Aug 14, 2013 | Aviation
It’s no secret I’m really into backgrounds. Nor a secret I’m really into clouds (as my bud McNally calls me, Dances with Clouds). When you combine those two thoughts to aviation, you then not only give the subject a place in space, but influence the story you’re telling with your photos. Here are two examples of what I’m talking about, taken literally just seconds apart as the B-17 made a pass during the recent Oshkosh airshow. It was part of one of the Tora Tora Tora shows, representing the flight of B-17s coming into Pearl as the Japanese attacked. Shooting with the D4 / 80-400VR3, I just let the shutter fly as it made its pass.
The top photo, the B-17 is starting to make its run. The background is full of smoke from the “Zeros” that made the pass before it. While you can’t really identify what’s going on, it still leaves one with the feeling that something isn’t right. Then as the B-17 continues it’s run, it’s in front of simply pretty clouds and that relates a totally different feeling telling a totally different story. And finally it comes up to the infamous Tora Tora Tora “wall of fire” smoke and than there is not question a battle is going on. The plane is the same, the time is only seconds apart but with the total change of the background, you change the story. Paying attention to backgrounds, even to the slightest change can totally influence your story!
Aug 12, 2013 | Aviation
Photog Shuffle
(You need to click on link to see video)
I’m real fortunate and get to work with some of the best. It’s not only rewarding, but a ton of fun! On my flight to photograph Texas Flying Legends Museum’s C-53, I had the great fun of working with Adam White of Hemolock Film and Xavier Meal, a great, crazy French photographer.
The marvelous time lapse you see here Adam created. When I saw him attach the Silver Hero3, I was thinking video since, he’s a video guy (really good one!). But Adam like I said is good, he set the Hero3 to do a time lapse which was genius in action! What you see above is that time lapse and a great demonstration of professionals in action. Adam & I had the job of photographing the TFLM C-53, Xavier was to photograph the FG-1 Corsair. We all needed to do this through the escape hatch that was opened on the side of the TFLM B-25J “Betty’s Dream.”
To accomplish that, we had to take turns shooting out the port when the subject we needed was at the right place in our orbit. Being all professionals, you can see how without any effort, we all moved through the port to get our shots, working together to get the shots we needed. Now “moving through” is a relative term, probably better put by Adam as the Photographer Shuffle. It was a great flight, great images, a lot of laughs and the simple pleasure of working with professionals. I want to thank Adam for providing the video. Simply genius!
On a photography note, what you see me shooting with is the D4, 80-400VR3, Hero3 (in the shot shoe) and Vulture Strap. And all that video I shot during Oshkosh? It’s filed and backed up but definitely edited and ready to post. Maybe by Christmas? :-)
Aug 9, 2013 | Aviation
Been home a few days and haven’t left the Mac Retina / Wacom 13 yet! I’ve crank through about 900 images so far, but I now know why I don’t do portraits for a living. My eyes are so tired from retouching, I can barely see this screen to type and I’m wearing my glasses! Really, how do portrait photographers do it? I know why they seem to all wear glasses though. With aviation photography, I push myself hard to get images finished and off to friends, pilots and clients fast if for no other reason than to say thanks. You’d be surprised how that one little word, thanks, can make all the difference in moving your career forward. Well, in the process of finishing, I tend to work starting with the first image taken and work through them in the order they were taken. It’s just a logic so I can find easily where I left off in my finishing. Well, after doing so many portraits, I find images I took that were, “What ifs” that I go and finish you could say, as a treat after hours of dealing with wrinkles.
These are two such images. I had rented a D4 from Borrowlenses.com which was my primary, on the strap, quick shooting body (others were attached to big lens and for video only). This D4 had the 18-35AFS all the time for shots like this. I just really like the B-25 “Devil Dog” so I’m always looking for unique static images since I’ve not meet the crew yet to take it further. This morning, I went for the “sun burst” shot forgetting the main rule, clean your front element first! Even though the sun was already up, I simply squeezed it under the tail at the same time shooting with the lens closed down. Then in post, I opened up the shadows with ACR8 and done. The other photo was taken with the D4 / 200-400VR2 is of the Ford Tri-Motor that basically flies all day taking folks on rides. Being a cool, old plane and with the skies, I used Perfect B&W (love that plugin) to make the photo look old by going B&W.
On a photographic side note, two things. Lugging the 200-400VR2 around for 15hrs each day, it gets heavy. I lighten the load using the Sun Sniper strap. And to protect the lens as you “bump” through the crowd, the 200-400VR2 wears a LensCoat. Both of these accessories make working the flight line just a little easier. And with that daily trivia, it’s back to retouching portraits. sigh….
Aug 8, 2013 | Aviation
6 June, 1944 allied forces were landing on the beaches of Normandy. The 8th Air Force along with many others had been bombing occupied Europe for nearly a year but now American, British and other countries were putting forces on the ground to battle the war. It’s hard to imagine the chaos, panic, fear, emotions and drive to take those beach heads. The soldiers on the ground would be attacked from the air as well as the ground. But how would they in the heat of battle be able to pick out the enemy aircraft from their own?
Quick, easy, obvious visual identification was required. All aircraft, enemy and friendly had lots of markings already from country, unit markings to camouflage, something was required permitting rapid identification saying it was friendly. A plan was hatched to apply large black and white stripes on the tops and bottoms of wings and on the fuselage. All aircraft except four engine aircraft (because the Germans had no 4 engine heavies) were to get what became known as “invasion stripes.” But the invasion was a massive secret in which Herculean efforts were made to protect. Approximately 2500 fighters, 700 medium bombers, 870 gliders and tow aircraft were given invasion stripes.
All these aircraft were painted in the previous 48-72hrs to the landing but up to that moment, to preserve the secret of the invasion, no one knew they were going to paint all those aircraft. There was no stock pile of black and white paint let alone brushes to apply it all. It has been estimated that 30,000 gallons of paint was used for the paint job. Mops were the common tool for applying the stripes. And there was no time to scrounge up all the supplies let alone to paint perfect strips, it was slop and go!
We see many of our warbirds these days with perfectly painted invasion stripes, and while the stripes are historically correct, their perfect nature is not. At Oshkosh last week, the Texas Flying Legends Museum brought history to life in what I still feel is one of the bloodiest cool things I’ve ever been a part of. Their newly painted C-53 was brought to Warbird Alley and the reinactors painted on the invasion stripes in front of the crowd just like they had done 69 years ago. Eric (of Aircorp Aviation) and vets did an amazing job relating the story of what we were witnessing. In just over an hour, the C-53 had its invasion stripes. Now when you walked up and looked at the stripes, you saw the horrible job it was with brush bristles and mop strings stuck all over. There were no straight lines and the coat was anything but thick and even. And once “The Duchess of Dakota” was in the air, the stripes looked perfect. It was history coming to life right before our eyes, one of the most amazing events you can imagine!
On the photographic side, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. I shot over 1000 images of the whole event with the D4, 80-400VR3 and 18-35AFS. As you can see, we had puffies floating by which provided great soft light. The C-53 was parked on cement which reflected up light filling in what shadows were around. The first half of the painting I was literally stuck in one place so let the 80-400 do all the walking and then on the second half of the aircraft, I was able to zoom with my feet. When it comes to the portraits, the reinactors quickly got into character and took to the task with the same intensity as must have been felt on the airstrips of England 69 years ago. The photos were in their faces, just had to look for the expression to tell the story. The best part was the response of the crowd who were present while history was brought to life. It’s just another small piece of the puzzle of why we have the freedoms we do to pursue the magic of photography today!
Jul 26, 2013 | Aviation
As little as possible! Seriously, when you walk 6+ miles each day, too much gear just kills so this is where less is more! At the same time, I need to have the tools for the known and unknown, for the given and the imagination. With that in mind, you’re probably going to think I have everything but the kitchen sink. I’d have that but I’ll be in a tent. Here ya go:
You might be wondering why I have both the 200-400VR and 80-400VR3. There are a number of reasons, the first being I can put teleconverters on the 200-400 and easily work. Next, the 80-400 is a dust pump (dust pump is an old term (cause I’m old) that dates back to old Vivitar Series 1 zooms. it refers to external zooming lenses) and when it comes to carrying a heavy lens vs. some post dust removal time, I’m torn which to take. Why are the bags and straps listed? They are essential to make it to the event and than through the entire event. In the heat and humidity, carrying a lot of gear will beat you down (and one can only eat so much ice cream). This is of course the list of the main gear, there is as you might imagine a ton of support gear. Spare batteries for everything along with chargers. Mounts for the GoPro & Contours and app on the iPhone & iPad. And all of this has been cleaned, tested and gone through this week before being backed to go. Hope this helps if you’re going. And if you want some shooting ideas, give this 10 Tips – Putting Action into Your Stills a gander. It might help as well.
Jul 26, 2013 | Aviation
Jake & I head out tomorrow for one of the funniest events of the summer, AirAdventure in Oshkosh, WI. This will be my third time to Osh and really looking forward to it. I’ve gone for the first part, I’ve gone for the last part but this time, we’re going for the WHOLE thing! I’m volunteering to shoot for EAA Warbirds so really looking forward to getting into the trenches doing some spot assignments. There are many of YOU heading there and I would love to shake your hand! So if you see me, please introduce yourself. If you have questions, please feel free to ask. Just understand, and you might not realize it, I might actually be working when you see me. So if that happens, my apologies, just bare with me. But please say hi!
Being where internet is so impacted, I have all of next week’s blog posts up and ready for you. Each day is a new critter blog with video, stills, text and gear. In a way, I’m hoping you don’t like them because the time to produce each post was really, well, it took most of this week for have them for next week. Hopefully though they will educate, enlighten and inspire. Hope to cya at the greatest airshow on the planet! Have a great week, be sure to fill them pixels with passion!
