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.
Oct 18, 2012 | Aviation
Major Charles Mastro (ret) in 1940 at the age of 22 enlisted into the Army. On June 6, 1944, he landed with the 4th Division on Normandy, part of the D Day landing. “I walked from Normandy to Belgium” he says in a salty voice. When I walked into the basement yesterday, I was introduced to Charlie (known as Shorty in WWII) and the first thing I noticed was a pin on his hast, D Day Landing 1944. We went back today to talk with Charlie and hear some of his story. Now 95, at the time of the landing, he was an “Old Man” at 25. A Sgt, he served in Europe through the Battle of the Bulge and then returned to the states in preparation for deployment to Korea (which never happened for him). It was a great two hours of conversation with Charlie starting it off with, “I tired of talking about my experiences.” He wasn’t that tired of telling his story as it turned out.
On the photo side, I shot with the D4 (@ISO 800) with the 24f1.4AFS (@f4) again but this time, I brought in a flash. Charlie sits in the same place all the time and I noticed yesterday it was a dark hole. I used one SB-900 with a 1/4 CTO gel to warm the light a tad. I had it off camera, to the right and low to get light up under the brim. I set the advance to S so to not blast off a number of frames blinding Charlie and continued to talk to him while I shot. It was a marvelous time and there is more to share with you in time.
Oct 17, 2012 | Aviation
I’ve been working on a long term project and today, I had the sincere pleasure of meeting Mike Moretti. This very young 91yr old was a gunner in a A-20 in Italy in 1942-43. Being shot down and crashing into the sea loosing his pilot, having a ME-109 go past his guns while being chased by a spitfire, going through the military system and all that brings to a soldiers life, Mike spent hours telling us his story. What you see here is Mike in the basement in NJ where vets from WWII (90mm gunner on Midway during the battle to landing on Normandy) to vets from Vietnam (during the Tet offensive) meet to share stories of the past while supporting themselves in the future. Mike is here pointing out his aircraft in a book he brought to give to me (Mike & I have been emailing back and forth for the last few months). Our friend Breck & Kathy introduced Sharon & I to these great guys and I know we will back!
On the photo side, there are two things here. First, when I walked into this group, the camera was left outside. I walked in with just a iPad and notepad and pen. I started with introductions, sharing images and hearing stories. Only after a while after I was accepted did I go and get the camera and then asked if it was OK I made images. As you might notice, this was not some giant room, I was literally leaning against the water-heater! To make this photo of Mike, I shot with the D4 (@ISO 1600) with the 24f1.4AFS (@f4). There is a white wall just out of frame on the left. There is also a small window letting in a little bounce and natural light. Above is a fluorescent fixture and on the right a white wall. There was enough light bouncing around I didn’t need to use flash. The look and motordrive made enough of an impression, didn’t need a flash constantly going off. As you can see, the D4 and lighting worked out just fine. Would I have preferred using flash? I would have loved it but on this visit, photography wasn’t the priority so as I do often with my wildlife projects, it was put down for the bigger story. I shot a lot more than you see here and heard and in time, I’ll share more because Mike and many like him, have so much to share with all of us.
