Well, we went from the high of Photoshop World to the high of the Reno Air Races, talk about being fortunate! After taking are of some very important tasks, we arrived to our trailer and friends and good times Monday night. Tuesday we woke to a gorgeous day and the sound of aircraft reving engines…it was heaven! We spent the morning clearing our heads, getting into the flow of things and saying hello to friends. Some of those friends are aircraft and this is one of them. Furious is sporting new scheme designed by our dear friend Bucky.
This amazing Hawker Sea Fury has an illustrious racing career so it was great to see it back in the air. You often don’t think of the underbelly of an aircraft worth photographing but this one most definitely is! Here it is making the bank and coming down towards Home Pylon. Shot with the D4, 200-400AFS on Auto AF, it’s really easily just to pan, shoot and enjoy. The best part though is on either side of me are our boys Brent & Jake and around them all our aviation photog friends. Life is good….
This is the closest we’ll ever get to racing at Reno. In Sept, 2011, my dear friends permitted me to place a GoPro in the cockpit of #74 Super Corsair to create an amazing video. What I have here is just 15min of the 208min process of getting an Unlimited up on the course and back down again.
Just what are you seeing here? The video starts with my bud Casey turning on the GoPro just at the start of the process of getting #74 ready for racing. You see Brady getting in #74, #74 being pulled out, gassed and placed on the ramp prior to the race (in the skies is a L-39 show). You’ll then see Robert Odegaard, one of the best pilots out there, get in #74, do the preflight and then taxi. #74 will take to the skies (you can see the GoPro in the still capture above and me taking the photo on take off in the video) and get in place with the other Unlimiteds prior to jumping on the course. You’ll see a T-33 Jet, that’s the pace plane. You’ll see the Unlimiteds jump on the course and then Robert take #74 around on three laps. You’re watching one of the best behind the stick. It’s a great show! Enjoy!
And if you’re wondering why I’m just posting this now, it’s because I’m behind! I have 980GB of video shot during the last year that I’ve not edited and posted. This 15min comes from 5.98GB, 208min of video and even though I edited it in Photoshop CS6, still took 2hr to get done. But I think you’ll find it worth the wait.
If you do, then run! Run to find a great foreground and subject to put with them. Clouds have the magic to transform the common into uncommon just by their very being. The key is to place your subject in the clouds but not letting the clouds overcome the subject. You want to use the clouds to give the imagination to roam and then bring the mind’s eye back down to the subject. This requires not only a great shape but also highlights and shadows that move the eye through the frame. In this process, you might have to use a split grad and the point of capture and Curves in post to manipulate those highlights and shadows. But if you have clouds, you have photographic gold!
