fly.” This basics of aviation photography came true again for me this last week. At the Texas Flying Legends Museum working on the documentary when my good friend Rosie came up and asked, “available to fly?” The answer was obvious, “heck ya!” The photo mission though was to be one of the most unique ones I’ve had. My subject was “Dusty” from the Disney animation Planes. Our family are HUGE Planes fans so this was simply the coolest thing to do! “Dusty’s” pilot is Rusty (not makin that up) and is a really great guy. So Rusty, Dusty, Bernie (Cherokee / photo platform pilot) and I briefed the brief sunset flight and took off. It was such a hoot to watch ALL the kids go crazy when “Dusty’s” prop turns and then takes to the skies. So many smiles and waves.
The was literally the first (and might be only) time “Dusty” has flown with “Skipper” (the TFLM FG-1D Corsair in this case) in real life. We weren’t doing anything other than “purty” pictures for Disney for the sheer fun of being able to fly and make some cool images. Shooting with two D4s (one from Borrowlenses.com, thx guys) and 80-400VR3 and 24-70AFS, we took to the air about thirty minutes prior to sunset. To be totally honest, when the Ag Tractor (Dusty) and Corsair first appeared in my viewfinder, I had to wipe my eyes as we all laughed at the combo. Seeing an Ag Tractor in sexy light HIGH over water just seemed so out of place. But we had a great shoot with “Dusty” putting on a great show for the camera. It was one of those experience I soon won’t forget, I flew with “Dusty” and “Skipper” and have the photos to prove it.
