Jul 8, 2013 | Aviation
Sharon and I love the 4th, the vast majority of them being spent in Mammoth that does small town celebrations in the best of traditions. This 4th we had the opportunity to be at a hangar party in Minot, ND where a bunch of our friends from around the country were also heading. Well, it was a no-brainer where we were going to be for the 4th. And as you might imagine, a new hangar means they have planes to put inside and that of course was a bit of an attraction as well. The morning of the 3rd found us at the Minot airport on the ramp in front of Customs washing a C-53. It would be flying and on display the next day so just out of paint, it needed to be all spruced up. After doing more simple chores for the 4th, we headed out to Warren’s house for the afternoon.
Thirty minutes later we arrived at Warren’s, out in the middle of nowhere ND (nothing personal ND, but you have a lot of gorgeous open land in the middle of nowhere). We’re heading down the dirty road having driven past the century old cemetery to have a shadow swallow us up. I look through the sun roof to see a gorgeous 1930 Waco QCF pass overhead. I knew who was flying it. We continued down the road and on the rise prior to getting to the home, I parked. A few seconds later the wing tips of the Waco are just feet above my head as it heads to the landing strip in front of the two homes. And for the rest of the afternoon until dusk, we flew! Now when I was on the ground watching the Waco and Cub, I was of course talking. You thought I was going to say shooting…gotcha! Well, I did some of that as well but the point was to be with friend. I did have the D4 / 80-400 on a strap on my shoulder just in case. Well, there were lots of “just in case” shooting that was so much fun. It was kind like skeet shooting as I would be talking, camera at my side when all of a sudden an aircraft would come sneaking from behind, left, right and rip past just feet off the ground. It was killer panning practice and so much fun. Oh, and the pretty blond in the front of that cub is my gorgeous bride. She loves to fly and we had lots of it. And this, is just the beginning of the story. mtc
Jun 20, 2013 | Aviation
Paying dues, it’s how the biz operates. The amazing opportunities that seem to come my way I wish were just presented to me on a silver platter but such is not the case. There is a ying to the yang and after it being that way for three decades, I have no issue with the system. I know in the end that the opportunity I have in my heart will materialize. This is the relationship I have with Stead Airport, I put in my time doing photographs you wouldn’t think are your typical Moose genre and in the end, the opportunity appears that is just up my alley. That’s how the afternoon shoot with this gorgeous P-51D came about. The seed was planted years ago and on this day, it bloomed. It’s how I have come to operate. I wasn’t very patient when I was a kid with this system but life has taught me to be patient. It does come and when it does, oh, is it sweet! It’s even better when you can share it with friends like this evening when Jake and the Band of Four as we joked our way to great images.
At the same time you have this “photographic plan” in which you have the means (gear, technical expertise, digital darkroom skill perhaps, subject knowledge) to make it all come together in a click when the opportunity appears. The gear side was pretty simple: D4, 80-400VR3 (shot here) and 18-35AFS, Ground Pod and the most important, knee pads! Next was the camera position and exposure: low, 45 degrees and underexposed -1.5 stops. Then comes the DD: ACR 8.1 using Shadow Slider and DSL/Gray Scale Luminance Slider to light the fuselage / sky (remove blue cast by moving Blue Slider to desaturate it) then bring the sky back using the Split Grad and its controls (what’s the subject – a WHITE P-51D Mustang – can’t loose site of that in the process). And the subject knowledge, I always think that is the most important and in this case, befriending the plane owner with conversation, presenting of the business card and FOLLOWING up on commitments. Lastly, carry on the tradition that these aircraft belong to everyone which means you share the image. I love the fact that when folks see the finished photograph, all they see is the magic of the moment because that’s the goal. There is NO reason the backend stuff has to ever come up, that’s not the point of sharing the photograph. But it’s important to understand. It’s not magic, it’s vision.
Jun 17, 2013 | Aviation
There are times when I think I read things into a photograph that only I see. This is not a good thing because when it comes to communicating, you want to reach as many as possible. We must realize that we won’t reach everyone, that’s how it goes. But when we have a message we want to reach everyone and it only means something to us, our photograph falls right on its face. Take this one for example, what I think is a real stretch. The name on the F8F Bearcat reads Blue Angels and if you look at the shape of the cloud over the plane, you might, might see a halo. And if you have an over active imagination such as myself, you might connect the two, Blue Angel and halo. But the odds of someone just seeing that without this long explanation, slim to none. That’s one thing we gotta watch for in our photographs if we want to be successful and visually communicating.
Jun 14, 2013 | Aviation
With days starting at 04:45 and ending at 01:00, you might say we’re jumpin and it’s great! PRS is such a great time with planes, pilots and friends. Been shooting alot with D4, (including Di-GPS) Nikon 800f5.6 AFS (w/TC800-25e), on the Gitzo 5561SGT w/ Wimberley Head (w/ RRS Quick Release mount attached) because I want that illusion of speed with the super blurred background. I’m panning, shooting at shutter speeds from 1/80 to /125 and I’m pleased with the results I’m getting. The AF speed of the D4/800 is impressive providing a great platform for bring out more speed. And I like more speed!
Jun 13, 2013 | Aviation
Be it a new species, new location or new aircraft, if it’s new to me and I want it in my files, I don’t stop until I get the shot for that moment that satisfies that desire. I saw and got a couple of clicks of this F8F Bearcat a couple of years back, just enough to be very intrigued. Its paint job representing the historic first Blue Angels really caught my imagination. So when it came in yesterday to Stead at PRS, I never really lost sight of it. Now how do you cover such an aircraft? In the perfect world with lots of time, money and contacts, you would in every conceivable way but such is not the case for me right now. My only option at the moment are statics – parked on the ground. So then to make the shots, you gotta look for the light to make the difference because the aircraft itself ain’t changing. I started by going after the “drama” that sunrise can bring.
Now don’t get me wrong, the sunrise was pretty but shooting into a bunch of pretty colors with a Bearcat isn’t much of a challenge in creating an eye catching photo. It’s a good start, but I crave more. So shooting with the D4 / 80-400 I went for my classic “ass shot.” The light had already begun to shift and the skies were totally bald looking to the west but I shot it anyways. And personally when I look at the two, it’s the bottom image I’m more drawn to and one that would go into the profolio and the top one into the slideshow. Both are simply starts on the file of images I hope to create on just this particular aircraft but’s how I prefer to tackle the “new” until it becomes “old.” And for a subject to get “old” for me might just take a decade or two so the pursuit is on, the challenge before me and the best images are still to come. So tomorrow I’ll be out at 05:00 looking for them, again!
Jun 5, 2013 | Aviation
The subject is the one element in the frame we usually have a handle on. It’s the main character, the star of our photo, the reason why we stopped our lives to make the photograph. But what about the rest of the photo? That is where we typically stop in our track and the sweat begins to ooze from our forehead as we try to put the rest of the elements to come together. While we have a star for our photo, we need a stage for it to act on and tell its story. That is in large part our mandate as photographers, connect all these dots to tell a visual story. This was made painfully and thankfully obvious to me when I first started out in my career.
The stage we set in our photo is often the background for our subject. In these photos, I’m at the Chino Airshow a while back and the theme of the show was Lightning Strikes Chino, a play on the name of the P-38 Lightning. In this case, the photos needed to have editorial viability as much as be a pleasant photo. The photo needed to include more than one P-38 to say visually there was a gathering of them without any words needed to state that fact. This means that the star of the photo, a P-38 Lightning, was on a stage with other P-38 Lightnings and all of this needed to be on a backdrop of blah where type for the article could be placed without infringing on the subject of the photo. Phew…that’s a lot for one photo!
Shooting in the overcast skies of SoCal, needed to watch those skies for the first hint of burn off. I wanted the soft light to minimize shadows on the tarmac yet have enough to sparkle off the P-38s. Shooting with the D4 and 80-400 (top photo) which has become a standard with me anymore. I than started to walk the line and first went to the classic “down the nose” shot of all the aircraft. For sure, a cool shot and I’m glad I took it. And while it’s dynamic, it’s not dynamic enough. I looked at the background and while it said many aircraft, it didn’t make the P-38 “standout” as a standout, unique aircraft. The top photo makes it look like just one of the gang. So rather than shooting long, I switched out to the 18-35AFS. Then I moved in closer to the silver P-38 knowing the mind’s eye would grab on to its brightness and slowly moved looking at the neighboring P-38 to include it at what appears to be an angle. By changing lenses and position, I’m totally manipulating the background and so the photo and so the story. And by waiting for the overcast to start to break, I have a sky that is the perfect place for the article title. And that’s the point. The background is what makes the whole photograph work. The subjects were parked, they weren’t going anywhere but the background could be totally manipulated. Think about and look beyond your subject when you compose in the viewfinder and think storytelling and you can vastly improve the impact of your photos!
