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.
Oct 16, 2012 | Aviation
The A6M Zero intrigues me to no end because this very simple looking plane caused us so much trouble in WWII. Lightweight (1 person can push it our of a hangar), agile, fragile and 1 bullet could blow it up, at the beginning of WWII it and its pilots just caused havoc in the Pacific. At the beginning of our K&M Adventures in ME, we were at the Wiscasset at their airshow that featured my good friends of the Texas Legends Flying Museum. Warren was at the stick and man, can he show off this planes abilities! This is a simple, D4 / 200-400 ground to air shot.
Earlier that same day, my buds asked if I wanted to go flying…do a “little” air to air? Well Duh, you think?! So we went up for a 90min flight over the Maine cost and the Atlantic. Seeing the Zero over the water was really quite a visual treat. And it didn’t suck either! Shooting out of a Piper Cherokee with the D4 and 70-200VR2, I was able at times to just focus on the Zero. It made me wonder what it would have been like to be a teenager in a FM-2 seeing this below me just moments before diving on it for the kill
Oct 8, 2012 | Aviation
K&M Adv Me begun with our taking our new friends to meet some of my old friends. Unbeknownst to anyone, arrangements had been made at the beginning of the year to be Wacasset for the “airshow” featuring my good friends at the Texas Flying Legend Museum. We got the field before anyone else and found Cub (what I think of as a happy little plane) parked on the grass. We had a lot of fun with it to start. Then I popped open the doors on the boys B-25J “Betty’s Dream” and they got to go inside one of the nest restored planes and shoot till their heart’s content! Smiles all around!
Now this is a different way for sure for folks to experience fall color (or lack there of). I come to find out that only 1 of our adventurers had ever been to a airshow before! Ralphie put us all to shame by shooting 5400 images! He said in true Ralphie fashion< "It was all right!" Of course, being spoiled by the TFLM boys made it all that more special for these first time airshow shooters.
The best part was it was really fun learning for all! They learned about photography, things like panning and planning and placement to how planes move and the best part, about our aviation heritage and the men who flew these magnificent craft. It was a great day and great start to our ME adventure!
Sep 26, 2012 | Aviation
Kent Pietsch just makes flying look like fun! At the same time, he is the perfect example that the subject does not have to fill the frame to grab the eye. In this example, any smaller and you wouldn’t be able to see him flying in his Interstate Cadet. Shot with the D4’s and 200-400VR2 (handheld), his “dead stick” show with smoke is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. The smoke takes the eye through the frame, you need no tricks or whistles to lead the eye right to the Kent. And with leading the eye like that, you don’t have to fill the frame with the subject, quite to the contrary. It’s an important lesson you should tuck in the back of your mind, it’s a great technique to making more of less.
Sep 26, 2012 | Aviation
One of my favorite quotes comes from John Shaw, “Tripods have legs, so do you!” Photographers have the bad habit of planting for a photograph and never moving. While some of the time, that is OK, the majority of the time, the first place we stop to make our photograph is not the best. One of the most common comments when criticing images is simple, literally, take one step closer to the subject. Moving can be just that slight in improving your photograph. The main point is, don’t settle!
I’ve posted a couple of these photos already since they were taken last week at the Reno Air Races. F-15s of the OR Air Guard were at Reno doing demo flights and being part of the Heritage Flights. One morning we were down the ramp where they were parked and after a discussion with the guard, we want shooting. The photos are not on the page as they were taken, I’m going to leave that up to your imagination how I went about it. But the first photo I took was the one the first grabbed my eye. Then, thinking there must be more I picked up and moved. And I’m glad I did because I then took the image I like the best. The last photo I took turned out to be my favorite, the last place I parked my tripod.
This means that even after all these years, I still need to move just like anyone else. It means that there is possibly something better around the corner if you go look. There is no guarantee but there is always the possibility and that in itself should make you go and look. When you have a sunrise, sunset of any situation where the light is changing quickly, your moving might have to be quick too. This can create shooting stress and for that, I have no solution. In this case, I was shooting 5 image HDR to get the gorgeous tons on the fuselage. Shooting with the D800 with the 24-70AFS, I started off with the most dramatic light and then followed it around the aircraft (a hint in the order I shot). With light fleeting, I chased it to make the shot so light dedicated my moving. Not settling for the first shot though cool and pushing for more is the only way I could have found the shot I really like. So keep in mind, your tripod has legs, so do you!
