Nov 14, 2012 | Aviation
The art of panning, it’s simple something I’ve gotta practice over and over again. Whenever I get the opportunity, not matter whether I think I will keep the images or not, I will simply shoot as long as I can.
Even if I don’t think I will keep the images, I work on making them perfect. This means watching the background, position of the subject in the frame and most importantly, the panning technique. In this case, shooting the D4 / 200-400VR2 handheld @ 1/50 (Shutter Speed Priority), using proper handholding, I pushed myself shooting at the slow shutter speed. Since the props wasn’t being lit with front light, prop blur wasn’t the priority. Practicing my panning and getting a sharp image at a slow shutter speed was.
I was disappointed that my keeper rate dropped to 72% for this practice session. One of my own personal issues is to remember to pull the camera tight against my forehead and assume it as the same this session. That’s because the next day I went out and reminding myself to pull the camera back, my keeper rate went up to 89%. That’s why I practice and recommend others do the same. There is nothing worse then to have that great action shot on your monitor and it not being sharp!
Nov 13, 2012 | Aviation
It’s all about storytelling! I’ve got this great friend Dale who loves aircraft and the romance of flight more than me. When I say we’re coming down, he always rearranges his schedule (and his brother Brian’s as well who is also a huge inspiration!) so we can play with planes. Well the two brothers have this crazy DC-3, the exterior I still don’t understand but the interior is from the days when this plane was the corporate sled for the Hoover Vacuum corp. I’ve been working on this series of aviation images so a bit more of their historical romance comes out. Many a DC-3 served as C-47s in the Pacific taking off with important personal in bigtime storms. How do you do say all of that visually?
Well, first you start with a piece of the airport that you can operate in and thankfully, I have the support of the AZ Wing of the CAF. Next, I have Dale & Brian, great friends who have the planes and knowledge. Lastly, I have the Mesa Fire Dept, great guys!!! The first time we did this earlier this year, we had just the captain in the truck, Dale & Rick with the plane and me at the camera. This time Dale, Brian, Rick & Chris were in the plane, the Capt came with not just 1 truck but TWO and with the whole dept! And a heck of a lot of the Wing was present to watch the show because it is simply just FUN! The process once all is in place is pretty simple, the fire dept puts down 1500 gallons of water, the engines turn and I shoot. This is a simple click, D4 / 24-70AFS @f/11 3sec. The fun comes not only from the DC-3 but all the friends that make it happen. To all, I thank you for the fun and friendship! And hopefully in the process, there’s a little storytelling going on.
Nov 13, 2012 | Aviation
While they’re mostly nuts like me, I’ve got some great friends who support my photography and I’m very grateful for that! These are some of them, the great guys of the Arizona Ground Crew. At 05:30 on the first freezing morning in Phoenix of the year, they are present and accounted for at the AZ Wing of the CAF to do their schtick! What’s is it they do? “We are agroup of living historians dedicated to keeping the memory alive and educating the public and the military of the great sacrifices and long hours of work done by the ground crews of World War Two”. And those who know me know I love history.
In the short time we shot together this morning, I filed over 900 images! They simply don’t stop unless you tell them to, they are constant activity! Both of these shots are set ups, the top is their version of a group portrait and the bottom is their version of a coffee break. I placed the ladders in the top photo and they did the rest and the bottom, I placed the table and they did the rest. The whole time, the D4 / 70-200VR2 are on a tripod as I learned long ago that handholding when shooting these guys is impossible. Why? I am laughing too much the whole time! Everything about them from overalls to pencil are all authentic WWII issue gear and their knowledge of the gear, aircraft and verbage transports you back in time. I can’t thank them enough for once again coming out and all we have planned for the future! mtc
Oct 26, 2012 | Aviation
Taking Flight – Your Start in Aviation Photography bought in 13 countries, that is so cool! Folks continue to buy and best of all, write us about out ground breaking iBook from around the globe. It is just so cool! Many have found it’s a photography book just as much about photography as it is about aviation photography and that was the whole idea. Most are really digging how Brent put it together making learning funnier, cooler and easier. That was the idea as well. And many have found the offer earlier this month about receiving an autographed cover when they email me their iTunes receipt asking if we”re still making that offer. How can I say no to all of those great emails! As long as you’re in North America (sorry, mailing out of country is just too expensive anymore), email me your receipt up until 11.03.12 and we’ll send you an autographed cover (those who did so in the last couple of weeks, your covers go out Monday). Thanks to all who have made this iBook such a hit! And wait…there’s mtc!
Features:
App Store
- Optimized for the New iPad! Enjoy the highest resolution possible.
- Compatible with all iPads (if using an original iPad, please be patient during use)
- Hundreds of images, from best to worst, so you know exactly what works and what does not
- Detailed captions. Know everything there is about the image you are looking for
- Videos on key techniques like Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop, with more to come. Go beyond words!
Oct 26, 2012 | Aviation
The response to the Epson Finish Strong campaign has been a hoot. Either folks know that’s me or it’s total shock when they find out. The next question is always the same, “Where’s the door?” This photo of me was taken by our son Jake shooting his second national ad of the year. I’m sitting cross-legged (and in some discomfort, Mooses aren’t meant to sit that way that long) in the back of the A-36 Bonanza we use as a photo platform. I’m shooting with a D800 w/MB-D12 and 24-70AFS. The ad is everywhere and prints are up at the Photo Plus Expo. Thanks for all the emails and overwhelming response, Jake & I had a blast doing it!
Oct 23, 2012 | Aviation
Backlight and me are just not good friends! I have always struggled working with backlit scenes and subjects. It’s never been a technical issue, one of exposure or sun flare (light striking the front element) but rather of story telling. The vast majority of the time when shooting backlight for me, it is what it is. You can use flashfill on some birds, but you can’t a Moose, Bison or Bear and they don’t seem to really come close when you use a gold reflector. Now most of the world can recognize the silhouette of a Bison or the Statue of Liberty, but most of the subjects I work with, showing the subject is a big part of telling their story visually. So with backlighting, the subject is often lost except for shape. Hence my problem with backlight and story telling.
What happens though when the background assumes (because we say so) a more important role in the photograph? When the background has as much importance and perhaps even more than the subject, what happens then with backlight? It wasn’t until I started shooting air to air projects did this question ever enter my thought process. That means for over 25yrs, I avoided backlit subjects because I visually didn’t know how to make it work for the subject. It was my first over water project that I realized backlighting was essential in telling the story. That’s because the highlights off the tops of the waves is what really makes the water, a sea visually in the photograph. I wanted to say “ocean” and not lake or pond, these backlit highlights are essential in saying that. And in my desire to capture historically accurate photos of WWII warbirds, that was very important. All three of these aircraft, The B-25J, P-40K and P-51D saw battle over water, oceans, and that’s what I wanted in the photograph, the background, the story!
In my air to air shoot with the Texas Flying Legends Museum shooting with the D4 (shutter priority @1/60) and 70-200VR2 (@f/22), the segments of our flight over the Atlantic, I welcomed that backlighting. “Betty’s Dream,” the B-25J carries 22 mission symbols and two silhouettes representing sunken Japanese ships. The P-40K The P-40 that you see here represents the “Aleutian Tigers,” i.e. the 343rd Fighter Group activated on September 11, 1942 and operated in Alaska until the fall of 1943. The P-51D “Little Horse” represents the thousands of Mustangs that crossed the channel to defend the bombers taking the war to Europe. The water was everything to these photos! The D4 took care of exposure with 0 comp dialed in. In post, I used the Shadow Slider in ACR 7.2 to bring out the shadow detail in the fuselage. And backlighting did the rest to tell the story I wanted to tell about these very cool aircraft.
